A little over a month ago I wrote a blog post while I was in China about the “Unsung Heroes” we met – Chris and Lucy at Milk and Honey Land Café. I mentioned in the post that my role on my squad during our race is Unsung Heroes Coordinator, along with my friend Kayla.
Last month, Kayla’s team took on a month of focusing solely on the task of searching around Thailand, looking for awesome ministries and organizations that could be partnered with The World Race for future teams to work with. Check out her blog and her journey last month in Thailand here: http://kaylahatcher.theworldrace.org.
This month, it’s my team’s turn to pour our hearts into finding ministries for future WR teams.
Before we even made it to Cambodia, I was shaking in my boots as the daunting task of being in a leadership position for this month loomed before me.
Looking back through my life so far, I see a pattern: I have rarely had the role of being a leader, and I have frequently chosen and been chosen for more behind-the-scenes roles instead.
I’m not naturally a very shy person, but I normally shy away from being in the spotlight.
This time, however, I’m right up there in that position – the position where all eyes are on me to delegate, to make the decisions, to step up and lead the team in an area where I’m still trying to figure out why I was chosen.
I’m not a natural-born leader.
I have no idea what I’m doing.
But I’m slowly starting to figure out why I was chosen.
In the moments in between meeting with a potential ministry contact, I feel borderline unmotivated and drained.
I feel as if I have nothing for my team to do and I feel lost in a country that I don’t know my way around.
And then there’s the time that we’ve spent with the potential ministry contacts.
During those stretches of time, I come alive.
I see in myself absolute passion for the work that those people are doing in Cambodia.
I see in myself love for the people who have followed the direction that Jesus has pointed them in.
While we’re conversing with the contacts, I have a hard time believing that it’s really me who’s talking!
I have discovered this unknown passion and drive to further God’s kingdom in this way.
I’ve been given this opportunity to find ministries and organizations that the World Race can partner with in the future, and I get to do this by travelling around Cambodia and seeing the ministries firsthand.
Is it possible that I myself am an “Unsung Hero”?
The Lord has given me this chance to step into a gift that hasn’t been discovered yet, and the result of my using this gift is more furthering of the kingdom.
Mind. Blown.
This month is still going to be a struggle for me.
I’m still going to feel growing pains when it comes to being a leader, but I’m trusting that when I come out on the other side, I’m going to be so much more confident in it.
I am an Unsung Hero in search of more Unsung Heroes.
Take that, insecurities!
“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.” (Romans 12:6)
