I was talking to a friend earlier this week when I realized something….Im leaving the country for 11 months.
Yes, of course I knew this already, but it was more of an idea than anything else up until this point. This isn’t going to be a vacation. Sure, there will be amazing things that we will get to see and do, but im leaving home…comfort…im leaving my bed (even if it is a futon)…im leaving daily showers & cleanliness, ill be living in such tight community that in a sense, im leaving my independence.
How in the world am I going to do this? What was I thinking when I said yes to this?
I kinda laughed through another races blog post several weeks ago, titled “Don’t sign up for the World Race” …. Right about the time I started to think about these things and ask these questions, this blog came to mind. Here is some of what it said:
- Don’t sign up for The World Race if you like being clean and smelling nice. You may go an entire month with only one quick bath in a muddy creek
- Don’t sign up for The World Race if you hate snakes, spiders, mosquitos, and other strange bugs. They will soon be your housemates and chances are your bug net won’t keep them off you at night.
- Don’t sign up for The World race if you like drinking clean water. Our food budget is small and when bottled water is to expensive the only option is to haul buckets of water in and purify it yourself. We do our best, but sometimes a water-borne bacteria sneaks through and you end up puking 7 times on your travel day.
- Don’t sign up for The World Race if you depend on clean bathrooms. I wish I could count how many times I have had to step over poop and plug my nose, while trying to balance myself in a squatty-potty.
- Don’t sign up for The World Race if you need a bed to sleep. This year I have slept on the floors of gas stations, with homeless people in Poland, numerous airports, and in every form of transportation possible.
- Don’t sign up for The World Race if you always want a hospital nearby. When the local clinic fails you, the next best option is to pull out a book called “Where there is no doctor.”
- Don’t sign up for The World Race if you hate living in community and love your independence. For the past 8 months, I haven’t even gone to the bathroom in a restaurant by myself. You will be with your team 24/7 and an iPod/eye-mask combination only gives a temporary sense of being alone
How in the world am I going to do this???
These wont just be ideas or fun thoughts of living a life of sacrifice – this will be my life….for a year!
The writer provides amazing truth after each one of these reasons not to sign up for the race, like these:
- God will give you a new picture of what it means to be beautiful.
- God will supply laughter as your team spends 30 minutes trying to find the softball sized spider that fell into a pile of backpacks.
- God will show you love and care, as numerous squadmates rally around you to provide juice, baby wipes, and clean buckets.
- God will give you compassion for the people who live in garbage dumps and the children who walk barefoot through sewage daily on their way to school.
- you will find dependence on prayer, and you will see the healing power of God over things you used to depend on medication for.
- God will give you rest and you will be grateful that you typically have a bed to call your own.
- God will push you in these moments, he will challenge you through your teammates and they will call you into greatness.
These motivations are stronger than any of my own comfort desires.
How in the world am I going to do this Lord?
What do you mean how are you going to do this? (He then gave me the images of nations, towns, communities, and people)…That’s how…because of them. Ive given you my heart, you feel what I feel and you cant help but to go.
I think im just now starting to get the real picture of just how tough this journey will be, I know it will be good (that’s just a blanket statement/understanding) but man, allow me to be real for a hot second….its going to be rough.
If you would like to read “Dont Sign Up For The World Race” follow the link 🙂
http://september2014.theworldrace.org/?filename=dont-sign-up-for-the-world-race
