We call ourselves “racers”, talk about giving each other “feedback” and mention some acronym in the middle of a sentence like you totally know what we mean. World Race life is filled with it’s own lingo and since we are coming home in less than two weeks I figured it would be good for all you peeps to have a guide that helps you to understand all the babble coming out of your racer’s mouth. Also, if you’re prepping for the race right now you can familiarize yourself with these terms so when your leadership team uses them you can hang with the best of them. So without further ado… “Stuff World Racers Say”
The basic structure of the World Race:
Squad – the entire group of people that you travel to the same 11 countries with, and each squad gets assigned a letter. AIM goes through the alphabet and then starts over again. There are now multiple generations of a particular squad letter. For example: we are 4th generation X squad
Team – within the squad you get split up into groups of 5-7 people, these are the folks that you do literally everything with during the month. Teams get assigned to specific ministry hosts in cities all throughout the country that the squad is in so you’re all spread out doing various things. Every squad has team changes at some point throughout their race, sometimes there’s only one team change and sometimes there can be up to three team changes within a squad. It totally just depends on your leadership team and how they think the squad will thrive. As X Squad, we only had one team change, but we also had different teams for MANistry month when our guys were on their own.
Ministry Host – essentially this is the person who oversees your ministry for the month. Sometimes it’s the pastor of a church, a member of a non-profit, or the head of a school. Seriously – this person’s role in the community could vary but at the end of the day they are the ones who know the needs and cultures of the surrounding people and how best to minister to them.
How we spend our time on the race:
Travel days – pretty self-explanatory, they are days where we travel.
Off days – these are so important. You can’t go 11 months and not have an off-day once a week. At the beginning of the Race I thought they were a bit overrated, but now I see burn-out is real. Off days are a time where you have NO obligations: no ministry, no team time, no feedback. You can spend the day processing whatever crazy things have been happening lately with the Lord, catching up on sleep, getting some wifi at a coffee shop to talk to folks back home or simply watching a movie with yourself. Tip if you’re a future World Racer: living in constant community can be hard so respecting people’s personal spaces on this day is super important.
Adventure days – sometimes you get these, sometimes you don’t. It depends on the ministry host that month. But when you do get them you can spend them doing something non-ministry related like going to a nearby tourist attraction, scouting out a new hiking place, finding good local food, etc.
Ministry days – These are the majority of your days on the Race. For five to six days a week, there is a minimum of 6 hours of required ministry. This looks different in every country and for every team. I’ve been a school teacher, backstage helper for a film festival, kid’s ministry worker, and just plain evangelist. Every day on the Race is different and every month is vastly different.
Roles within the squad (that have acronyms):
(Chain of command: SQM -> SQL -> TL -> Racer)
SQM: Squad Mentor – the person in charge of all-da-peeps for 4th gen X Squad this is TT (Teresa). She checks in with all of us and makes sure that we are all doing well and passionately pursuing Jesus. She also deals with a lot of our logistics and she visits us on the field for debriefs. Most SQM’s stay for just a few days but we are super lucky because our gurl TT usually stays with us for the month doing ministry with us, living life with us, and loving on us. She’s the bomb.
SQL: Squad leader – squads usually have 3-4 of them and for most squads Alumni SQL’s (meaning that they have done the race before) stay for the first 5 months. In month 4 new SQL’s are raised up from within the squad and trained by the Alumni SQL’s for a month. Those raised up squad leaders then remain in that position for the rest of the race. However, our SQL’s stayed all 11 months of our race because they are just that awesome!
TL: Team Leader – They lead the team and deal directly with ministry hosts to make plans for the month. They are there and make sure team time & feedback happen every ministry day. They also stay in super consistent communication with leadership to keep them in the loop on how everyone is doing and what is happening with the ministry.
Other Important Acronyms:
AIM – Adventures in Missions: the non-profit organization that the World Race operates under. Basically they are the head honchos and everything we do is because of the work they do.
WR – World Race: Nobody ever says this but you’ll see it typed a lot.
LDW – Leadership Development Weekend: this is an opportunity for people on the squad to rise up and lead. You’ll have different sessions led by fellow squad mates to give you an opportunity to learn from one another. The amount of LDW’s/when they happen varies from squad to squad, but for us these weekends took place at the beginning of: month 3, month 6 and month 11.
PSL – Project Searchlight: This happens a month after racers get home. It’s a time for the squad to get together and process how they are going through re-entry and just catch-up.
TC – Training Camp: This is what happens before you go on the race. You meet at the AIM base for a week to meet your squad, get split up into teams, learn more about life on the race, etc.
PVT – Parent Vision Trip: This usually takes place sometime between month 6 – month 8. Parents have an opportunity to come visit their kids for a week on the field and do ministry with them.
ATL – Ask The Lord: This one is pretty self-explanatory, you literally just ask the Lord where you should go and/or what we should do that day and go where He leads. Sometimes it works out and you see incredible fruit and sometimes nothing happens, but you just have to keep stepping out in faith and trusting the Lord to lay things on your heart.
THP – There Here Path: These are things that you want to spiritually and practically grow in over a specific period of time. Basically you have your here: where you are right now and your there: where you want to be so you make a path: reachable goals to get to your there. You will do this a lot as the race goes on making different THP’s for each month or for the next three months. Sometimes they are individual THP’s, but you will also have Squad THP’s that you all participate in together.
World Race Lingo:
Launch – This lasts 3-4 days and is filled with sessions to prep you for leaving and some time to say goodbye to your parents. Then you jump on a plane with your squad to leave the country for 11 months – woo hoo!
Debrief – You will have 4 of these throughout the race, at the end of: month 1, month 4, month 6, and month 8. These usually last 3 days, and it’s a time for you to come together as a squad to debrief with your leadership team as team units, go to sessions that are targeted towards growth in an area that your leadership feels you are lacking in, and worship together as a full unit.
Final Debrief – A more extended version of debriefs with an emphasis on re-entry. This takes place for 5 days at the end of month 11 right before the squad heads home.
All squad month – A month where your whole squad stays together in the same building but you’re still assigned to different ministries within a reasonable radius of where you’re living. This month is also chalked full of sessions from your leadership team that help fuel you for the rest of the race. This usually takes place in month 2 or 3 – for our Squad this was in Romania in month 2.
Awakening – A gathering of multiple squads who were launched at different times and are in the same region of the world at the same time. They come together to worship, attend sessions held by AIM staff, meet new faces of people on a similar journey, and share wisdom with one another. For us this happened in between month 6 and 7, and we had it in Cambodia. All the squads who attended were in parts of South-east Asia.
Team time – As a Racer you will do this everyday, this is a time set aside for you guys as a team to bond over silly stuff, serious stuff and everything in between. Most teams take this and use it as a rotation system giving each team member a team time to spend doing whatever they choose. You can play games, write encouraging notes to each other, dance, etc.
Conversation – Normally this just means a normal conversation, but in the WR world it’s a space that racers get before team time to talk about what the Lord has been teaching them or discuss things that they want to process with the whole team present. I’ve also heard this referred to as “God Talk”.
Feedback – You’ll probably hear this one a lot. AIM incorporates feedback into daily life with your teams and create a space for people to give encouraging or constructive feedback so you can grow as individuals. The heart behind this is that NONE of us are perfect people – we all have blindspots and feedback creates a safe space for folks to share with each other. Feedback is never meant to be shared from a place of frustration or anger, but always meant to be taken to the Lord first and your fellow believer second. Regardless of what feedback you get, you have an opportunity to take it to the Lord and figure out what you should take away from it. Feedback is essential for growth, it’s a system that keeps you accountable for your actions, encourages you in what you are doing right and pushes you to look more like Jesus all the time. (Side note: it’s my favorite thing I’ve learned on the WR)
Journey Markers – weekly devotionals that you as an individual fill out for your leadership team to keep them updated with your journey.
Coaches – Each squad gets a wonderful married couple, usually the parent of a previous racer, sometimes racers refer to them as “World Race parents”. They attend 4 out of 5 debriefs and love on you whenever they can.
Treasurer – The person who deals with all the moo-lah. They are in charge of making sure we are fed, housed, clean, and don’t die in the transportation process of day to day life. Seriously they keep you all alive. They also have the incredible pleasure of filing all of the moo-law related events constantly to ensure that donors dollars can remain tax-deductible. A big round of applause for these folks – if your racer was one buy them a pretty present as they return home – they deserve it.
Storyteller – Makes sure you write your blogs and encourages people on the team with creative new blog ideas to make the whole process more fun.
Route change – When the original route that you signed up for gets changed for some reason. I.E. you were supposed to go to Jamaica but now your squad is going to Haiti. Usually this happens because there is a security risk in the country you were supposed to be headed to or there is a lack of ministry/a greater need in a different country than expected. This happened 8 times to us… that usually doesn’t happen, they like to say that we are “a squad entrusted with change” – it’s so true. But we’re thankful for all the change!
The Log – The World Race bible, you can look up any location you are going to and it will give you all kinds of tips on where to go, what to eat, and how to best minister to the people in that area. TL’s and treasurers use this more than anyone else but it’s handy to all racers who want to know what’s coming up next. As you leave you fill out the Log based on any new experiences you had with your team to help whoever comes behind you.
MANinstry month – All the guys on the squad spend the whole month together as one large team doing ministry. Not every squad gets this opportunity, but if you do AND you are on a co-ed team, your team gets split in half and the girl counter-parts get put together to make the team numbers still the same. I.E. in my case the three girls of team Paradosis got put with the three girls who were part of team Atlas, make sense? Good.
Re-entry – The process that missionaries go through when coming back from the field. Re-entry is usually filled with a lot of culture shock and requires a lot of adjustment for a racer. They are going from living in constant community with people who have been going through the same thing to being with folks they haven’t seen in almost a year. They are adjusting to being able to drive a car, going to the grocery store to get anything they could possibly imagine, having a functioning cell phone and simply living in America again. It’s a lot – they will probably hit moments of frustration. Give grace when you need to, and don’t be afraid to correct them when they are wrong.
Spiritual lingo we use:
Calling you higher/Speaking the truth in love – Both phrases commonly used when giving feedback. Essentially AIM just wants you to look more like Jesus so they’re probably not going to be afraid to point out when your actions don’t exemplify Christ. Most Racers expect you to do the same to them when they mess up. World Racers live in a culture of honor, and honoring one another means telling each other when you see the good and the bad.
Victim circle – The situation in which you constantly view yourself as the victim, thinking that there is nothing you have contributed to whatever situation is making you upset or angry. You can get in the victim-circle mindset by thinking there is nothing you can do to help the situation. Instead you simply blame all circumstances on others.
Listening prayer – You listen to what the Lord has to say to you. Prayer so often becomes us talking to God and never listening to His voice or His word. He does speak and we have the ability to pause and hear if we want to. My biggest tip: you will never hear anything that contradicts His word, bring EVERYTHING back to scripture – it is the foundation of everything.
Freedom V – The freedom V is the idea that you start off with little freedom in life but as you grow your freedom expands. However, as individuals, you get to choose how much freedom you take advantage of. This is similar to the idea Paul talks about when he says “Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial.” Instead of choosing absolute freedom, you draw your own V inside the larger freedom V you have been given and you self-govern yourself.
False self – Your false self is the identity that you have picked up because the enemy has told you it’s the person you are. It’s a fake shell of a person who walks in shame and doesn’t allow themselves to be vulnerable with the people around them. It’s who we put on when we are at our most wounded and often times it’s where we stay because we have a great fear of man. But this is never who God meant for us to be.
System 1 thinking – System 1 thinking is your gut reaction to any given situation. It’s when you respond too quickly and too rashly. Almost always this reaction is based in the flesh and not in the Spirit.
System 2 thinking – System 2 thinking is the state of mind that you reach when you have given yourself time to think things through. You have had time to calm down and assess the situation with sound logic and not clouded emotion. This is the system we aim to operate in when we respond to anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Holy Spirit Pauses – These are essential for life. You need to pause and instead of reacting immediately to something, let the Holy Spirit lead you in how you should respond. This can look different for everyone but for me James 3:17-18 is what I recite in my head when I pause – “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
Spiritual Warfare – There is a spiritual realm and it is not just filled with the Lord – it is filled with evil as well. The enemy is on the prowl and he does not stop attacking you just because you are following Jesus. If anything he is attacking you more because you are following Jesus. He fills your mind with lies and sometimes he even fills the earth with his spirits and demons. In my experience the enemy attacks differently based on his environments: In America he attacks us with various things such as enticing images, temporary highs and money. But in Africa he attacks with false prophets, voodoo doctors, and straight-up demon possession. Sometimes spiritual warfare can also come in the form of night terrors, dis-unity among fellow believers, and sickness.
I wish you all the best as you engage in conversation with your racers or as you take off for the World Race – both are going to be great!
All the love and the lingo,
Shannon
