Over the last year, your World Racer has learned to do things a little differently. They have lived with less things, more people, and immersed in 11 different cultures. When they come back to you, it may take some time to get used to the new version of them.
One of the many things that has changed is their vocabulary. In an effort to help you learn some of their new language, here is a list of 11 things you might hear from your returning World Racer.
1. No, I haven’t showered in 3 days. What’s the big deal?
Every day showers weren’t a super high priority on most of our daily to-do lists. The same may or may not be true when we come home.
2. Are you sure we can drink the tap water?
We’ve spent the last year fearing bacteria ridden tap water. Drinking from the tap is a foreign concept. Please understand if we’re a little hesitant. Don’t worry, we’ll come around quickly.
3. When I was in [insert country here]…
We have a lot of memories. Our life for the last year has been a series of countries, not months. Forgive us when we refer to October as Rwanda or January as Nepal. And please bear with us as we tell you countless stories of our time on the field.
4. Have you given them feedback yet?
We have a culture of feedback on the World Race. It is our way of calling each other higher and into the people God created us to be. We’ve grown accustomed to saying the hard things and encouraging one another often. The way we communicate is completely different (and a lot more healthy) than when we left.
5. Press in, lean in and/or choose in.
These are some of those Adventures in Missions-isms that have seeped their way into our normal verbiage. Most of the time we’re not even going to realize when we’ve said one of these. Again, please bear with us.
6. “How are you doing, like, really?”
Another Adventures in Missions-ism. We want to know how you’re doing on more than the surface level.
7. Have you processed that yet?
We. Process. Everything. We process the day, the month, the new thing the Lord is teaching us, the big decision we have to make, the small decision we already made, and everything in between. We want to invite you to process what is happening in your life too. Yay!
8. This shirt isn’t dirty, I’ve only worn it 3 times!
Our standard of cleanliness has drastically declined. Think of it as helping the environment since we’ll be doing so much less laundry.
9. There’s only 5 people in this car? We can fit at least 5 more!
We’re used to squeezing 27 people into a 12 passenger taxi van or 8 people in the bed of a small pick up with room to spare. 10 people in a mid-sized sedan should be easy as pie – there’s even trunk space!
10. I had a solid poop today!
It’s basically a World Race norm to talk about poop. You’ll get used to it. Or, you’ll forever be grossed out. Either is okay with us.
11. I have no idea what I’m doing next.
Some of us may know what we’re doing next, while many of us do not. Our ideas about what is important in life and what we place the most priority on have shifted quite a bit this year. So if we don’t go home and get a job right away, don’t be too surprised. If we decide to go back out on the field, support our decision. If we decide to do something else that doesn’t make sense to you (like I’m sure the World Race didn’t), trust us. Know that what we value above all else is intimacy with our Father and following His plan for our lives, even if it looks different than what you or we think it should be.
So yes, we’ve changed a lot. We say new and sometimes weird things. Our outlook on life has changed. Our values have changed. This year has been about us growing into the men and women that you have all prayed for us to become since we were born. We live more, we love more, and we see the world differently now.
As we transition home, we ask one thing of you: please be gracious. Coming home is so exciting – we’ve missed you so much! But it’s also scary. We don’t quite know how to put into words all the things we’ve learned and experienced this year. We don’t know what home is going to look like. We don’t know how our new selves will fit back in with our old lives.
Please be gracious with our ups and downs as we navigate life back in the United States (or Canada). Sometimes we’ll be great. Sometimes we might be emotional. Sometimes we might be frustrated or confused. Sometimes we’ll want to lock ourselves in our room all day. There will be times when we don’t understand you. There will be some days when you don’t understand us. We want to understand you, and we want to help you understand us. That takes time.
And our promise to you is that we will be gracious too. We’ll be gracious when you don’t know what to say. We’ll be gracious if you say the wrong thing. We’ll be gracious if you push us to do something we’re not ready to do. We’ll be gracious as you learn how to interact with us too.
We really are all in this together. We love you and we know that you love us. Yes, things are going to look a little different than a year ago. We can’t wait to share all the incredible things the Lord has done in and through us. None of us would be here with y’all anyway. It’s a crazy time in our lives, and we’re thankful that you will be there to figure it all out with us.
So from World Racers to you: We are so excited to be home. We love you. And we’ll see you soon!
BONUS: These are specific to Z-Squad, so I didn’t want to include them in the main list.
12. What are the odds…?
This is a game we play where we try to get each other to do ridiculous things. Here’s an example that happened recently with my dad after I taught him how to play.
Me: What are the odds you don’t shave your beard for one year?
Dad: 1 in 10 (Dad chose ten. You can choose whatever number you’d like, corresponding to how much or how little you want to do whatever it is).
(we count down. 1…2…3…)
Me and Dad: SEVEN!
Since we said the same number, dad lost and now he can’t shave his beard until June 23, 2017. If we had said different numbers, he would have won and he could have shaved his beard.
We’ll explain more when we get home.
13. Boop.
This is something that is said to someone when they are being just precious little darlings. So if I tap you on the nose and say “boop boop” or if I say “you’re so boopable,” fear not, it’s a compliment. Thanks to Hannah Henderson (she’s squad leading in October, click on the link to support her!) for spreading that like wildfire.
