Posted in General Posts by Lynn Reagan on 3/22/2012
I stole this from Leah Malone, a fellow racer currently in Romania....It was too good and too true and resonates so much, I couldn't not re-post it - even though I've kind of been stalking the world race for like a year trying to get up the courage to go. Thank you Leah.
I wasn't called to go on the World Race.
Posted in Romania by Leah Malone on 3/21/2012
The Lord didn’t wake me up in the middle of the night and say- “Leahhh, this is your Father speaking. I want YOU to go on the World Race!”. Although that would’ve been sort of awesome…and really freaky.
I’m not a world race prodigy child either… one of those who knew for years and years that as soon as they finished college they wanted to go on the race and saved all their pennies and stalked everyone’s blogs. Nope. I actually never thought this kind of trip was a possibility for my future. At all.
I didn’t pray about applying for months like I probably should’ve. I'm a terrible christian. I pretty much just pulled up the website, clicked apply, and that was that. One minute I was working on my resume and applying for “real life jobs” and the next thing I knew I was crumpling my resume up in the trash.
I didn’t get a phone call from God. I didn’t have a vision. I didn’t get those holy spirit goosebumps. I didn’t walk down an aisle and dedicate my life to becoming a full time missionary.
Recently I've noticed that alot of people we meet around the world are really interested in how we got here and why we’re doing the World Race. And most of the time the response from my squad is-
“I just knew that God was calling me to do this”.
Now would probably be a good time to say that I’m not knocking that answer. At all. Because I genuinely believe that lots of the people on my squad were specifically called to the World Race and some of their stories about how they got here are just crazy cool. I just look at things differently (shocking…I know).
BUT here’s how I got here-
God wrecked my life and broke my heart.
He said no to every single plan I tried to make.
He closed every door.
I'm talking like slammed them shut.
And so I sat at my house one day
staring at a fancy diploma
and a resume full of odd camp jobs and coaching gigs.
and I decided to give it up.
my future.
my past.
my sin.
my selfishness.
my dreams.
my fears.
my chains.
my reputation.
my pride.
I just gave it all up.
And in that moment God called me to something. But it wasn’t the World Race. Not exactly. He called me to more. God called me to love people with the love that He promised to pour into me every day. He called me to live differently...to look different, to spend my money and my time and my energy differently. And to dedicate my life to sharing His love and grace with everyone I meet.
See, here's the thing- I don’t really want to be a missionary.
I don't know why...but the word just weirds me out.
And I don’t want to spend this one year of my life 2012 living radically and then go back to America and live comfortably hunky dorey again, always referring back to “that one time on the world race”.
That’s definitely NOT what my calling looks like.
I am blessed beyond belief to have the opportunity to spend this year serving God’s people around the world. The magnitude of everything I left behind or had to give up pales SO much in comparison to what I’ve gained since I said yes to this journey. It blows my mind every day that this is my life.
And yet in my dreams there’s really no end to my world race. There’s always more orphans to hug, more starving children, more widows to clean houses for, and more beautiful mountain villages that haven’t heard the name of Jesus.
God didn’t call me to go on the World Race.
He called me to follow Him.
Radically. Passionately. And with all of my heart.
So I answered THAT call.
And wow. Its been good.
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Posted in pre-race by Lynn Reagan on 3/16/2012
A lot of people have been asking me why I’m going on the World Race. It’s not to travel the world or to have cool stories to tell my kids when I’m shriveled and old. I love to travel and I love fun stories that make me appear cooler than I really am, but those are not involved in this decision.
The World Race is really about death.
It's about surrender; giving up your life to let God use it how He sees fit. It's about serving and loving others.
I’ve already mentioned that the most gut-wrenching part of this whole journey is putting myself into this blog. I’m kind of a control freak when it comes to my thoughts, emotions, what people know about me. I prefer to let people fill in the blanks about me in my silence than to open up and let them judge me clearly. Kind of that proverb about it being better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove yourself to be one.
My thoughts belong to me, I own them, possess them. I’m pretty stingy with them. I share them with God and a few select people, but otherwise people don’t get tons of my thoughts just put out there for them to see. I’ve witnessed too much judgment and condemnation to willingly put myself out there like that for the world to accept or reject as it sees fit. After all, I am me, and me belongs to me. That’s what I used to think anyway. And then God kind of hit me over the head with this “I made you, I died for you, you belong to me” stuff and I started to figure out that me didn’t belong to me and me wasn’t really even about me.
Most people don’t know me, because I haven’t let them. I haven’t let them because I fear judgment, I fear their thoughts about me, I fear that they won’t like the truth of who I am. This blog means I’m not going to be able to hide anymore or control who has what information about me. And this is kind of like stabbing a knife in my heart and handing over the crumbled pieces to God.
Ernest Hemingway said, "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed."
God has spent a long while slowly coaxing me into letting go of the things I believe are my identity. Giving up identity means you don’t exist, it means death. Death was God’s plan for us all along. I’m not suicidal, so every ounce of self-preserving fleshy-ness inside of me is telling me to run the other way and never look back, while God is saying, take up your cross and follow me. Why would anyone do this? Because Jesus is worth everything we have to give. You can trust Him with your life.
Jesus said, "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it: but whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 16:24-25
The world race, this blog is the end of me. I’ve been struggling to let that go and to finally write a post that essentially me for all the world to see.
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Matthew 13:14
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Posted in pre-race by Lynn Reagan on 3/6/2012
To be honest, I don’t really like being Naked. If you are naked, you are completely bare and bareness invites onlookers to sit, stare, and gape at your nakedness while judging all the parts of you that you are simultaneously wishing were covered and not out there for the world to see.
We’ve all had that dream, right? That one where you show up to class or work and you conveniently forgot to wear clothes…that moment you suddenly realize you are an idiot and are exposed and you feel like you could die of embarrassment. Embarrassment-just break that word down if you will, it says it all in this situation.
I guess I’m just acknowledging the fact that I’m afraid of being exposed. I think we all are. And it’s kind of crazy, because in all of our piousness, pride, and concern with being accepted and not being too different from others – Jesus actually calls us to strip off all of these things and ideas that hold us back from Him and to boldly proclaim, “This is who I am. Jesus created me, Jesus loves me. He wasn’t too ashamed to come down and be stripped, beaten, and abused to save me and I’m not going to be ashamed of me either. Because Jesus loves me. And that’s something unbelievably huge.”
God created us naked; before the fall we roamed the garden – hearts free and souls bared.
Then Satan entered, tempted us into sin and we have been grasping at fig leaves to mask our shame ever since. God stepped in and provided temporary clothing, atonement in the form of sacrifices until the time came for Jesus to step off His thrown, and personally provide eternal atonement with His own flesh and blood. He restored us to Himself…to unashamed, unabashed, glorious, free nakedness.
In joy of the victory God had provided and given to the Israelites, King David danced naked before the Lord – He was honoring God by baring Himself of the dignity, honor, and prestige of his royal position and cast his crown and clothing at the feet of his deliverer, his Almighty God. David recognized that Jesus is worthy of worship that requires everything from us…laying down pride, vanity, power, prestige, position, identity, etc. God calls David a man after His (God’s) own heart; God loved that David undignified himself by throwing off the things that hindered him from following Him.
The World Race is intense. It’s kind of scary. I’m leaving behind everything and everyone I know, all the comforts of my home, my job and that secure feeling a paycheck provides in knowing that you can pay your bills that month-and that’s all crazy just to get up and walk away from. But the scariest, most terrifying thing for me about this journey is baring my soul on this blog and putting my true thoughts and self out there for you all to see – to accept or judge and reject as you see fit. A big part of me would rather cliff dive into chummed up water filled with massive great white sharks, just waiting for a tasty white girl like me to come along.
A different part of me is truly excited in the freedom that is going to come from being naked before the Lord. Partial nudity just won’t due.
I’m supposed to keep these posts at a short-ish length so people won’t tune out and stop reading (if all the naked talk hasn’t turned you off already), so let me just leave you with this segue into my next post: Before Jesus restored us to nakedness, He had to die for us. He says we have to die too before we can stand bare and unashamed before God.
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Posted in pre-race by Lynn Reagan on 1/26/2012
Holy Crap! I'm going on the World Race!!! I can't believe this is actually happening...O.M.G. I'm pretty excited about this turn of events a good majority of the time, but every now and then I freak out, like a lot, when I think about 11 months away from everyone I know and love, living out of a backpack, probably in a tent at least some of the time, with limited plumbing and electricity, without all of the comforts I'm used to-it's kind of slightly terrifying in an awesome, I can't believe I'm about to be brave enough to do this crazy thing that God told me to do, kind of way.
If you are wondering where in the world I'm headed to...
Thailand
According to the CIA, the kingdom of Thailand, known as Siam until 1939, is the only country in the region not colonized by Europe. Their 2000 census showed that 94.6% of the population is Buddhist, 4.6% are Muslim, and 0.7% are Christian. Approximately 600,000 people live with HIV/AIDS in Thailand. With nearly two million people estimated to be forced into prostitution, it has become one of the most popular places for sex tourism. Change lives in the city-where you, like Jesus, might befriend prostitutes-or in the countryside-where you may serve youth, care for orphans, and encourage a remnant of believers.
Cambodia
Cambodia houses one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Angkor Wat, a Hindu temple and monastery built during the Khmer empire in the 12th century. It later became a Buddhist complex a century later, and today, just over 96% of Cambodia is Buddhist. Almost 30 years ago, 1.5 million Cambodians died at the hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime. Today, Cambodia is a source, transit point, and destination of human trafficking. Unfortunately, the government is struggling to stop it. The people of Cambodia are thirsty for the hope you can bring.
Vietnam/Laos
After nearly a century of French rule, in the mid-20th century, Vietnam split into communist (north) and non-communist (south) halves. Vietnam was united but as a communist country. Even with the economic reforms and restoration of diplomatic ties, human rights are limited in Vietnam, especially freedom of religion; most of Vietnam is Buddhist, less than 10% is Catholic. Laos shares French rule/influence and shift towards communism with Vietnam. Therevada Buddhism dominates Laos with Christian missionary work monitored by government. Either country has a lot to offer gastronomically and geographically; you have much of Christ’s love and light to shine.
Tanzania
Tanzania has a one-third split between Christianity, Islam, and indigenous religious groups. This diversity creates a colorful landscape of people and beliefs. Whether you are doing open-air crusades, door-to-door evangelism or visiting hospitals and orphanages the people of this diverse country will capture your heart.
Mozambique
One of the most beautiful countries in the African continent, Mozambique is a favorite location of World Racers for a variety of reasons: the people, the landscape, the ministry partnerships, the miracles that this country has seen, and more. The former Portuguese colony is seeing signs of redemption and economic recovery; because of, or in spite of, the extreme poverty gripping the nation, the church grows. You will teach, preach, and practice "true religion" with widows and orphans while you grow in your identity in Christ. One of your most interesting travel "days" may happen here.
Swaziland
The Kingdom of Swaziland is one of the last remaining monarchies in Africa. Home to 1.1 million people and breathtaking scenic views, it's also where the world's highest HIV/AIDS infection rate lives (26.1% in adults and over 50% of adults in their 20s). It's estimated that by 2050, Swaziland may cease to exist. Young orphans are scattered throughout this nation in desperate need of attention. For years, Adventures has been committed to seeing these statistics reversed. Here, you’ll most likely find yourself involved in a variety of outreaches, including education, orphan care, care point feedings, and more.
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. The more affluent neighbor to Haiti (though generally it isn't too affluent), the D.R. is home to 9 million people. The Dominican culture is lively, vibrant, warm; however, the culture struggles with problems like hypersexualization and alcoholism. After the earthquake on January 12 in Haiti, the D.R. quickly became refuge to thousands who were displaced. This month, you'll serve at orphanages, refugee camps, and more; you'll partner with local churches, pastors, even Adventures in Missions' own full-time missionaries.
Haiti
Haiti was hit with a life-altering earthquake on January 12, 2010. The nation's still in shambles, the church is rising up. Haiti is experiencing a spiritual revival right now like it has never before seen. Communities are turning to pastors for leadership, and the local church is becoming the driving force behind Haiti's ongoing rebirth. This month, you'll help with relief efforts, establish connections with local pastors, help people rebuild their lives through meeting felt needs, and more. Come ready to serve; come ready to be blessed.
Moldova
Once a part of Romania, this former Soviet republic declared independence in 1991. Moldova, one of the poorest European countries, is riddled with a high underground crime rate. This country is vulnerable as a transit point of human trafficking. The main language spoken is Romanian (also called Moldovan) but there's debate as to what the Moldovan ethnicity is exactly. We need people who will bring kingdom clarity and declare the peace of God over a land filled with confusion and chaos.
Romania
The northern regions of Romania are home to the gypsy community. Though strangers in their homeland and forgotten by society, the gypsies are a strong and vibrant people who embrace the light of Christ in an inspirational way. Here, you will teach English, lead sports camps, live life with the gypsies, and more. It will be an exciting time of learning about a people group you may not have known even existed.
Ireland
Ireland boasts a heritage of Christianity through Catholicism. Yet the lifeless display of faith reveals that this nation is farther from God than ever. Rampant alcoholism and suicide rates reveal a desperate need for hope. Through sports, children's outreach, street evangelism, pub ministry, and the relationships that just happen along the way, the World Race reintroduces a life-giving faith to this beautiful, historic culture.
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