My past two weeks have been eventful. This particular span of 14 days has been especially unique for our squad. We went to South Africa and back, hung out with our parents, and had a couple of days to process it all. It was a great couple of weeks, so I thought I’d share 8 quick stories from the past 2 weeks!
- The Awakening – Sometimes The World Race does something called awakenings. An awakening is what they call it when two or more separate world race squads are in the same part of the world at the same time, so the squads meet up, pour into each other, and spend a couple of days getting to know each other. My squad went to South Africa for a weekend to meet up with an 11-in-11 squad (O-squad). Awakenings are set up by Adventures in Missions staff that fly out from Georgia, but the schedule and all the events are run by squad-members. The days were full of teachings, and worship, and activations, but despite the busy schedule I came out of the awakening renewed with passion and excitement and joy for our last couple of months.
- Ultimate football (rugby) – We couldn’t have had two separate squads get together without some friendly competition, so we were going to play kickball. The kickball got popped on the first pitch of the game, so we decided to get creative. We played ultimate football (like ultimate frisbee but with a football), but we only had a rugby ball instead of a football. The enemy team ended up winning, but we all still had fun.
- Evangelism – The last day of the awakening we had a teaching about evangelism. Afterwards we split into groups and went to the mall to walk out what we just learned. It was a special experience where I got to learn from doing ministry with people I didn’t know. The highlight of the afternoon was our experience with a man named John. John was soft-spoken, wore raggedy clothes, and was on his way to buy a bag of rice. We got to buy John a meal in addition to his rice, and towards the end of our conversation with him, he prayed with us to surrender his life to Christ. It was a great day for me, and there were dozens of other incredible testimonies shared from members of both squads.
- Awakening Final Night – I learned a lot from the awakening, but the number one takeaway was how powerful it is to see the body of Christ build up the rest of the body. The prime example of this was the last night during worship. The plan for it was a typical musical worship set, but the Holy Spirit moving ended up making it so much more. People were being moved to share words or testimonies with the rest of congregation spontaneously. There were spoken words, and vulnerable confessions, and powerful prayers. The night was emotional, and, for me, it cemented the lessons and takeaways that I had been learning all weekend. That is the church and that is one of the most special instances I’ve been a part of as a member of the body of Christ.
- Parent reunion – The day after the awakening ended we started Parent Vision Trip. PVT is when each of the racers has the opportunity to invite their parents to join them in the field, wherever they are in the world, for a week. I got to have both my parents come! We got to have our reunion with our parents in the rain. The reunions were, of course, going to be special moments but somehow waiting in the rain with anxious anticipation for the buses to arrive added to the beauty of it in a lot of ways. Not only was it great to see my parents, but I also loved seeing my friends give their own parents hugs as well.
- Home Visit – Inviting parents into the unique culture of World Race and the everyday life of ministry in African society is an awkward thing and takes some getting used to, but the week ended up being really healthy and gave our squad some incredible testimonies about how God is moving in and through our families. I loved PVT, and I especially loved getting to do ministry with my parents. The highlight of ministry was when my family got the opportunity to do a home visit. Home visits are a common form of ministry on the race where we get to engage the community and learn/pray over their families and homes if we are lucky enough to be invited into their houses. They are one of the more intimate forms of ministry which is a big reason why it is one of my favorites. The visit I did with my parents was a quick 20-ish minutes, but we got to pray for physical healing for some of the sicknesses that the family was suffering from among other things. I loved the dynamic of seeing my parents be involved in engaging this family and leading prayers on their behalf. Shoutout to Mom and Dad for killing it during this time and just being really awesome in general.
- Mini-Debrief – You can imagine how having the two really impactful experiences of the Awakening and then PVT back-to-back can be a lot to digest. This is why we took two days as a squad to debrief and process our experiences. These two days are not just sitting around. They are filled, similar to Awakening, with teachings and worship and 1-on-1s. Not necessarily a glamorous couple of days, but definitely necessary. As a squad, we also made sure to avoid letting MDB be heavy or weighed down from all the processing. We played a game called team wars. I was on a team with the Boulders (we ended up losing), but we fought well. As a team we came in second during the Ginger Beer (not actual beer of course) chugging competition and the egg-drop obstacle course. Those two performances were not enough points to bring us out of last place, unfortunately.
- Carepoint ministry – After a week and a half of unusual schedules we ended this two-week span with a regular couple of days of ministry. For my team this meant walking an hour to our carepoint, playing with the kids there for the majority of the day, and walking back. The walk is beautiful, the kids are joyful, and the schedule was really simple. It was a great way to get back into the routine after a busy couple of weeks.
So I feel like I just walked you through my life for the past two weeks. I am excited about the experiences I’ve had and even more excited about the stories still yet to come. Everyday life can feel so mundane whenever you are living it, so it has been really helpful to take a big step back and look at the path God’s taking me on. It helps me keep everything in perspective. It also motivates for the lifestyle I get the pleasure of living for God.
