The One About Community - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Ministry and Community: Two things I’m surrounded by on the race. Two areas I’m growing in and two areas that I had no idea fit so well together. I could not do ministry with out this community of girls encouraging and speaking life into me daily. The flip side of this is that ministering to your community by serving them is the best way to build and strengthen community. They go hand in hand.

I remember when applying for the race I answered a question about what my experience with community had been. I first explained that I am 1 out of 8 people in my family then confidently said that this area of the race would be no problem for me because of how well I had learned to get along with my family. Well after just 1 month on the race (yes, its already been ONE MONTH) I’ve learned that living and getting along with your family is very different than living with 6 other people who have all been raised very differently. They don’t all keep their areas clean and unlike having your sister as a roommate, you can’t tell them how to keep their stuff. At home, if someone’s space wasn’t as clean as I liked it I would clean it for them. Yeah, here people don’t appreciate you messing with their belongings. So I’ve learned to go outside if the room is just too messy for me. My point here and the lesson I have learned is that just because you come from a big family or get along with your family doesn’t mean that community living is easy, because it isn’t. Community requires sacrificing personal preferences and instead focusing on how I can best serve each teammate. It’s getting over myself and sitting on their messy beds so I can ask them about how they’re doing. It’s sacrifice.

In ministry we depend on our community. When one is just too tired the others pick up their load and carry them along. We do ministry side by side and encourage each other through the tough parts. But when we’re not at our ministry site and it’s outside of ministry hours, ministry becomes each other. We search to encourage each other by surprising them via their love language. My favorite ways to show love are with gifts and acts of service, however, not all my teammates receive love this way. For one, words of affirmation are what L-O-V-E looks like to her. I’m not good at this. It is much easier for me to go make her something to eat when she’s tired and doesn’t feel like getting up. But instead of me running around serving her, she’d like me to sit and hear about why she’s tired. For her, love would stop and make time to speak life into her weary heart. This, loving others according to their love language and not mine, has been and will continue to be a huge area of growth for me.

But community ministry isn’t a one-way street. While I have been serving my team, they have been ministering to me as well. As I’ve mentioned before, I cry a lot. When I say that my team has been supporting me I don’t just mean they let me cry and be an ugly mess, although they do that too. These people call out me out and validate my thoughts. The Lord has spoken to me repeatedly through the voice of these people that are in such deep communication with the Him. What an amazing experience it is to be loved on by the Lord via people that I’ve only spent 5 weeks with.

As hard as it is sometimes, community is also so much fun! We’ve gotten to surprise each other with ice-cream, flowers, brownies, birthday donuts and chocolate pancakes (we really love our desserts). So many inside jokes and memories have been made and we’re only in the first month of our race together. So thankful for Lord’s design of community and even more thankful for these people He has blessed me with during this season.

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” -Hebrews 10:24-25

Enjoy these pictures of my community on the race!