Over the last seven months, I have learned an abundance. As I reflect on the many lessons God has taught me and the ways He’s further softened my heart, I cannot begins to emphasize the role of community in that. I have been part of two amazing ministry teams to date. Shout out to my DOTS (Daughters of the Light) and the fierce ladies of Mosaic.
Over the last months, I have grown to deeply love many strangers who quickly became intimate friends. We have been able to engage and enter into the church community around the world. We have been able to enter into one another’s sorrows. We have celebrated our victories together. I have shared approximately 300 meals with this world race community to date. We intercede and pray together, entering the throne room unguarded, and naked before the Father. We have unmasked and unveiled areas of our heart that needed the light of Christ to shine in. We continue to find our Kingdom callings by calling eachother high in the truth of who God says we are. None of this rich reality is possible without community. The mutual exchange of God’s love between two people bonds them. So many times throughout this year we meet a sister in Christ around the world, and after just hours or days together it feels as though we’ve known each other for years. To know His love and share His love is to be in community.
If I’m being honest, community living was overwhelming to me in the beginning of the race. Like…I will have a buddy with me for the next eleven months straight? I will only be alone in the bathroom? I have to talk about my feelings again? I have to extend my process with God to this group of women? I have to give her feedback about the dishes again, wouldn’t it be easier to just clean them? We are having lentil paste for dinner again? Jokes aside, it’s almost cringeworthy as I look back now how foreign and uncomfortable community living was at first.
As time continues, I keep learning how much valuing independence can hinder the love that God wants to reveal to me. Of course there is much benefit and such a valuable place for solitude and oneness with self/God. But through community living, I have seen this incubator effect as the Spirit moves to cast light and reveal truth. Throughout the last months, God continues to reveal to me that—
Authentic, Christ-centered community is an extension of the Father’s heart. Community isn’t an optional bonus of our faith, but is absolutely essential to living in the fullness of God’s promise and love. Community is essential to receiving our role in the Kingdom. Community teaches us humility and to love as Jesus does. Community is accountability, growth and sharing our process with God. Community is a catalyst for God to radically transform our hearts.
When reading this, the truth seems obvious. But how much do we isolate our emotions, our needs, our experiences, our questions, our pain, our doubts, our victories, our journeys because it feels unnatural to bear it all with others? How much do we diminish the glory of God because we don’t express it with others? We love to share from the tidiness, from the accomplishment of life. Imagine what it would look like for you to share and live from the messy process of authenticity in community?
As I continue to enter into the naked process of community in deeper and deeper ways, the kaleidoscope of God’s love continues to become more vibrant. He has given each of us a unique piece of his heart, and as I give myself to community, the pieces of His heart I find in my teammates show me all these new angles to His love. He really is so big.
Fundraising was a gesture of learning new humility and the deep reality of community for me. Both in stepping out and declaring what God was calling me to and in asking help, fundraising was strengthening. Seeking support both reconnected and deepened relationship after relationship, strengthening and redefining my already existing community. As the fundraising process continued, I heard God saying many times, “Relax my girl, there is an abundance in my Kingdom” And God wasn’t just talking about money. Finances surely are a big deal, but simply a vehicle for God to reveal His provision.
As I reflect on the growing, changing role of community in my life, I am thankful. I am so thankful for the vibrancy and life my soul knows. I am thankful for friendship—old and new, with family and with stranger. I am thankful for a season to appreciate and see the unlocking promises and gifts of authentic Christ-centered community. This kind of community is not just a group of friends or even loved ones. It is a group of people rooted in the reality of the Father’s love—community brings eternity to our reality.
This morning, as I was praying about what to blog about, God laid two names on my heart. My two teammates that are still fundraising from the field. He reminded me again of His abundance and desire to empower His children to help each other. God continues to challenge me that an unmet need of my friend is a need that holds weight in my heart. That to love my neighbor as myself is to love my neighbor as myself. It’s to hold their need as I would hold my own. What a hard verse to live by, but oh, what an example Christ gave us. Below I’ve listed a cute photo and the blog sites to Niki and Haley. They are part of the close-knit team Mosaic, and have taught me so much about God’s love for me by how they have extended love to me.
NIKI DEAN:(nikidean.theworldrace.org)
Niki is from New Zealand! It is my joy and privilege to be lead by her. She is the “Beauty for Ashes” coordinator for our squad and has such a huge heart for women, wholeness and redemption in the name of Jesus Christ. She is famous for making “hot drinks” and her hospitality. If you were to come visit our team, guaranteed, she would make you feel welcomed, loved and cared for.
HALEY LOWE: (haleylowe.theworldrace.org)
Haley is from Northern California! Haley has such a unique and cherishing heart. She is both childlike in her joy, but a deep well of wisdom and insight. Her heart hurts with those who hurt. She has such a gift of seeing people as they are and loving them well in that place. As she delves into hard places with people, she elegantly shares the hope of Christ and offers the light of truth with others. Her heart is intricately beautiful, and she has shown me so much about what it means to be deeply tethered to Christ.
If you feel lead to donate to help them become fully funded, please do so on the blog links above! If God has laid it on your heart, he will empower it. Niki and Haley are women who claim and reclaim God’s power in the Kingdom daily. The unique privilege we have to be on World Race continues and the ripple of this year will be extending for our lifetime.
