8/2/20
None of us wanted to leave the Shaws’ house and that’s ok. We knew we would miss them greatly after the wonderful weeks we had together. It was such a blessing to have the opportunity for an entire squad to get to know their coaches in a capacity that other squads don’t. It’s a blessing to have that first taste of what community living can look like. It’s a blessing to see what happens when you stuff 15 people into a house together.
I’ll tell you first off that everyone has to buy into it and be willing to compromise and sacrifice and do their share. The blessings are incredible when you learn to love one another in that capacity in the US, because that is not at all the norm here. But if that can be the norm other places, it certainly makes sense to me that it can work and be wonderful and amazing and full of blessings here in the US too.
Anyway, I learned a lot from living with Randy and Dawnette for the months I was there and the weeks I spent with my whole squad there.
And that is why it was hard to leave. It’s hard to think that something so radical in the US, that this kind of radical community living and loving can exist in more than one way and more than one place, but it certainly can.
That’s what we learned when we left the Shaws’ house.
We learned to trust the Lord’s provision because He has great plans for our time here on the race.
I know we were all a little worried about it as we got ready to leave the Shaws’. The unknown is frightening. And I won’t deny I was a little intimidated by the work schedule of 9am to 5pm with an hour drive to and from our host home where we were staying every day. That schedule doesn’t leave much time for free time. But, on the bright side, we were only scheduled to be there for a week.
But let me tell you, in the end we all wanted more days at that new ministry. God provided for us so big there.
We served a ministry called Reclaim Ministries. Their goal is to revive men’s hearts by taking them back to their roots in the wilderness and spending real time sharing stories and getting to know each other and learning how to really feel together.
They’re a rather new ministry with an incredible story of God’s provision of getting land for their ministry and their families to live on. They haven’t been around too long, but the stories are already incredible. Men’s hearts have been redeemed. And they have dreams of making their ministry better and more accesible.
So, what they needed help with was building bunk beds.
But even before we got there it was clear how much they cared about us as people and not as hands for achieving a goal of work. They wanted to feed us. We didn’t know what that meant, but any time we don’t have to do the cooking it’s a blessing. And the first thing they greeted us with when we got there was saying that the work was secondary and relationships were the primary concern and goal of our time being there with them. They wanted to know us. They wanted to know our hearts. They wanted to serve us as we came there to serve them.
And let me tell you the food was beyond our dreams. We had a schmorgousboard of food for dinner every night and sandwiches with no limit on the lunch meat. You really don’t know how big a deal that is if you’ve never lived on a World Race budget in another country.
The men we worked with came with patience and a desire to teach all of us how to use the power tools, and hearts for grace and forgiveness whenever a mistake was made. There was no expectation for perfection but instead for teaching, learning, and team work.
We built 19 beds in double and triple-decker bunk beds that can be used for years and years to come by this wonderful, Christ-centered ministry.
And I believe we learned our lesson about being willing to move into the next season that God has planned for us. He showed us that He knows whats coming, knows what we needs, and knows what true blessings beyond our wildest dreams look like. He gave us relationships we will never forget with the people we served at Reclaim Ministries and skills we can use who knows when in the future.
Always be ready for the next adventure, friends. Always be ready for the next blessing. Always be ready to trust. Always be ready to let go and let God. You never know what’s coming around the bend.
