At some point in life we all need to ask, “If you could do anything in life, what would it be?” As AIM’s Executive Director Seth Barnes says, “The World Race can help with part of the equation – it wrecks its participants for small dreams, but then what?” Hundreds of racers are getting off the field every year and wondering how to make practical everything they’ve learned. So, Barnes’ dreamed up a two week conference designed to answer that question – Project Searchlight was born. Jennifer Denman finished the World Race in November 2009 and returned to Georgia in 2010, to be a part of Project Searchlight. The participants are currently staying with a family who opened up their ranch to them. She shares her experience below.
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There are 14 of us; it seems quite small compared to the 52 that I am used to being a part of. All but one is an H-squad alum – yet Helen doesn’t feel like an outsider. She’s one of us. We are a different breed, I think. We seem to thrive in a different culture. Not how America is a different culture than Thailand. It’s more of a difference of lifestyle that others just don’t seem to understand, but we all do. We understand each other perfectly. We’ve been apart for just over a month but it seems longer. Yet looking around the circle we found ourselves in this morning everything felt so normal, so familiar. I looked across the room at Benny; I know his favorite ice cream and his obsession with hot chocolate and how much he loves to be on rooftops. Straight in front of me is Rachel, who makes me smile from the inside out because of her larger than life personality and how excited she gets when God gives her hearts. Mel sits beside, like she did all year…and that seems so comfortable. Despite not being on the race anymore…simply being in the same room with them feels safe. It’s like a breath of fresh air.
Seth tells us what our next exercise is going to be and I realize I not only know the food preferences and personal habits of these people I am surrounded by; I also know their hearts. He says, “We’re going to go around and I want you tell me something or someone you saw this past year that ‘tweaked’ you…something that made you think to yourself ‘that is just not right'”. None of us knows what is about to happen. No one knows just how powerful 14 (plus a few extra) stories would be when told one after the other. One by one, we lamented the injustice of the children we saw in orphanages, some with not even the ability to get out of bed. A couple girls shared a story of watching a 19 year old African girl die of AIDS. There was a story of a street kid named Hueso who captured the hearts of an entire squad…yet, that squad had to eventually leave and go on to the next country, and yet believe that the love that was shown to him was enough to save him from a life on the streets. A story of children and families living literally on a garbage dump… one after the other…
The atmosphere in the room began to thicken. It began to weigh heavily on us as we recounted everything that we had seen this past year…all the needs, the injustices, all the faces, all the names that had stayed with us and most probably always will. By the time we got around the circle, most of the room was in tears. Mel, half-heartedly joked that we could have gone around a dozen more times and told a dozen more stories about all that we had seen…but the thing is, that is very true, we could have.
Over come with emotion and very much feeling the shift in direction, Seth, struggling to even speak, thinks it would be a good idea to just pray for all of these people by name…one by one. And so we do. With tear stained cheeks and blood shot eyes we all look up after some time in prayer, having cried out to God to be the Comforter and Great Physician and Provider to each one.
Fast forward to the evening…we are all sitting comfortably in the house and our “house dad”, Jeff, stands to make an announcement. Sometime in the evening, Seth has shared with him the stories of the day and how impactful the time was for us. Obviously this has touched Jeff greatly and even given him an idea. Realizing that we all have stories to tell…stories of how Jesus is very real and present even in the most painful of circumstances and stories of how coming in contact with the hurting and poor of the world has changed us…he wants to give us all a chance to tell our story.
Now he doesn’t want to take us out to dinner with he and his wife and hear about our trip, or sign up to receive our blogs…he wants to invite each one of us, one at a time, to be a part of putting his children to bed. He wants His children to hear stories about the compassion of Jesus, the love of Christ and the healing powers of God! What an amazing and humbling idea. And actually, what an honor! So, for the next two weeks- Brittney, Brooks and Bennett will fall into slumber with the words of missionaries running through their heads. My prayer is that their dreams will be filled with visions of themselves doing signs and wonders all over the world in the name of Jesus. Who knows, maybe this will be the time in their lives that God plants the seed of a dream that they will one day walk out as a mighty woman or man of God!! So, our experiences on the World Race will be for the next two weeks bed time stories. But they are more than stories, they are testimonies. Powerful re-telling of encounters that changed our lives, and the mere act of sharing them will change others as well. Tonight as I a fall asleep I think my mind will be full of faces and names and experiences…I don’t know how I will choose just one when it is my turn to put the kids to bed.
