On the race, community looks so different than back home. The people on my team are my everything. They are the people I go to when I’m happy, when I’m sad, I get angry with them and I love them to pieces. I go to ministry with them, I go to bed with them, I literally am not allowed to go anywhere without them. I have never developed such deep relationships with people so quickly as I have with my team mates.
At least once a week, we talk about our community together and how we function. We have discussed our personality types, we talk about how we feel and give love, how we like to be encouraged, and pretty much anything we can think of to share with each other. I sit in our living room right now with one team mate washing his (awfully dirty) shoes with a toothbrush and toothpaste (provided by yours truly) and another just hanging out and making jokes. One is currently sleeping (as per the usual, love ya dude) and our fearless team leader doing her daily devotions and journaling. I have built such a sweet community with these people and I am blessed to call them my family. I know that should anything happen in my life, whether now or in five years, I can call any one of them and they will do everything they can to help me.
Community means different things to different people, so I asked my team mates what they view community as, specifically on the race.
Courtney: I love community because I love the sibling hood that comes out of the race and if you need to go to someone to cry with, they are there. If you need to laugh with, they are there. We look past each others differences and love each other. We are a family and because you go through everything together it makes things sweeter and there is a bond that is formed 🙂
Rodrigo: Community to me is a beautiful and wonderful thing. Community is very different. It almost was easier to connect to everybody on the race. We are all here for the same reason, and with the lord in the middle of all relationships, everything has been sweeter and deeper.
Keia – Community means having your group of people that walk through life with you and they are in the valleys with you, the mountains with you, just people who can be your people and you can grow with in the Lord.
Nick – Community means getting to know people, wanting to know people, and people wanting to know things about me. It means getting to know each other as well as growing in the Lord and learning about faith and life with the people around you,.
Community to me means love at its best. We call each other higher into being better people and believers. We support each other, we are always there for each other, and I am always constantly loved and supported by each and every one of my teammates and squad mates. I know that if there is something for me to grow in, they will tell me. I will be held to a higher standard by them, and I in turn hold them to the same standard. We push each other to grow and get deeper with everything. We push each other to be bold and outspoken about what we believe and who we are as believers. We are here to serve others, both in ministry and in our team. We act like goofballs together, we take awful pictures of each other that should never be shown to anyone ever, and we always find some way to bring joy and laughter into every situation.
We are all here for the same reason, we all have the same mission, and we all have been through such similar experiences that we can understand each other on such a deep level. I know that community is what I am most thankful for on this race. Before I left home, there was almost nothing I valued as much as time alone, completely by myself. Sure, I loved being with people, but I would get worn out very quickly because I am such an introvert. This made the first few weeks of the race really hard for me,. We aren’t allowed to be alone at all, and I struggled with having time with the Lord and to process things. What I learned was that I didn’t need to be truly alone or anything like I was used to back home, and to embrace the new community I am finding in my team. Now, I thrive in my team. I don’t like being completely alone, and I honestly don’t know how I am going to survive when I get home and actually have my own room, all alone.
I know I can never have community exactly like the race again, but I am so glad that this trip and the Lord has shown me how special and different community can be in different groups and with different people. I am so glad to be doing life with the wonderful people on my team, and I would not trade any of them for the world. I truly see each and every one as my sibling, and I know I will be friends with them for so long.
Courtney is one of the sweetest people I know, and I am confident that if I ever need anything, she is there to help in whatever way she can. Keia is such a bold and deep believer and constantly pushes us to go deeper with our bible studies and has such grace and wisdom in going through life. Rodrigo has such a big heart for others, and though he may grumble and complain about it, will go out of his way to help and bless anyone around him. Nick has the biggest heart for giving I have ever seen, and constantly gives his things up for other people if they need or just want something. We all bring such special and unique things to our team, and even though we have only been together for about a month, I have already learned and grown so much from being around them. I am so thankful for the family I have with them, and I love my team of goofballs dearly.
Push into the community you are around. Love them with everything you have. There is nothing as sweet as the relationships you build with those around you.
