My parents were able to come join me, some of my squad mates and their parents for something Adventures in Missions called Parent Vision Trip.
My parents have had the single largest impact on the man that I am today. They have always been there for me, teaching me, helping me, mentoring me, being hard on me, but there has never been a time in my entire life that I have ever doubted for a second if my parents loved me or not.
My mom is one of the most loving people I have ever met. She loves people so incredibly well and has shown me how to love people even when they don’t deserve it. Some of my earliest memories are of my mom bringing me to church with her and kissing me on the cheek as she dropped me off to Sunday school. She is one of the most loving and caring people that you will ever meet. And my dad is the single most impactful person in my life. He has shown me day and in day out what it truly means to be a man of God. He has been there for me through tough times and loved me and led me through the entire process. Also my dad and me are super similar. I love my parents so much and my whole family.
One thing that my dad told me at launch is, “Son I have been telling men that you need to step out of your comfort zone to grow closer to God, and I haven’t had to step out in a while and this is really forcing me out of my comfort zone.” Hearing him say that was a big moment for me because the man that has challenging me and helping me grow closer to the Father almost my entire Christian life, and now I was forcing him to trust, grow more dependent on, and grow closer to God.
One thing that I learned fairly early on the race is “age is just a number” because I was the youngest person on the squad. So having my parents come all the way across the world to come serve beside me. I lead the two most influential people in my life was a real moment of stepping up into the man that I am, and showing my parents that I changed. It also cemented the fact that age is just a number just like 1 Timothy 4:12 talks about.
Also they were so awesome! They stepped up in so many ways! They jumped right in with the ministries that we did that week, while battling jetlag. We did Monk Chat, where we would go ministry to Buddhist monks for a couple hours, slum ministry, playing with kids in the 100-degree Thailand heat, painting the safe house of the ministry we worked with, and finally doing bar ministry. We literally went to bars where young women were selling themselves, to pray for them and talk to them. It was a scary atmosphere to walk into because there was a sense of heaviness in the bars. But they did great, we went in a couple bars and just prayed for the girls, the bar, and the johns, the men looking for the girls. Then one of the last days we were given a rest day, so some of us racers and parents went to an elephant sanctuary, and it was honestly one of my favorite adventure days of the race and I have done some incredible things like, bungee jumping at Victoria falls, swam with sharks without a cage in South Africa, and went on a safari in the Kruger national park, just to name a few. While we were there we fed the elephants, gave them a mud bath, and washed off the mud in a pool. My parents jumped right in with me! They got all muddy and then jumped in the pool! I was proud of my parents! And I always will be!
I love you Mom and Dad!
Your son,
Jack
