In her time in Rwanda, Kegan Nall of 2014 L Squad learned a hard reality of life on the World Race: you only get one month to love people well.
Leaving for the Race, I prepared myself for several good-byes. You only get to stay in each place for a month, so I knew that goodbyes would be inevitable. I thought saying goodbye to my family, friends, co-workers, and church would be enough practice for what I’m experiencing now.
But it still hurts every single time.
Sometimes the weight of goodbye seems a little too much.
This morning was no different for me. I said goodbye to Pastor George and his wife, Venny. We had to tell their six beautiful children goodbye through tears and hugs. It hurt miserably to tell our translator, Deo, goodbye. The truth is, I may never see these people again. And that makes my heart hurt in a way I didn’t know was possible.
It also changes how I love, because I only get one month to love people like crazy.
I only get one month to forgive people for staring at me because my teammates and I are the only non-locals in an African village. I only get one month to make sure the people I meet know and understand they matter to Jesus – and they matter to me.
So what did we do this month? My team loved like crazy. We visited homes, prayed for healing and saw it happen, taught English, danced and sang, and preached about Jesus’ love. We made banana-nutella-chapati pancake tacos for our hosts and friends. We shared tea in homes, even if it tasted like Fruity Pebbles (we still aren’t sure about that one). We got to a name a cow, and appropriately we chose, “Mzungu” (because it was “white” like us). We let tiny babies sneak onto the porch while we worked out. We shared dinner in homes and genuinely listened to people. We taught silly English sayings, simply because it made us all laugh (if only I had a video of our hand-hug lessons).
We did whatever we could to show people that we love them and that Jesus loves them.
My team isn’t perfect. We are a crazy mess at times (a lovely, beautiful mess actually). But I wouldn’t trade this month with these 6 other Christ followers for anything. Because, as with every place, we have been since we left, we have loved like crazy. Maybe I just noticed it more this month than the others, but we loved hard. In the end, it hurt. It hurt to leave, but I left with such a good lesson. Even though it seems like people will be in our lives forever, like time is slowly creeping along most days, it’s also all the time we have with anyone.
So today, go love somebody. And love hard. Love someone so much that when you have to say goodbye, that it makes your heart hurt. Go play with a child, or go on a date with your spouse. Help someone who needs it, maybe in the grocery store or at your workplace. Love someone today, because that’s what Jesus did. And I’m convinced if we could live a little more like Him, goodbyes would always be hard and the world would be a better place. If you have a chance to love someone today, take it.
Maybe even give someone a hug. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.
Cover photo via @ajlevan17
Is God calling you to this radical kind of love? Learn more about how you can spread love across the world on the World Race.
