Dear Future Racer about to Launch,
I may not know exactly how you are feeling, but I think I have a pretty good guess! You are about to embark on a huge life changing adventure, and I am so excited for you!
Please remember that these next 11 months are going to be amazing, but at the same time they are going to be hard. There are times you will want to quit, where the race life doesn’t seem great anymore. Don’t give up though, let the Lord build you back up again, lean into him and lean into your community.
Race life is hard to get use to. Your first few months are all about figuring out what this life looks like for you. It can get overwhelming at times, from ministry, to team time, feedback, debriefing, check-ins and journey markers, plus all the other things your SQM or SQLs would like your squad to do. Living up to ‘expectations’ and getting everything right can lead to some stress, but here is a tip, there is no way to do the race right.
Your race is your race and you will come out with whatever you put into it. I am entering into Month 8 and I still don’t have it all figured out, every month looks different, but here is some advice I would give to myself if I were to Launch again.
- Bring clothes that you are going to feel yourself in. Bring a nice shirt, a skirt and jeans. If you don’t bring the jeans you will regret it, you can only wear athletic clothes so many times in a row.
- Enjoy your showers, enjoy that your shower is completely separated from the rest of the bathroom, enjoy the water pressure, enjoy the warmth and enjoy the dry floor. Enjoy your bed with real blankets! Really enjoy all the blessings that home brings!
- Enjoy the freedom of going wherever you want to, when you want to. Take your car for one last joy ride and blast the music!
- Be intentional with your team, every single individual. This may seem obvious, but it is so easy to just live life along side of these 6 or 7 other individuals. Get to know them all, open up and be vulnerable. These are the people that will love you no matter what. Believe it or not your leadership team put you with people that you will grow with even if you can’t see that now.
- Give the hard feedback, it may seem easier to just live together without giving this feedback, but it is not. It is not healthy to keep things in when you live in such close community. It took me 3 months to give the hard feedback and life got so much easier after I let it all out one night. Giving it sooner can also save you from having way too long of team times.
- Debriefs, utilize this time to spend some time with your friends that are not on your team. Ask them how their month was and have some fun with them. You have all month to spend time with the people that are on your team, make time to get to know your other squadmates. Also REST, this is your time to sit back and relax, there might be so many things you want to do, but remember resting is important. Going into your next ministry rested is important. This took me until month 6 debrief to realize!
- It is okay to not be okay. You don’t have to have it all together. You don’t have to be the perfect Christian. Nobody is perfect, everybody has their struggles and if you share that you are struggling, you may just realize that you are not alone.
Most importantly enjoy every moment! The days are long, but the months go by fast and before you know it you will be receiving your flight information about going home!
I can’t believe I stood where you are all standing only 7 months ago. I have seen and experienced so much since then and most importantly I have experienced God in so many amazing ways!
Dig in deep and enjoy the ride, I am so excited for you to begin this journey!
Let the Lord transform you!
Lots of love,
Month 8 Racer Quinn
