Considering the Race
Some days ago a girl wrote a comment to one of my blogs asking about my experience and the world race so far. She was considering signing up for the race. I want to share with everyone the response that I gave her, and hopefully paint a clearer picture of the world race experience.
“Comments: Hi, I found you from the World Race website and am very interested in participating when I graduate college in May. Can you tell me a little bit about your experience and any comments or advice you would have for me? Thanks so much, Rebecca”
“Rebecca,
“There are many preparations to be made before starting the World Race. They fall into three main categories, but even more important than all of these is a conviction and peace that this is what God is calling you to. There is a difference between being anxious and having peace. For example, you can have peace that your going to pass some huge test, but still be anxious about it, just because it’s a big test. Even if this is a hard decision to make, it is necessary to make sure you have peace that this is what God is calling you to. Pray into it.
“Financial: Of course, as you a finishing graduate school before going on the race, just as I did, it is wise to make sure you have no outstanding financial obligations over the course of the year, or if you do then arrrangements are made to take care of them. Of course there are ways around this, and having no debt isn’t necessary to come on the race. It’s just wise.
“Relational: The world race is hard on dating relationships. Again, it is wise, but not necessary, to consider what effect this will have on any dating relationships you may have. Many of the people on my squad, including myself, have had God shut us down in this area since coming on the race. Chances are you won’t be able to bring a boyfriend either, AIM will advise one of you to change squads. Even outside of dating relationships, you have to be willing to loosen relationships with even your closest friends. This is a time to focus on God and all He has for you in this experience. It is wise to ensure that you have nothing that will keep you mentally, emotionally, spiritually or (obviously) physically anchored back home. Even the most relationally-oriented girl on our squad has had to loosen friendships back home, because it was just too hard to be fully involved here and fully involved back home. God has ways of focusing your attention to what He wants, which is what is best for you. And during the world race, what’s going to benefit you the most is being 100% here and committed in every way possible.
“Spiritually: This ties a little bit into relationally, but it is also wise to know what is going to be demanded of you. I don’t mean demanded by AIM or anything, but just by circumstances, and God. You must come, first of all, with no expectations, and with every expectation. Forget about whatever race route you sign up for; it will change. Drop your expectation on what kind of ministries you will do; they always change, and often times what you do won’t even feel like ministry. Forget any expectation on what your team mates will be like; they won’t be like anything you think. Ha. This is not a sleek and clean experience where you come together as a body of believers and everything just works slicker than snot and nine-iron (southern expression, sorry!). This is messy from day one. But on the other hand, expect God to send you exactly where he wants you and show up in every place you go. Expect God to show you all of the ways and ministries in which He glorifies himself and the whole body of Christ and His church come to together and perform their distinct yet inter-connected functions. Expect God to throw you and each of your teammates, like jagged, unpolished rocks, together into a tumbler where you will collide with each other, break the jaggedness off of each other, and polish each other into smooth beautiful rocks. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another, and sparks fly. But that’s where you practice being like Jesus and are transformed into His image. I summary, if the expectation has anything to do with the flesh or worldly desires (even so far as how worship looks), drop it; if it has to do with expecting things of the Spirit and God to show up, expect it.
“Here you are, thinking you’re going to be giving up all this stuff for God, just as I did: Comfortable house, easy friends, a bed, stuff… (I can’t even remember what stuff I had back home now), all those things are outside of yourself. When you’re here, you will realize that what God wants isn’t for you to give up that stuff outside of yourself, He wants you to give up yourself, your expectations, your preferences, your desires, your “needs”, your heart. And it’s glorious.
“Don’t let this dissuade you, but I do want you to be aware of this. AIM could care less about denominational differences, they just throw you out there to experience God however you experience him and let you draw your own conclusions. But the contacts we work with that AIM sets up for us are always some flavor of protestant. Not even protestant, really, but rather contacts whose beliefs line up with AIMs statement of faith, which is essentially that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that it is through faith in his name alone that we are saved and salvation is done wholly by God’s grace. On other words our contacts believe that it’s not faith + baptism, or faith + sacraments, or faith + anything-else-man-can-do. Where this causes problems is in evangelism, if there are differing opinions on how a person is saved. Ultimately it is up to God, yes, but we must still use our mouths and confess what we believe. If a person doesn’t believe what the rest of the group is professing, then it causes disunity. But this is no reason to turn away from this experience, which is about experiencing God, not doctrine.
“All that said, I would highly recommend this experience. As I type I’m sitting on the floor in what amounts to a shack, in Africa, with African pastors dancing around a phone playing music just outside the door, while any number of little African kids congregate in the yard to spectate the white people, someone’s in the “kitchen” trying to cook an entire “Thanksgiving dinner” on a small coal burner no larger than the small coil on your common stove, and we just got back from witnessing to a muslim village. Every night we chase mice around the house with a shovel, kill any number of roaches and mutant spiders, pray that ants don’t eat through our tents again and eventually give up the mouse and bug hunt and go to bed safely (we hope) in our tents, inside the house. It’s certainly an experience, and each month in each country is unique and challenging in its own way.
“But this is how we grow. This is how we learn what faith is and isn’t, where we practice finding our peace in God and his provision, even if it is just PB&J for a week straight, or just a cup of rice and half of a boiled egg for every meal a week straight. We learn to distinguish between what is true Christianity and what is cultural Christianity. True Christianity is faith in Jesus, the Son of God, and nothing else. Everything else is cultural: Worship style, prayer style, teaching style, discipleship style, service style, friendship style… even down to what is considered sin and what isn’t. Is smoking sinful in and of itself? Is having an alcoholic drink a sin? In one culture yes, another no. Is interdigitating with an African man homosexual if I too am a man? In Malawi it’s a sign of friendship, in other cultures, such as in ours, it smacks of homosexuality.
“Because we are being cast into a sea of waves where things are ever-changing, always unexpected, and never easy, we learn very quickly that we must find our Rock on which we set our hopes, our desire, or attitude. If you don’t, your circumstances will control you, like being bucked around by bull, and you’ll be thrown off and want to go home, like some already have. Did your team accidentally eat all the breakfast because they thought you got some when in fact you didn’t, and there’s no food left for you? Praise God that you’re fasting this morning and remembering that man does not live on bread alone, ask your teammates to be more aware next time, forgive and forget, and praise God. The number one piece of advice that I can give you is to be ready to lay down everything and put up with whatever comes your way. Be ready to take part in any kind of ministry, even if it makes you extremely uncomfortable. Case in point: “Jesus died for your sins.” Is this true? Is this what you believe in? Is this the gospel? Yes, yes, and yes. Will you be the “crazy person” that holds a big yellow sign with those words on it along busy Irish streets while some people mock you as they walk by while some people come up and ask you about Jesus? Some people did; unfortunately, others absolutely refused to evangelize in that way, they didn’t want to pick up that cross, they were ashamed. So was I, but I took a step of faith and did it, and overcame a lot of fear and picked up a lot of confidence, and people were saved too. But others missed out on the blessings of stepping out of their comfort zone.
“I think I’ve said enough. This is hard, but it’s worth it. We gave hope to the hopeless in Guachupita, a slum in San Juan, Dominican Republic, where the people were outcasts. We had a dance party with Haitian orphans at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. We lead gypsies to Christ and brought a glimmer of faith to teenage skaters in Ireland, who mocked us at one moment, then when we spoke the gospel in love they left with thanksgiving. In Moldova we built a beaver shelter to help a church become self-supporting. Here in Malawi we bring words of life to people that hungry for God’s word and freedom from witchcraft. We’ve spent over-hot nights on a tour-bus without AC because it was too dangerous to exit the bus between closed African borders, so hot that people were puking out the windows, and we’ve partied at beautiful beaches and fallen asleep to cool seabreeze and crashing waves night after night. One night we’re sleeping outside at God-knows-where on God-knows-what inside our tents with God-knows-who walking around us at night and God-knows-where we’re going the next day, to nice beds in our own building with toilets that actually work, a place to shower and wash weeks-old dirty clothes, security, and food that’s not rice and beans and pb&j.
“Ha, yeah I’ve said enough. I pray that God will show you what to do. Whatever happens, He’s got a plan for your good.”
