It’s hard to put into words what it felt like being at Launch for The World Race. For the longest time, The Race was just this intangible thing I was planning on doing. Even going through ten days of training camp didn’t really put things into perspective. I can’t say that was the case I pulled up to the Holiday Inn in Atlanta start my final four days of training. The reality of everything that was about to happen landed a little too heavy. When I stepped out of that vehicle and pulled all of my belongings for the next 11 months out of the trunk, I was 100% ready to go….home. If you would have given me the chance to back out, drive home, and never think about The Race again, I would have no doubt taken you up on that.
While the following four days didn’t quite remedy all of those nerves, they opened me up to the mindset I needed to have once I reached the field. This was accomplished through things such as, but not limited to:
- Being given way more information than I am not nearly responsible enough to organize all of.
- Meetings. So many meetings.
- Sleeping six guys in a four-person room.
- A semi-spontaneous tattoo. (Sorry Lynn)
- Waiting in the airport for our flight for 11+ hours in true World Race fashion
- More tears than I am comfortable with.
- Two of the hardest goodbyes I’ve ever had to say.
It wasn’t the most fun four days of my life by any stretch of the imagination. There were times when I didn’t feel like going a meeting I was supposed to attend. There were times when I didn’t feel like being around my squad. There were times when I didn’t even feel like I should be there.
But I spent a lot of quality time with some very great people who are in the exact same position that I’m in. And I received a lot of words of encouragement from people who’s words carry weight in my life.
Most importantly, I learned just a little bit about how life could be on The Race. Are there going to be days when I really don’t feel like going to ministry? Yes. Are there going to be days when the same squadmates who carry me through the hard times are the ones I want to strangle? I expect so. Are there going to be days when I feel ill-equipped and underqualified? I’d be surprised if there arent. But I learned from Launch that there are going to be a lot of times in the next 11 months when I am not okay, and that’s okay.
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our suffiency is from God” – 2 Corinthians 3:5
