It’s been three months now. Three months of telling people I’m going on an 11 month mission trip. Three months of asking for prayer and financial support. And after three months of rattling off the names of 11 countries, I’ve realized that most people probably still don’t have a clear picture of what the World Race really is. This is my attempt to clarify…
The World Race is a program set up by an organization called Adventures in Missions. As defined by their website, AIM is an organization that exists “to mobilize a generation of radical Christ followers, discipling and training them to establish the Kingdom of God.” Mobilizing followers of Christ is done primarily through short-term missions, but with the hope that those who partake in these trips will be spurred on to make missions a way of life. Adventures claims that “Short-term missions is the vehicle through which we mobilize people onto life-long discipleship, long-term missions,” and they define missions, very simply, as “bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who don’t know him as Lord and Savior.”
The World Race is one of many programs organized by AIM, and was designed very specifically with Luke 10 in mind, a scripture in which Jesus instructs his disciples to go out and bring the Kingdom of God to other towns, taking nothing with them but the clothes on their backs. My team and I will follow this example by traveling to 11 different countries, spending 1 month in each country sharing the gospel and the love of Jesus in tangible ways by working with pre-existing churches and Christian organizations in the communities we visit in order to provide for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the locals. This is made possible through longstanding partnerships that AIM has established all over the world. The only things I don’t yet know are the exact jobs we will be doing in each country and what the Lord has prepared for us there. These are things I won’t learn until shortly before I arrive in each location. Our role is simply to arrive prepared to do what is asked of us by people who have had a presence in the community long before we came, and who will continue to love and serve there long after we’re gone, because they know how to meet the needs of the community far better than we ever will.
So that’s what I’m doing. I’m going to go and I’m going to continue being obedient to the instruction the Lord has given me, and best of all, I’m going to get to show up for other people to tell them about a hope in a living God who loves them more than they could possibly imagine. Jenn Hatmaker (author) says, “[o]ne of the best parts of being human is other humans. It’s true, because life is hard; but people get to show up for one another, as God told us to, and we remember we are loved and seen and God is here and we are not alone. We can’t deliver folks from their pits, but we can sure get in there with them until God does.” I know these words are true because I’ve experienced it in my own life as people have continued to show up and love me, even when I felt completely undeserving. I also know that when we choose to climb into the depths of people’s pits along with them, we, too, are inevitably changed. I know I don’t need to go halfway across the world to do this, but I’m choosing to—at least for a little while. However, that means you can show up for people wherever you are, so naturally I’m going to challenge you to do just that. Choose to show up for someone. No matter who they are or what they’ve done, climb into their despair alongside them, because people are worth it.
Learn more about Adventures in Missions or read their mission statement by clicking here.
Read Luke 10.
