So you think the World Race is a vacation?
WRONG.
So completely, whole-heartedly, absolutely wrong.
There is nothing more frustrating than hearing someone say, “Oh…well it just looks like you are on a vacation for 11 months and you are tricky enough to find a way for someone else to pay for it.”
Please, I beg of you, come on the World Race for a month, or even a week, and see how much of a “vacation” it is.
So here it is. I am going to refute all of the reasons why the World Race is a vacation I didn’t even have to pay for.
1. “You take more pictures of fun activities than of ministry. Where are your pictures of ministry?”
First, there are three aspects to the Race: ministry, life on the Race/cultural experiences, and fun activities, all of which are picture worthy
(This is the actual break down of of the photos I have posted to Instagram since launching on the Race.)
While everyone back home craves to see the ministry photos, you have to understand not all ministries are able to be photographed and I refuse to be someone who Instagrams a photo just to please my donors.
The 16 year old girl who was sleeping on the mat next to mine for a week because she was afraid to sleep in her room for fear of abuse? Yeah..she was my ministry for the week. Should I take a photo of her fear? How about of her pain? Would you like me to take advantage of her weakness and post it all over the Internet, reducing her value to a hashtag?
Missions work isn’t about pictures. It is about love and hard work, neither of which I am going to interrupt in order to grab my camera and then try and stage the moment in a fake manner in order to look like I am doing something. Quite frankly, that behavior is disgusting.
I am not on the trip to gain likes on Facebook or Instagram or followers on Twitter. If someone captures a true moment of love or work on their camera, that is so wonderful. If they don’t, that is fine too, because I know the work I have done and I am confident it is to the best of my ability, whether or not it was captured in a picture.
2. “You seem to being having too much fun to be a missionary.”
Is this really an argument for why I am not a “real” missionary?
Come on, people.
Jesus calls us to serve and he calls us to be happy about it. Any Racer would lose their mind if we couldn’t find the fun and humor in our situations. We would be miserable! We would quit the Race in month one.
We don’t all have to be “suffering servants” of God. We can be cheerful servants! Trust me- it is much more impactful to be happy.
3. “Well it still looks like a vacation to me. You rode an elephant just the other day!”
Okay…first off, this isn’t even an argument. That is an observation, albeit a very skewed one.
Let’s compare my “vacation” to your last vacation.
How much money did you spend on food for your last vacation? Was it $3.00 a day? Where did you sleep? Was it on a concrete roof or the floor of a tiny bedroom you are sharing with 4 other people? How was your bathroom situation? Did you have warm water to shower that wasn’t out of a bucket? Did you use that same bucket to flush your toilet? Did you even have a toilet? Because last time I went on vacation, I surely didn’t poop in a field.
And you are right: I did ride an elephant. But we have days off and I am going to take advantage of the opportunity I have while in these countries. To be clear, the money I am asking for is going to my World Race account, not to my off days.
4. “But your Facebook makes it look like a vacation.”
First, if your argument starts off as “But your Facebook makes it look…” then it is not a valid argument. That is the equivalent of citing Wikipedia in your doctoral dissertation.
Yet, I will still address your concern.
Honestly, social media has been a blessing and a curse when it comes to being an overseas missionary. It has allowed for me to stay in close contact with my friends and family back home, but it has created the expectation that everything I post has to be a cookie-cutter form of a missionary. Every picture has to be of my holding an orphan. Every status has to be about preaching. And every link has to be to some amazingly profound blog I have written.
Sorry but that is unrealistic.
Currently, the World Race is my job. I will admit the Race is quite a unique job, but last time I checked, if someone wants to post only about their job on Facebook, it would be called LinkedIn.
I don’t use Facebook as my primary source of telling stories from the Race; that is what my blog is for. Facebook holds snippets from my day, which is typically the day to day aspects of the life. If you want the big picture story, I beg you, please just read the blogs.
Racers don’t sign up for the Race in order to go on “vacation”. We work hard during the weeks, we miss our friends and family, and we sacrifice our comfort to glorify the Kingdom of God.
What we need is support from those closest to us, not judgment on what we are doing.
