We have left Cambodia. Our last week was spent building a tree house and teaching a VBS in Kampot village. It was the most beautiful place I’ve been this year. Vibrant colors and magic plants (sleeping grass that collapsed when we touched it and a tree with big leaves that you could tear down the middle and blow the small liquid in it to matriculate floating bubbles through the air) made Kampot feel like a magical place, a long journey from the dangers we felt in Prey Veng.
Now we are in Malaysia for month 11. Month ELEVEN! The end of the line. I find myself trying to think what I want this month to look like. How can I close the chapter of this incredible journey? What can I do to make sure that I leave no stone unturned, no call unanswered, no growth uncultivated, no opportunity unopened?
Every great chapter of a good book has a succinctly defining quality: it leaves you wanting more. Desperate to turn the page, encouraged to read on, discontent to put down the book. This World race chapter is ending, transitioning my story into its next chapters.
The Lord wants to meet me. He wants me to not over-think things and just be where He is, resting in his beauty, overwhelmed by his greatness. My King wants to hang out with me. He wants to whisper through the voice of my teammates. He wants to smile through the faces of strangers. He wants to wash over me like a cool autumn breeze. I really think the Lord wants something grand for me this month; something extraordinarily normal. He wants to wash away expectations and introduce revelation. He wants to invite me to new places and rip the tags off the furniture of the places he has been fighting to occupy for years.
I have one more month on the World race. One more month of life. It feels like it has been a dream and I know I must wake soon. It sucks because I know I can never get back to this dream, never truly relive it exactly as it has been. Nor can I truly explain to the people I love what I saw in this dream. It is ending in the truest sense of the word.
The exciting thing is that I got to live it. And that the deeper truth is that my story continues. The pages turn. Adventure ensues. One more month will simply lead to one month more and then another. The world is big and magnificent. The Kingdom is bigger and better.
With all the pomp and preparation, all the promise and expectation, all the hope and despair, all of the pain and celebration, the World Race has ended up just being a year of my life. But life to the fullest.
Pray for one more month of unique community, challenging ministry, and God-filled surprises. I will see you all soon!
