A lot has happened this week, but I’m not really sure what can be said about it. I think I’ll start with a brief explanation of how the World Race works.
Before the Race began most of you only got vague descriptions of the mechanics from me, because that was all I had. I think it’s important to realize that the Race is a fairly new program and so much of how it actually works is still being experimented with. I’m pretty sure that the way our Race has worked so far is different than any Race before and may never be the way a Race is run again.
Over the first few months we have had a squad leader and a logistics leader that have been charged with raising up their replacements from among our squad. These are individuals who have been on the Race before and they have done a wonderful job leading us in our pursuit of God and his kingdom around the world. After month three, Jake Rodriguez left us to back to the States to work in logistics for the World Race full time. This debrief was when Allison Johnston was to hand over the reins as squad leader and that means shake-up. She had been planning on raising up two of the previously existing team leaders causing those teams, at least, to be drastically changed. Our first night in Jinja, Saturday night, we were warned that by Wednesday morning all eight of the October ’08 World Race teams would be changed. We collectively took a deep breath that we wouldn’t let out for four days.
The goal of the Race, if I may venture a guess, is the personal spiritual development of all participants. Leadership is always seeking the Lord on how to place people in the best situation to grow in their walk with Christ, their personal giftings, and their understanding of his kingdom and how they can be a part of it on earth. For all of this growth to happen, God sometimes calls us to very uncomfortable places. Many of us were uncomfortable when we first heard our new teams on Wednesday morning.
For the first four months of the Race all 50 of us had been pressing into relationships, learning to live in community and striving to be vulnerable with each other. Then we heard God is calling us to new relationships, new community, and we would have to re-learn what it means to be vulnerable.
This month I learned a lot about submitting to authority and believing that God is working even when it may not feel like he is there. The reorganization of our squad was a time for me to test all those new lessons. This month I had to believe God was working when I was involved in a ministry to which I could not relate. This week I had to believe God was working and trust my authorities when they were deciding the people with whom I would live for the next seven months. The lessons were hitting a lot closer to home.
It didn’t take me long to see that God was on the reorganization process. I heard the names of my new teammates read aloud and knew that over the next seven months I would surely be challenged in all the right places. None of that made the process any easier. Knowing Team Quake would no longer be together felt like one of those break-ups where you both know it’s time to move on, but neither person wants to accept it. Lunch with my new team on Wednesday felt like one of those first dates where both parties are genuinely interested, but are at a complete loss as to where to the take the conversation.
After lunch our team traveled into town to spend some time together at a coffee house. When I began to share how I was handling the change I started by telling the team that I could not honestly say I was excited yet. By the end of that outing, however, I was pretty excited about the new possibilities. I’m going to be challenged to walk in my identity in new ways. Ian and I, remaining together from Team Quake, are going to have much more freedom be individuals on our new team, whereas on our old team our personalities ran into each other a lot.
I was definitely surprised at how much these changes affected me this week. Still, I continue truly to believe that God has called me to this year and he did not forget about these changes. He has big things for me this year and beyond, and being on this new team is part of bringing about the fullness of my identity.
I’m changing the links to my teammates pages at the bottom-right of the blog screen and I encourage you to check out the new women I’ll be living and working with. We chose the team name “OneThirtyThree” for Psalm 133. The Psalm talks about living together in unity and the way that unity releases God’s anointing on his people. I think it’s now safe to say that we are all excited about where we see God leading us. Soon I will hopefully have more insight into who they are and how we work to share with you. Until then, rest assured that God is continuing to work on this squad. He is building us into a solid group of powerful disciples.
