Sitting here in my comfortable chair, in my room, in Mississippi, in the United States I have a lot of thoughts flooding through my head.
How great the WiFi is. How huge and wonderful my bed is. The fact that there’s a refrigerator with endless (sorta) supplies of food. That I can go to and fro as I wish. That I can drive. But I’m also thinking about the Race that just ended.
Little things that I went through here and there. The fun times I had. The hard times I had. The time I had acute amoebic dysentery, or the time I was surrounded by Nepalese men at a city park. Maybe even the time I got to see people healed in India, or getting to hike a mountain to show people in a remote Panamanian village a Christian movie. Or the time the 3 hour hike in Nepal took 9 hours. Getting to meet Indonesian plantation workers in the jungles of Malaysia. The squad I love and the contacts I will always cherish. Thinking about it all I just can’t help but feel thankful.
Thankful to my contacts throughout the world for teaching me new things every month. Maybe to step out of my comfort zone in Panama and Thailand. To find my voice in Cambodia and Nepal. How to search for God and hear Him in Botswana. How to be bold in the Spirit in South Africa. The meaning and reach of community in India. How to really love on kids in almost every country. Each of them has become a new family member to me. Some more like crazy (but awesome) aunts and uncles. But others like second parents (looking at you Danny and Heather!) Others still are like strong brothers and sisters (Can’t forget you, Sam the taco lover). I couldn’t have done this journey without them. And wouldn’t have wanted to do it with any other group of people.
I’m thankful to my squad. There are few more upstanding individuals in the world today. They have loved me so well. They trusted Kyle and I to lead them into crazy situations all over the world, and I can’t ever thank them enough for that. That trust has meant the world to me. But more than that they provided a place for me to be more vulnerable and honest with myself than I ever would have. Letting me lay it all out. But then growing and challenging me to become a better person through it all. Pushing me closer and closer to God. Praying for me in the hard times. Then letting me do the same for them.
I love them to death. It’d be hard not to. It has been a great honor to travel this world with them. So I’m not only thankful to them, but thankful for them. This would not have been the year it was without them. There is no substitute.
Above all I’m thankful to God. I don’t know how often you just sit down and thank God for stuff, but I’m fairly certain He has earned that formality in spades.
Most people think that this trip was a mission trip. A trip where you go and do good for the people of the world in the name of Jesus. However that looks in those places. Sure we did do those things, but that’s not what this trip was all about. This trip was about us as individuals. We went out on a journey so God could show us things that He never could have shown us personally back in the States. So He could disciple us. For us, we had to go out to the far reaches of the world to hear what God wanted of us. How He wanted to mold us and shape us. How He wanted to challenge us. I’m thankful to God for that opportunity.
I’m thankful that He didn’t spare me a thing. The heartbreak at some of the people’s situations that we met. That He drug me through tough self evaluation. Through painful growth. That He didn’t let me bow out or give up. That He spurred me on. That He didn’t bow out or give up on ME. That I was worth enough to Him that He would spend the time (a lot of it, I can tell you) necessary on me to bring me where I needed to be. Guys, that’s worthy of thanks.
I’ve traveled all the way around the world. Seen beauty unparalleled in 11 different countries. Seen cultures and history far different from my own. Eaten delicious food… And food not so delicious. Met incredible people with amazing testimonies. People who are nothing short of heroic warriors for the Kingdom. Met broken people. Hurting people. Seen poverty incomparable. Seen love in action. Danced local dances. Learned bits of languages from 11 different countries. Taken just about every transport imaginable. Including an elephant. Had adventures that make things on TV look childish.
And I met God through all of it.
As the curtain falls on this season of mine, I can’t help but feel like I need to grieve it. Like I don’t want to move on. Wishing I could travel the world with W squad forever. But there’d be no fruit in that. It’s worthless for a disciple to stay a disciple forever. At some point that disciple has to go out and tackle whatever is next. God made disciples out of all of us this past year. Now He’s turning us loose on the world. And under His guidance He’s going to lead us on our next adventure.
Thank you so much for your support and for taking the time to read all of my posts. I know there’s a ton. It means more than you could ever know. You giving a little money, or a little time to pray has impacted my life tremendously. Without you I never would’ve become the man I am today. And wouldn’t be set up to do even better things for the Kingdom of God. I may have done the traveling, but you got me there.
With that, I say goodbye to the season I had on the World Race. As I close that door, I turn and open another on whatever God has next for me. I might not get amoebas (seriously guys, that was horrible), dive with great white sharks, play with African kids, or preach in a Cambodian church in this next season but whatever I do I know God has it all planned out.
And that’s really all I need.
Charging headlong into the next adventure,
Seth
