Family refers to people you deeply know and love because you have spent extended periods of time together throughout your life. Yet despite all the time committed to those individuals, conflict still arises. Try diving into spending all day, every day, in a foreign country with a small group of people that you have known for only a few weeks. You can expect conflict in some form. The bright side is that the overcoming of conflict produces character and meaning.
A majority of individuals that embark on the World Race truly desire to be changed. To determine and clarify their individual identity as well as their identity in Christ. To find more of God in remote lands, outside of the monotonous 9-5 day of most Americans; and many do.
There are countless stories of the lives changed during these 11 months around the world. What may be overlooked is that this change does not occur only individually, but rather through a conscious effort as a team to love and lift each other up every day; to push one another closer to Christ through encouragement and constructive critique. This team that you are forced to be brutally honest and vulnerable with in order to make it day to day, through the thick and thin creates the environment in which you will change, for better or worse.
An important part of growth and unity comes through the daily feedback we engage in as teams where we give positive, encouraging feedback as well as constructive, critical feedback. It is a time not for tearing down but for building up. We bring up moments where we saw our teammates acting accordingly as well as the times when they are acting out of place or with attitudes that are unacceptable. We are encouraged to help each other recognize our faults and to work on improving them. Not satisfying pet peeves or preferences but pushing each other towards a life more firmly rooted in and exemplifying of Christ. This is no walk in the park. As we get to know each other better we have gotten more comfortable with this process, which recently, has been of the utmost importance.
Not only as individuals but as a team and as a squad, we have undergone pretty clear spiritual attack. Spirits of fear, anxiety, and doubt among others have entered and begun to spread. Fear of the heavy darkness that is so evident in Haiti, as well as doubt of the Father’s protection in our lives, was consuming the minds of many of my teammates, squadmates, and myself. People waking up all throughout the night for no apparent reason with nightmares and unsettling feelings of fear and anxiety were all too frequent. Without trust, honesty, and vulnerability these attacks could have caused crippling damage to individuals and teams.
But as my amazing teammate Luke and I sat on the roof at 1 a.m. watching an intense thunderstorm out over the ocean and talking about the fearful issues on our mind, our two male squad leaders were each woken up in the middle of the night and led to the roof by the Lord, separately, to talk through and help shed light on the fears and issues being discussed. A powerful night of fellowship and prayer grew in us a deeper dependence on the hand and spirit of the Lord in our lives. It continued to grow as Luke and I brought the issue to light among our immediate team as well as the team we are with.
Spiritual warfare, while mental and internal, is already very present even just two weeks into our adventure. Change and growth do not come easily. Donald Miller reminded me in his book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, that growth and change towards living the kind of story that is meaningful, not only to yourself but also to the bigger picture that God is painting, do not come easy. A character will not feel accomplished in what they want until they overcome conflict. Job, in the Bible, had everything taken from him and yet he overcame his conflict and grew in love and intimacy with God.
We are promised by God that things are going to be rough. We will suffer and go through hard times following after Christ. Going through these trials and temptations alone I am so much weaker than with my team beside me. But more than just a group of individuals, I have a new Family next to me 24/7, who truly care about me and is here to be scared, happy, anxious with me and to also pray and grow with me in pursuit of a life changed towards the likeness of Christ in the way only a family can. With God guiding the steps of this family, I am confident we will overcome the spiritual and emotional conflict we face and grow exponentially through it.