I am a third of the way through my race. I have learned so much over the course of the three months that I’ve been on the field. As I sit here writing this blog, I can’t believe that this is my life.
Imagine this.
You are walking along a pretty run-down road, but as you look up to the blue sky, and you see snow along the bases and the trees with their yellow leaves. Then, your eyes are drawn to the snow-laced mountain tops. The sun is behind the mountain faces, but it creates a halo of light and gives the setting a more fairy tale or story book atmosphere.
This is how I feel every time I wake up. I don’t go and walk in a mountain range every day, but I do wake up and imagine the innumerable friends I have made while on the race. I don’t speak the languages that I have been faced with, but it doesn’t matter. I have Google Translate and a series of hand gestures. You can’t go wrong with saying America and laughing. People tend to understand then that you aren’t from their countries.
I’m going to leave Kazakhstan soon, so I decided to tell you some things that I have learned.
1. Learning even a few words or phrases in the language of the land will be helpful. I only know a few words in Mongolian, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian, but I have made connections in each of those countries. It started because the people were impressed or thankful that I went out of my way to try to learn their language.
Let me tell you something. People love to hear their own language. I never realized that until I was among non-English speakers aside from my team. When I heard people who I didn’t know speaking English, it felt like I was no longer clueless as to what was going on. I felt confused and ridiculous trying to explain things to people or when people were trying to talk to me in their language. I don’t know how else to explain it, but it was like I felt included in conversations again.
2. Community takes work. It can be difficult to live with six other people 24/7 who have all grown up with different values, sets of skills that I’m used to, and who have varying habits. Never did I imagine that this would be the thing that I would have the most growth in.
I don’t really know how to explain it but let me give you some examples of how community is different than what I’m used to. O’hana wakes up in the morning and we meet up and we have our morning routine. We have our Bible Study, which someone has volunteered to do, we pray individually about our day and how God wants us to spend it. Then we go about our day. Sometimes we go out and talk to people in the community and sometimes we stay home and pray or talk to each other about what is going on in their lives. Our days are finished with team time, which is just time set aside to pour into each other, feedback, which is a time where we intentionally call each other out on ways we portrayed the Kingdom well or where we want to see them grow, and check ins, which is a time for vulnerability in what we are each walking through.
Although I haven’t known any of my teammates more than three and a half or four months, they know some of the most crippling things I have walked through, and they know the struggles I am going through now. These people are not my true blood family, but I feel like I have three sisters and five brothers instead of just two brothers. We didn’t automatically have a deep connection to each other though. It has come out of choosing each other every single day and fighting for our friendships.
3. Walking with God is rewarding, but it comes from having a heart that is open to His words continuously. Believe it or not, I haven’t always had a good relationship with God. I used to dislike having an authority figure to look up to because I didn’t like having someone telling me what to do or telling me something that I should do.
Before I was on the race, I met some amazing people through church and the Wesley Foundation who helped lead me down a path where I relied on God’s grace and I began to truly have a relationship with Him. While I have been on the mission field, I have been surrounded by people who have helped me see God in a different light. I have learned different ways of listening to Him and different ways of seeing His love in everyday life.
Beginning in Kyrgyzstan, team O’hana is going to split so the men can go into manistry, a month where all the men on the whole squad will be together to do their ministry. The women of both co-ed teams will band together and form one full women’s team. We will be partnering with a ministry in the capital of Bishkek. We will be working with university students.
Please consider praying for the two teams. We are going to be going through a season of change and we will be learning to be with new people. Pray that the season of change will be filled with peace and love for our new team members.
Thank you for all of your love and support so far.
-Jo
