At the end of month 5, I receieved an email from Adventures saying that it was time to send my parents an invite join me on field for a week during month 9, if I chose to. Originally, month 9 for R squad was supposed to be in Thailand and I thought “Okay, my parents may come”, but true to World Race form of being flexible, our route ended up getting changed and we were told that parents week would come while we were in the Philippines.
This both excited me and made me nervous. I have visited the Philippines before on a college missions trip in 2010 and I fell in love with the country and people. I dreamed of going back someday, to visit the people I had gotten to know. Yet honestly, I never imagined I would actually go back, let alone have my parents potentially joining me for a week. That just doesn’t happen to me, or to my family.
With that all in mind, and with a leap a faith, I invited my parents to join me on field.
I wish I could say that I got an instant email back from my parents saying that they were coming, but I cannot. In fact, come parents week, my parents will be remaining where they are. Back at home in Canada “thawing out’ after a typical, cold Canadian winter. I, on the other hand, will be continuing to enjoy the heat of South East Asia.
And you know what?
I am okay with that!
As much as I DO want them here on field, serving God alongside one another, meeting my team and the people who have become my family over the last 7 months…I realized today that my motives for wanting them to come, were purely selfish of me.
I wanted them to come so they’d be able to ‘better understand” me when I get home in 4 short months. I wanted them here to meet my friends. I wanted here to show how I ‘come alive’ being overseas. I wanted them here so they could see my heart for the people. MY love and compassion. I wanted their hearts to be wrecked the way mine has been already.
Did you notice how many times I said “I” or “ME”?!?!?!?
7 months into the World Race and you’d think I would have learned by now that this trip is NOT about me, my team, squad or the people I am with.
It is about Jesus.
Wanting my parents to come and share in those things, isn’t bad. In fact, it is very good. Yet my heart wasn’t in the right place. The motives were wrong and I am thanking God that I am realizing His Grace in it now. I could choose to dwell negatively in the fact that they are not coming. I could be jealous of those whose parents ARE coming. I could even choose to ignore my parents for the rest of the race to ‘get them back’, but that all would be pointless, stupid and simply dumb. So mom, you can breathe easily now… 😉
Instead I am choosing to rejoice in the fact that God has been using me entirely in the last 7 months to build up, and strengthen my parents faith. Truly that has been the biggest blessing of this trip. It hasn’t been swimming in the oceans, seeing Mt. Everest, or Christmas in Thailand (although that has all been sweet). It has not been seeing (and being apart of) strangers becoming family. It also hasn’t been the crazy tuk tuk rides, the endlessly long bus, train, and plane rides. OR lugging a 45 lb bag, plus a 25 lb day pack, everywhere we go. The countless testimonies, late nights, team time, and debriefs have been good, but still not the best. Even still, it has not been the kids, ministries, or locals that I have met, and served at, through this journey (although this one is a very close second!)
It has been watching those back at home, grow in their faith through my journey with Jesus to the Nations.
Dad and mom, I am so proud of both of you. I am thankful that I truly have the best parents in the world. Thank you for raising me to know Jesus as my own personal saviour. Even when you didn’t know what to say or do, your love for me spoke volumes and your suppose has literally meant the world to me. God has blessed me incredibly, long before the race and long after.
Your growth in Jesus over the last 7 months, has blown my mind. Thank you for reminding me that one doesn’t have to be across the world to change the world…your changing the world right where you are. Seriously Altona, you are a blessed town simply because it has dad and mom Friesen living there, serving and loving the people like Jesus does! (Ps my dad loves kit kat bars and my mom loves Dr. Pepper if you want to say “Thanks!”)
Dad and mom, I will miss even more come parents week. Yet I know that, it will make stepping off that plane and seeing you there waiting for me, even more worth while and amazing.
Until then, keep rocking the world for Jesus right were you are!
Love you Both lots!
