It’s pretty common knowledge that my World Race experience was a difficult one. You might want to know every single detail but I’m only telling you about this one experience that surpassed everything else.
World Racer’s are allowed to invite their parents to join a ‘parents only’ Facebook page. This page is where all of the parents can connect with each other, support each other, and lift up their children in prayer together.
The best thing about this page is that is 100% confidential.
Parent’s aren’t allowed to tell anyone about what is being posted in this Facebook page; especially their children.
Right before we began Month 9 of the Race, 3 of the men on our squad were sent home and another left voluntarily. This was the catalyst which broke down our entire squad. We were all in high emotions, throwing accusations and words of death in every direction.
Another thing you should know is that I stepped down as a squad leader the night before. The majority of the squad didn’t enjoy the fact that a 22 year old was in a leadership position. It was very difficult leading this particular squad.
After about a week, God was asking me to write a short letter to the parents of E squad. To simply encourage every parent to love their children unconditionally. It was honestly all God writing this thing.
I then asked my mom to post it on the parent’s page if it wasn’t too much trouble. She did and she didn’t tell me about anything else in the page – because it’s not allowed.
However, some parents decided to share this letter with their children. I felt absolutely betrayed.
These people were supposed to encourage me and pray for me, not gossip about me. They might have had good intentions with sharing this letter. But these parents knew just how emotional their children were.
The minute I heard that this amazing letter of encouragement got out, there were squadmates at my throat. They were saying I betrayed the squad, saying I went behind their backs, saying I had no right to send a letter of encouragement to the parents.
A huge part of the discouragement I felt is from my squad. However, if the parents of my squad would have stopped looking at us as their babies, this experience would have been much brighter.
I haven’t lived with my mom for a long time. We both know how to have a good relationship with each other from a distance. So when I try and offer advice to parents on how to let go of their children, I’m immediately cast off because I had a “special circumstance.”
I’m actually in the same boat as others who haven’t lived with their parents in this amount of time. My mom doesn’t look to me as her helpless child but as the man she raised me to be. She has accepted the truth that babies grow up into adults. And it didn’t hinder her from loving me any differently just because I wasn’t the same small person.
Please stop trying to protect your children. We can only be protected by ourselves. We made the choices which lead to the rift of our squad and sped up the process of changing how AIM trains World Race participants. It’s now up to us to choose redemption from the Lord.
Next time, think about the outcome of your actions; they effect more than 1 child.
