Hello, friends!
So kind of a cool update: myself and a few other members of my squad have been accepted for a storytelling internship with the Adventures in Missions marketing department! What this means is I get to share a lot of stories of what God is doing. I love writing, and more than that I love writing true things so this gets me really excited to see how He will use this blog. So buckle up and get ready to get some biweekly stories of God doing things. Truly I am hype for this!
I thought I would start with sharing some true things I’ve been hearing and learning here in Georgia before we head out to Costa Rica on Tuesday!
Launching for the World Race looks like a lot of learning our roles, worshipping together, and getting to know our sweet teammates who we will be doing life with for the next 11 months. It’s been a joy so far. For our squad, launching has looked a lot different than squads that have launched for the World Race in the past. Instead of staying in a hotel, doing huge worship sessions, and hugging every single one of our 43 squad-mates; we’re doing things a little differently in this covid world of ours.
Once on the Adventures in Missions campus, straight off our flights from all over the country, and bearing our masks, we were separated into our teams of 6 and put in our “boxes.” Literally. It’s kind of funny. Our squad is all in one big room and our teams of six each have a boxed off square to call home until we leave on Tuesday. We sleep and live in our little tape box which is just about big enough for our six sleeping bags and backpacks. It’s not ideal, but life is so much bigger than our comfort, people!
We’ve had to adjust our expectations, just like everyone in the world during this past year. We’re choosing to honor the rules set before us in order to get where we’re going. It’s not a normal situation, but what is normal?
During this pandemic, everyone keeps dreaming about this elusive time when we get to go back to normal. A speaker at our launch posed us this question; “how was normal working for you, anyway?”
He proceeded to point out that during “normal” life still wasn’t great. Christians as a whole still were barely making a dent in sin. Floored.
What parts of normal do we want to get back to, and what new habits or practices do we want to bring into our present?
My prayer today is that God would show me the things to hold tight to and the things to let go of. One thing I want to let go of in this season is my expectations. I want to except things as they are, the good and the hard. Maybe God wanted us to go through hard things to give us grit, to give us a deeper faith, and to see what’s on the other side. God never promised us comfortable.
Maybe it’s certain relationships, a habit, or a way of thinking. What do you want to give up and ask God for in your season?
“how was normal working for you, anyway?”
NOW THAT’S A GOOD WORD! I’m praying that this season shakes up normal, reveals to us what has been broken but we’ve done it anyways, reveals what we really need, and reveals a deep, unwavering love for the Lord and for doing His mission! Thanks for leading us in that direction!