Ok guys.
So I’m out on the Race now. Living it up in Uzhhorod, Ukraine and we just finished our first week of ministry. It was tiring yet fun and I’m so excited for all of the things that are still to come!
But before I tell you all about that.. I want to get on the same page about some things that have been on my heart lately. I want to be clear about what I’m doing on the Race and specifically with this blog. I don’t want to make excuses or let myself fall into the trap of forgetfulness without anyone to keep me accountable. So, I’ve made a list of all of the things that I want to do/not do while on the Race and how that will impact my blogging.
- I will NOT be posting about how horrible the places I go are. I will not be posting or sharing ‘poverty porn’ of any kind. I believe we as Americans have so many false perceptions about foreign cultures already, and I don’t want to contribute to that. In fact, I want to celebrate the beautiful, real, and authentic differences that I encounter. If I see hard things, I want to share those things with you too, and share how I feel God working in them, but with the mindset that these things are not some far off distant problems. Problems that exist in countries around the world often times also exist within the United States too.
- I WILL use this blog to be real and honest with y’all. I will not use this as a platform to paint myself as this ‘perfect Christian’ who has it all together- because thats not who I am. I’m not a perfect Christian and I don’t have it all together. There will be ups and downs on this trip and I want to be honest about the work that the Lord is doing in my heart through this trip. So get ready for the good, the bad, and the ugly…
- I will NOT make myself out to be the hero in the stories I share. I’m not a hero. Jesus is the hero and HE is going to save His people through His will. Not me. I just get to be here to see it and tell you about it. There has been a term coined to describe missionaries (often white Americans) who go out and try to ‘fix’ the people and the places they visit. Its called White Savior Complex (variations of this include Hero Complex, God-Complex and/or Savior Complex). It’s a harsh reality of how we can all fall into the temptation of self glorification if we aren’t careful. To a degree most of us have tendencies to fall into this type of thinking and we have to be intentional about retraining our brains.
- EVERYTHING* I post will be accessible. I will personally be creating captions for all videos that I post or share. If you see anything on my blog that isn’t accessible to everyone, please let me know, I want to fix it! The Deaf community has supported and poured into me more than I can say in the past few years and this is a small way that I can turn around and support and respect them- by creating accessibility. I want all of my supporters to be able to follow my journey, because I really do love and appreciate all that my community has done for me. This is as much your journey as it is mine.
* To the best of my ability. For certain videos the captioning services do not allow me to add/create new captions. I am still trying to work this out, so if there are no/incorrect captions, just know that I am working on it!*
- For EVERY picture I post of the people I encounter I WILL get permission from them (or their parents/guardians if they are children) before sharing them with you. I want to be honoring to these people and not treat them like zoo animals. I want to know the names of everyone I share a picture of and I want to honor and respect them by asking if they are ok with me sharing photos of them as well as their story. I also want to respect the people I am with by not bringing my phone out constantly. This might mean that I share less photos from ministry (sorry) but I really want to be intentional while I am here.
- I am NOT going to let storytelling and this blog eclipse my time here. I want to share stories and keep you all updated but I will not do that at the expense of my time with the people here and with God. I know if I let myself I will use this as a distraction and that’s not what it should be and that’s not what I want. So I ask you, please be patient with me. I’m going to do by best to find balance between everything going on here on the Race and keeping everyone at home updated.
- I am NOT going to be posting blogs until I’m ready and feel like I have something worth posting. I want to be intentional. So while it means that I may not be posting every week on the dot (sooorrryyy) I will be posting things that I am proud of and sharing things that I feel are worthwhile. My goal is quality over quantity.
- I’m going to challenge YOU. We as American Christians have a tendency to become complacent in our faith (this isn’t an accusation, it’s a confession). Sometimes we spend a little too much time talking about Jesus and not enough time acting like him. God has already been pressing things into my heart and teaching me new and wonderful things, and I want to challenge y’all to seek new ways to challenge yourselves and to grow your faith too. Obviously I’ll have no way of knowing if anyone actually takes up any of the challenges/ideas I’ll be sharing, but thats ok! If you feel like sharing anything God is doing in your life, I’d love love love to hear about it! I think one of the most encouraging things as Christians is to hear what God is doing in the lives of the people around us- so please share.
I am new to this whole thing still. If there is ever a time that I fall short of these goals, I ask you to please lovingly call me out on it. I am human and I know I will fall short at times, but I want to do my best to share with you all of the amazing things that God is doing around the world. My blog is for me, but it’s also for you. I will try to continually update this blog if I feel like the Lord is leading me to put other rules in place for myself. If you as my community can see any areas that I have failed to mention, please let me know!
If anything I talked about in this blog interests you, I would highly suggest reading the book called When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett And Brian Fikkert. I was gifted it right before I left and I have been working my way through it over the past few weeks. Its incredibly eye opening to the ways in which our best sometimes intentions fall short and how complex the issues we encounter are.
I love you guys, I’m sorry that this blog couldn’t be more exciting. I will be posting pictures and sharing stories from our first weeks here soon! But for now please just continue to keep me and my team in your prayers. God is doing and is going to do big things. I sit in expectation on that fact.
Much love,
Morgan
As always, I invite you to make my journey, your journey. Here are three simple ways:
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