This blog was written in responce to a question from my last blog: Hind Sight on World Race packing!
You’re welcome 🙂
YES, you will have a lot of down time, much more then i had expected! I signed up for the WR to do 24/7 ministry. It’s not… unless YOU MAKE it so!
Carlie I’m glad you asked!
“What do you do with all the down time??”
Answer:
MAKE it the most it can be, soak up the year, devote yourself to God, redeem every hour!
I’ll give you my opinions, you can take them or leave them, but it’s what I WISH I would have done in all of my free times:
Pray as a team.
Pray together every morning. This has to be something you PLAN to do and MAKE happen. Schedules are always changing on the race, but FIND the time for this. What could be more important then asking God to empower and direct you throughout the day? The whole point of the World Race is to advance the kingdom of God. And to do that we need the power of God. We are nothing without the power of God, we need Him more then ANYTHING else.
James 4:2
One on ones.
Have 1 on 1’s with each team mate in your team at least once a month. A one on one should be a special date time for just the two of you. You get plenty of “team time” but unless you make the effort you don’t get quality one on one time.
Team Bible study.
Once a week do a team Bible study. Encourage one enother, press one another on in the faith. You will be in churches a LOT on the Race. But you will most likely not be getting spiritually fed because the teaching will be in a forign language. Come together as a team to soak up the Word of God.
Even bring up the tough, deep things, and see where your team stands on issues of morality and faith. You will be surprised how different a group of Christians can be. Don’t let your differences divide you, but seek God on the truth and decide to believe what God says in His written words, the Bible, and trust it above what you feel, think, or may have previously believed.
Acts 17:11
Make fun memories.
Go on adventures with your team. See as much of your surroundings as you can on your off days. Play games together. Some great memories my team made were playing truth or dare on travel days, in train stations, or any public area… with a good imagination it’s hilarious!
One example: I was walking around Mcdonalds, in Albania, with a piece of cheese slapped to my forehead saying, përshëndetje (hello in Albanian) to people enjoyin their lunches.
Don’t watch tv shows or movies!
🙂 I’m very passionate about this one. It’s only a year! Arn’t you trying to live simple, rough it a bit, make due with less, and focus on God…
I think movies would be a great thing to give up for this special year devoted to God. One of the blessings of the WR is your distance from the American mindset! Don’t continue to fill your mind with media that portrays the worst of the American immorality and consumerism! Staring at a computer screen can take up your personal time with God, time getting to know your team, and even become distracting from ministry.
My suggestion would be to have each of your teammates bring a few of their personal favorites (good, morally clean, funny) movies on the Race and enjoy watching them as a team, say for a relaxing team time now and then.
I know one thing you won’t be saying after the Race is over: “I wish I would have watched more _____”.
Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are surrounded about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily hinder us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
PS: while I’m at it… another thing I think would be a good idea to give up for a year would be alcohol. Not for legalistic reasons, but simply because of the backgrounds of so many people on the Race, alcohol can easily lead to problems. Such issues could be so easily avoided, if alcohol were out of the picture. If giving your drinks up for a year would be too hard, then seriously consider if alcohol already has too strong of a hold on your life!
Romans 14:21 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
1Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not profitable: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
PRAY.
Seriously, get alone with God and ask him to speak to you, fill you with the Holy Spirit, give you word of encouragement for your team and the people you meet. Ask Him to give people your going to see dreams about your coming. Ask God to allow you to speak in the language of the country your in so that people can understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ask God to show you when He wants to heal someone of a sickness. ASK ASK ASK!
John 16:24 Until now have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Go find ministry.
You’ve got two feet, a mouth and hopefully a willing, loving heart. Go out on your own, well with at least one other teammate :), and find something good to do. Everywhere you go around the world (and in America) you will be surrounded by people in need of love, in need of Jesus. Go reach out to them! One of my favorite memories of the race was when my team leader and I went out on our own to give out food, preach the gospel and pray for the beggars on the streets. You can read my blog on that: Bridge of the blind.
Write blogs.
Blogging truly is a ministry, as hard as it is sometimes, do it!
Read your Bible.
You’ve got the living and active words of Almighty God in your hands! Flip through those pages and soak up the wisdom!
Pull a prank on someone 🙂
My favorite prank was when we got our one teammate Ash to poop in an ern, thinking we were gonna use it as a prank on another teammate, but then we put it in HER tent! Good times! haha
Write in your journal.
Seriously didn’t do this much, but i wish i would have more!
Personalized team times.
Each teammate take a different day to individually come up with something for the team to do. It could be simple, spiritual, or off the wall crazy!
One of my favorite team times was IPod idol. 🙂
Well Carlie, I hope this list will keep you busy through some of your free time! It may be a longer and more in depth list then you expected, but I REALLY do want you to have the best year of your life. It goes by sooo quickly and your only regret will be that its over and you waisted some of the time. Don’t put off for tomorrow what can be done today! So many times on the Race I said “there will be plenty more time for that”. Well then the time was gone and “THAT” never happened.
Its hard. I wasn’t strong enough or dedicated enough to do half of the stuff I thought about doing. But if i can inspire and motivate others to press in and do more then… well I’ll be proud of you and blessed to have been used by God to glorify His name through you!
