Atlanta
Boston
Miami
Chile
Peru
Colombia
Spain (long layover.. it counts)
Rwanda
Uganda
Kenya
Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
China
Indonesia
And in a few weeks?
New York
Then finally.. Arizona
Almost 11 full months ago, L Squad followed through with a call to obedience. A call to travel the world sharing God’s word. I could probably write blogs for the rest of my life on the cultures, lessons, miracles, hardships, and relationships that were all cultivated over this year of my life.
Time is a blurry concept, it is stunning to me that just a month ago I was in China.. a country not originally on my route. We had the opportunity to attempt to cross the border from Hanoi, Vietnam into Nanning, China.. and the Lord provided.
We went to work preparing the copious documents necessary to obtain a Chinese Visa. We collected passport photos, train tickets, plane tickets, lodging itineraries, etc to turn into the embassy in hopes all 6 of us would be approved.
We woke up at 5AM, sat on the sidewalks until 8AM, and had everything turned in by 11AM. 3 days later, Aubrey walked out of the embassy with 6 passports approved for China in hand. The Lord provided.
His hand was in all of it from there on out. Whether it was the woman who spoke both English and Mandarin on our train ride that got us directions to our apartment upon arrival in Nanning, or the one Christian man we met in Guilin, who opened my eyes up to the completely incorrect worldview that I had been carrying around.. the Lords hand was always there.
We always had a place to sleep, a meal to eat, and a laugh over the very difficult language barrier. We reminisced (I use that word lightly) over our training camp fitness hike a year ago, as we trekked many times with our big packs on subways and through airports. We slept for 2 nights on a sleeper bus and found joy in peach tea at the convenience store. His hand was in it all.
And now I am in Indonesia. The last country of my own personal race. That is.. if you’re just counting the 11 months since I left Atlanta. But for me.. this is just month 11 of the hundreds of months left in the rest of my life.
My former teammate Taylor Flickinger said what I believe is in all of our hearts at this point:
“While I was journaling today I was thinking more about my mindset in this. This isn’t exactly a ministry I would choose, but really it’s a perfect ministry for transitioning back home. So far we’ve celebrated the end of Ramadan, gone surfing, and hung out a lot with our gay hosts/friends. Not typically what I would expect for “ministry.” Ramadan was basically just having a nice dinner at a friends place, surfing was because of a failed “ministry” attempt at playing beach volleyball, and the people we stay with definitely have different worldviews than us.
But as I think more about it, that’s what we are meant to be doing back home. With all of the chaos surrounding topics like abortion and gay marriage, we need to be spending time and showing love to the people on both sides without bias. Celebrating different holidays, laughing, worshipping, discussing different ideas and religions… it’s all part of this strange life we live, and as we all know, life is ministry and ministry is life. So maybe I should say this strange ministry we live.
That’s exactly what ministry becomes once we encounter the depth of Jesus’ love for others: strange. Basically we are hanging with today’s version of tax collectors, and I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. That’s what we have to be doing more when we get back home, too.
So my challenge currently is fully embracing this strange ministry we’ve got. I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts and experiences with God, and distancing myself in conversation when it turns to different topics.
Don’t be afraid to share what you believe, we aren’t meant to please everyone with our thoughts, but even just being with them and sharing a meal is loving people like we are meant to. In all that we should always have the hope and prayer that the Holy Spirit would really grip someone’s heart.”
Yes, I’m going back out on the field in August. But that doesn’t mean my race gets put on “pause” when I step on the plane and fly out of Indo to New York and onto Arizona. It just means that I will have the opportunity and privilege to bring Kingdom to the place my heart loves most, home.
I am still accepting donations for Alumni Squad Leading in August! Will you partner with me?
Love, Nico
