Have you ever had an experience that touched you so deeply and impacted you so greatly that you felt like nobody around you really understood? Where you tried your hardest to explain it and they tried their hardest to get it, but the only people who fully could were those who lived that experience with you? If so, you have experienced one of our greatest fears as Racers: coming home from this journey and feeling like nobody around us totally gets it… not because they don't try or because we don't try to explain it, but because experiences are most real when they're lived. We can show pictures and tell stories, and people can understand very well what we did, but we can't take them back to the moments and make them feel what we felt. They won't know the way the belly laughter of the kids in Costa Rica made all the tragedy of that place fade away or why the goodbye hugs and tears of our kids in El Salvador made me want to stay there and forget about the next seven months. They won't know the feeling I felt in my stomach when I watched a young woman be sold at a bar in Thailand or how watching an orphaned child in Swaziland sing about Jesus restored my hope. And these moments are the ones imprinted most deeply in my heart, the ones that mean the most, and the ones I want people to understand because they are the ones that changed me. They can understand the stories, but I don't know how to make them more real than stories. And I wish that, for just a minute, I could take the people at home and bring them into these moments so they could experience them for themselves.
In a way, I got this chance. During month 9 of the Race, there is something called The Parent Vision Trip: for one week, our parents can join us on the field and enter into the world that we want so desperately for people to understand. So my parents (and about twenty others) joined us for our first week in Swaziland! It was an incredible few days. I've waited a long time for that reunion, and it was well worth the wait. They got to meet the people I've been doing my life with for the past eight months, and these people got too meet the parents they've heard wonderful things about. But even with all of these blessings, the best part for me was doing ministry alongside these parents and seeing the many ways they were impacted. One dad said, "This day changed my life," and other parents agreed as they shared their revelations of how much we take for granted, that material possessions actually aren't everything, that people who seem to have nothing can find so much joy in life, etc. It was so cool to see our parents being changed by experiences and lessons we've all been blessed to have so young. It's never too late to do something you thought you'd never do; you're never too old to change the way you look at the world; and no matter who you are, people need what you have to offer. Our parents were very proud of us when we said "yes" to The World Race… But the thing is that they said "yes" too when they chose to come and serve with us, and it's easy for us to be incredibly proud of them.
I am not only proud of my parents but also very thankful for them. I had a million reasons to be thankful before this trip, but being here has added so many more. Before I left for this Race, my parents were the people I tried the hardest to please– I wanted to make them proud, and I made a lot of my decisions based on what I thought would make them happy. So if they weren't supportive of this trip, I'm really not sure I would have gone. I am very blessed to have parents who love me, want to be present and involved in my life, and take seriously their role of providing for me and protecting me. So it is natural that they had their reservations, that they probably would have preferred that I got a teaching job near home, and that maybe they didn't love the idea of sending me around the world for a year. But they never told me this; they never once told me not to go… and I'm so thankful for this because I probably wouldn't have. Like they have always done, they put aside the way they felt to let me chase my dreams and do what I believe in doing. It has certainly been a journey of trust for them, but they chose to dive fully into this journey, and I'm proud of them for that. Each time I talk to them, they could tell me how badly they want me home, but instead, they tell me how proud they are. This support makes a bigger difference than they will ever know, and this journey would be so much harder without it. So since I know you're reading this, Mom and Dad… thank you. Thank you for having the faith it took to send me, for being as involved as you have been in this journey, for believing in what God is doing through us and in our lives, and for coming all the way to Africa to see me. Watching you here loving and playing with these African kids and seeing the way they looked at you both was surreal, like I was living in a dream… it was one of those moments that made me realize how incredibly blessed I am. Thanks for leaving your comfort zone to be in the place I've fallen in love with, for choosing to serve, and for doing it all so beautifully. Thanks for being rockstars of parents who give me so many reasons to be proud!
Our parents won't understand everything about this Race, but they will at least understand this week because they lived it. They'll know the smiles and laughter of these kids and the feeling this put in our hearts; they'll remember how beautiful it sounds to hear kids in these situations singing about the love of Jesus; and they'll understand why it's so difficult to leave the children who held our hands, looked up into our eyes, and stole our hearts… because now they've felt it too. It's so special to share that with my parents. This week was yet another example for me of how great God is… how He continues to use this Race to impact the lives of countless people who aren't here. It is my hope that He not only reached all of the parents who came but also many others through them and the experiences and stories they carried home.
