The community we’ve built within our World Race team is beautiful. But it wasn’t easy. We’ve had to work hard for it.
There are some tools our leaders gave us to encourage healthy community and help each other grow closer to the Lord. The Race was preparation for the rest of my life; not a one-time event that I just had to ‘survive’ and then move on from. It was a year of the Lord transforming me into the woman He created me to be. So I want to continue using these tools when I get back to America.
1) One-on-Ones: This means we have set aside time to spend with an individual person on the team to talk about anything. Examples are your testimony, favorite music, what the Lord is teaching you this week, etc. You can just sit and talk, or you can do a fun activity together.
Incorporating back home- Having individual time with each of my family members, friends, and church family on a weekly basis. This could mean going out to eat together, having a conversation on the front porch, getting coffee together, taking a walk together, or any other activity to spend time together and get to know that person on a deeper level. I’ll try to do a few of these per week.
2) Team Time: This is a daily group activity that we all do together. Examples include watching a movie together, playing card games, studying the Bible together, giving space for vulnerability, sharing what God is teaching us that week, worshipping together…the possibilities are endless. It is simply intentional time spent together as a whole group. We take turns picking which activity we do.
Incorporating back home- I plan to do this with my family. It can be pretty much the same thing as it was on the Race, and we can take turns choosing the activity…watching a movie together, playing board games or card games, sharing a devotional together, eating a meal together, worshipping together, cooking together, etc. I’m really excited to do this with my family this coming year!!! And hopefully we will be able to do it every day.
3) Feedback: My team leaves the floor open for feedback on a daily basis. This just means that someone can say a positive or constructive comment to another person if they wish. The whole point of feedback is to help that person grow into the person God created them to be. For example, someone might say, “Rachel, you did an amazing job teaching the story of Daniel to the kids today. They really paid attention to you.” And for constructive feedback, someone might say, “Rachel, maybe tomorrow you could try teaching the kids a few songs to go with the story. That might help them understand even more.” Feedback was really REALLY hard for me at the beginning of the Race. Not receiving feedback…I’ve loved receiving feedback since day 1. But giving feedback was the hard part for me. My natural ‘peacemaker’ instincts hated it, because I knew if I said something that wasn’t clearly positive, I was at risk for hurting someone’s feelings. It took a lot of prayer and practice for me to finally understand the full purpose of feedback, which is to help that person grow closer to the Lord. So once I fully understood this, I was better able to put aside my comfort and say hard things to people in order to help them grow. Communication was really lacking in my life prior to the Race, and I now know that this is one of the reasons God led me to this journey, because He has shaped me into a much better communicator through things like feedback and vulnerability.
Incorporating back home- If someone says something that hurts my feelings, I’m going to tell them and not stuff it inside, which creates resentment and bitterness. I want to constantly be giving feedback to people at work and people at home, words of encouragement and empowerment. Words that will inspire them to draw closer to the Lord and seek His face.
4) C&C’s: This stands for “Challenges & Celebrations,” which we did on a weekly basis. It usually was about 3-5 questions emailed to us that we would answer and then send back to our team leader. It gives her and our other leaders back in Atlanta a good idea of what’s happening with us each week.
Incorporating back home- I would love to be constantly sharing challenges that we experience while at work or wherever, and of course the celebrations, or the good things, that happen as well. Speaking these types of things out is really good to give glory to God for the good things He’s doing, and also to help deal with difficult things we experience. This doesn’t have to be typed out, but it would be great to have a weekly (if not daily) conversation about challenges and celebrations with my family and whoever else would like to participate.
5) Ministry: This has looked different for me the entire Race. We’ve done everything, from teaching English to hard labor and construction.
Incorporating back home- The coolest ministry in my opinion is ATL, Ask The Lord, which we did in Malaysia. With this ministry you just ask the Lord what He wants you to do with your time, who He wants you to talk to, where He wants you to go, etc. And for right now, ATL is the ministry I will be doing when I get home. Back home this could look like conversations in Walmart, talking to a stranger at the mall, going on a prayer walk, meeting people at the gym, visiting the nursing home, sending an encouraging Facebook message to someone, taking a balloon to someone at the hospital, and more…the possibilities are endless. Nothing is impossible with God!!
Well, there’s some of what I’ve been doing and plan to do when I get home!! Thanks for reading!!! If you would like more information about any of these tools or want to participate in them with me, please let me know!! All are welcome!! God bless, Rachel
