A few weeks ago, I was able to welcome my parents with open arms to my temporary home… in THAILAND. If you would have told me a few years ago that me and my parents would be walking the streets of Chiang Mai together, I would not have believed you.
This trip on the World Race where we get to invite our parents into our lives on the field for a week is called Parent Vision Trip (PVT). They get to join us in ministry, worship, and devotions and really see and feel what it is like to be a World Racer.
Now, MONTHS ago, the higher ups in Adventures in Missions sent us an email about praying and considering inviting our parents to PVT. They emphasized the importance of allowing God to speak to us about what to do with this opportunity. I kind of sat there absolutely confused. To me, it was an absolute no brainer to invite my parents to Thailand. And here is my imperfect Christian confession…
I didn’t really pray about inviting them.
GASP!! I know, I’m a horrible Christian and shouldn’t even be on the race. WOW what a sinner I am! 😉
But to me the question was simple: Who wouldn’t want their best friends to come visit them on the mission field? I always felt at peace in my spirit with allowing them into my life here on the race.
“Best friends?! You call your parents your best friends? Your parents are supposed to be your roommates, your landlords, or your superiors, not your best friends!”
I beg to differ. A few years ago the bubble that my parents are perfect superhero’s popped. I began to see them as humans, a son and a daughter of God, just like me. Yes, of COURSE, I respect and honor them the best I can like the Bible teaches, but what I think is really cool is that I have developed a true friendship with them over the past years of our lives together. If you have read my past blogs or know me well enough, you know that last year I went through a pretty severe depression and dealt with heavy anxiety. During that time I lost many friendships, had to quit my job, and I moved back in with my parents. Everything in the world was not safe for me and my safe space were two friends at school, my brother Jackson, and my parents. Jack and my friends lived at school, so really all I had were my parents.
They walked me through the darkest moments of my life. They were there to pick me up the night I wanted to end my life and crash my car into a wall, they were there when I came back from a run and the weight of my sin was so heavy that I sobbed a confession out to them on the kitchen floor, and they were there every step of the way during the healing process, in every crying fit of anxiety or sorrow. There were nights when both of them would come in and basically tuck me in and pray for me in my room right before I went to bed, just like they did when I was little. They took me to the zoo, they took me out to eat, and even sat and watched my favorite movies every weekend.
My parents are more than parents, so I was ecstatic for the opportunity to see them on a little corner cafe in Southeast Asia.
When my parents flew out to Thailand, they came July 30th, but I did not see them until August 1st. Why? Good question (as I smile and shake my head at God). In June, God stirred up in my heart to do a communications fast with my family for the month of July. Going into it, I thought it was because I was relying on them to make me happy on a bad day, I was going to them instead of going to God, but God showed me a different reason during that month. I found that it was actually the other way around- I felt that if I wasn’t in their lives, they weren’t going to be okay. I needed to be talking with them, hearing how their lives were going, how they were struggling and doing everything in my power to help and encourage them. It was an extremely hard month. I learned to surrender my family, to not be in contact with them, but simply pray and trust God with their lives.
Then, my parents show up 2 days early… still in the month of July. They come to get coffee in the coffee shop directly under my hostel and in obedience, I stay in my room and cry until they are gone. The next day, EVERYONE and their mother (literally) sees my parents and I am busying myself with laundry and packing and anything to get my mind off the fact that my mom is probably crying seeing all the racers with their parents. That night was another night on my knees releasing my mother’s pain to my Heavenly Father. I COULD just walk down to their hotel and see my parents and bring a smile to my mom’s face and end the pain, but instead I sit in my Father’s arms and trust He holds her for one last night of July.
Our reunion was THAT much sweeter.
PVT began and boy was I glad to simply just have conversations face to face with my parents and hear about their lives and share what I had been learning. The first few hours we were together was spent just sitting in different places around town talking for hours. The first night I got to lead worship AND teach a session to all racers and parents and we opened the whole week with sitting as each family praying for what God had for us that week.
The biggest thing that I am thankful for from PVT are the conversations and prayers that I got to have with my parents. I have NEVER heard them talk or pray like that before, I’VE never prayed with them like that before, we’ve never talked about these things before… I was constantly thankful for the conversations and ways we were challenging and encouraging each other like brothers and sisters in Christ.
As we prayed into the week, I felt this pressure that both me and my parents held that we need to “do good” that week in Thailand. We gotta love the people, change the lives, do the thing in order for us to feel fulfilled by the end of the week. And when we prayed, I felt the Holy Spirit whisper a different kind of expectation.
So I prayed: “Lord, help us to just be loved by You this week. We may feel like we need to DO a lot this week, but if this week is just for us to become closer to You or closer as a family, let it be so.” And I think we were really able to enter into the week with open hands as to what God’s will was for us.
A Day For Sweat
The first day of ministry was spent partnering with ActsCo Bookhouse and helping them out at their warehouse FULL of books, tracks, and Bibles. We did some lifting, some organizing, and a whole lot of sweating. It was extremely funny to me to see how the heat and the sweat effected my parents. At this point as a World Racer, I am used to it and I’ve spent 7 months in more sweat than I’ve seen in my entire life, so it was funny to see their first reactions to it. I was thankful for that prayer we prayed as a family because moving books doesn’t really feel like you are doing a lot when you come across the world to do so and raised a load of money. As a racer, I had to release that pressure of performance for the people back home who gave their hard earned money for me to “DO good.” I wanted to be able to give a number of lives I had lead to the Lord or a list of stories of miracles and healings, but sometimes it’s just about loving the person in front of you- and in this case it was moving books.
A Day For Bold Prayers
We got to partner with Adventures in Missions and their new safe house for women who were coming out of an unsafe or human trafficking environment. We spent the afternoon dreaming of what the space could be and how it could benefit the women coming from difficult situations. We cleaned out the driveway, did some yard work, scrubbed the kitchen and cleared out an entire room of junk to make a safe space for relaxing and studying. It was a pleasure to sit and pray over the space and all the restoration, redemption, and reconciliation that would happen on that property.
That evening the schedule allowed us time to do a prayer walk in the red light district. The goal was to claim the land in Jesus’ name for the ministry that AIM will be doing in the future with the women. I stayed back to lead worship for those that did not feel comfortable walking out during that time and it was SO wonderful. The atmosphere that was created by a dozen people with a heart of worship was incredible- the Holy Spirit felt like thick honey in the air. I loved listening to my own father sing and pray BOLD prayers next to me. I knew my father was a strong believer, but to hear his prayers of impossible things only made possible with God was something to behold. I was baffled at my mother’s strength to go out and see the evil and darkness that lived on that street and to see her come back unshaken and confident of God’s future for that street.
A Day For Family
The PVT schedule was jam packed with meals, devotions, worship, debriefs, ministry, sessions, testimonies, and much more that by the time we reached the 3rd day, me and my parents felt we could explode if we didn’t get rest. While the rest of the squad headed off to do “monk chats” at a local temple nearby, we took intentional time to just be a family. I absolutely missed the times I had at home with just me and my parents. All my brothers had moved out and it was just me and them and having them in Thailand felt like that again. What I loved was the intentional conversations we got to have. Like what they had been learning from watching us World Racers, what they want to implement in their lives back home, and what re-entry looks like for me in December.
I didn’t know what to expect for PVT, but I definitely thought it was going to be harder than it was. It was clear God just wanted this week to be a sweet memory with my best friends, and to better equip both me and them for my reentry back into the States. They got to see first hand how I have changed and what to expect when I come back home in just 4 months.
AND we got to sweeten the deal with an epic adventure day zip lining through the jungle and feeding and bathing some beautiful elephants!
I’ve been writing this blog for quite some time now, and yet I still feel like I haven’t described the week well and what it meant to me. It was such a pleasure to be able to have my parents see what life on the World Race is like and see first hand what God has been doing in my life. I had SO much to share with them and yet I still feel like I only scratched the surface.
Of COURSE goodbyes were hard and it took a bit to remind myself I have 4 more months of this and although I got a taste of “home,” I am not going home quite yet.
To my parents,
I LOVE YOU. Thanks for spending your time, money, energy, and all other things to come see me on the mission field and take part in what God is doing. It was such a treat to experience sweat, tears, and culture shock with you! I missed your laughter and hugs and will treasure the ones I got for the next 4 months. As I now sit in Cambodia and you are back in Georgia, I am thankful for you as a brother and sister in Christ, how I got to speak into your life and you got to speak into mine.
Thanks for feeding elephants with me.
Your daughter,
Jamilyn Joy
To my readers, just WAIT for the treat that is my PARENTS writing a BLOG about PVT. I’m as excited as you are.
For now, enjoy this video of our first day of ministry!
All my love,
JJ
