Let us start runnin' man! "Catch dem", "Keep goin' man", "fasta fasta"!! These were things I regularly heard being shouted to me by the Jamaicans in the streets when Erick, R.P and I went jogging some mornings!! As you can make your own conclusion, it meant that I was running behind them! =) My defence will be that I am not that bad, but that they are real good joggers! =) And hopefully I would be able to write a blog at the end of the year stating that I crossed the finish line with them every time! At first, I was quite demotivated when the people shouted these things. But then I realised how sincere these comments are! With smiles on their faces they motivated me to catch up to the two fast men in front of me. And I realised... Isn't this the way that christianity is intended to be like? Us as team has t doing Bible study through John. The one day we read John 17, where John writes Jesus' prayer for all believers. Firstly I just want to mention that it was astounding to me to realise that Jesus actually already prayed for me while He was on earth! Wow! And secondly, Jesus talks to the Father and says: "My prayer is not only for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one - I in them and you in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." - John 17:20-23. Do we really know what being one means?? Jesus prays that the believers that will believe in Him through the disciples' message may be one, just as they are one!! The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is one. And even though the trinity is too big for my brain to even try to understand, Jesus wants the believers to be ONE like THEY ARE ONE! And if I may use the phrase that I learnt from Marelize: It breaks my brain! If I think of the term "one", words such as unity, conformity, joined and supportive comes to mind. Am I currently being "one" with my fellow believers? And while I was thinking about all of this, I just realised what a huge privilege I have to spend a year with eight team mates, to learn from them, laugh with them, eat with them, struggle with them and seek God's heart with them! These are my fellow believers! Each and every one of them is unique, special, interesting and funny in their own way! And God wants me to be one with them! God wants me to run with them! Running the race of our lives! Running to win the prize! The prize that will be eternal! And I believe that He doesn't just want us to run the race, but to run the race with each other, motivating each other, supporting each other, and do it like the Jamaican's shout: "Keep goin' man!" And the beautiful part about running this race, is that there are soooo many fellow believers on this track with us, running to receive the prize! On this journey I am on, I am just realising that I have so many brothers and sisters all around the world running with me! And God is calling us to be one! What a privilege to learn how to run the race in a country which is so famous for it's great athletes! When we had our first church service with the Peoples church where we were staying, I could just experience the simplistic, honest and true way of serving the Lord these Jamaicans have. In this small church, the people worship together, listen together, and respond together! It is as if you can see them running next to each other! There is so much I can learn from them!! When we first visited the Mary Atkins night shelter, my eyes opened in many different ways. There are all kinds of people coming to this shelter to have a place to sleep, receive food, do washing, or just sit and smoke weed. We helped to serve food and just spend time with them. I had difficulty having conversations with some of them, mostly because I can not understand a word they are saying! They speak Patios (pronounced as Patwa) and English all together. But they speak so fast that I have no idea whether they are speaking French or Sotho! I ended up doing washing with a guy that comes to the shelter regularly. Now this was really really challenging for me, because if you knew me quite well, you would know that it is even a challenge for me to put on my shoes and not wash my hands afterwards! It created the opportunity to have good conversation with him! We talked about relationship with God and he shared some parts of his life story with me. And this makes me think: this guy coming to this shelter is running the same race that I am running. Striving to receive the same prize. What makes me different from him? Nothing! He also needs someone along the path supporting him, maybe someone to help him rinse his clothes or talk about his little daughter's clever sayings, someone who will listen to his complicated engine lectures (which I still don't know much about) and someone who is shouting: "Keep goin' man!" At a school that we visited, R.P and I spent some time with a pre-primary teacher! She had so much patience with the children! It was amazing to see! She motivated me along my path! Showing me her servant heart towards people 30 years younger than she is! What an example! Along our paths towards any place we walked to, people would bless us with mangoes and random stuff to taste! They were literally blessing us with food for the journey! At the Golden Age Old Age Home I had a very emotional experience. I met a man named Lawrence in a wheelchair who I could hear has had a very tough life by listening to the few things he told me. He was attacked and his throat was cut with a knife, he lost function in his legs and he now mostly just sits in front of this room with other old people sitting around him. Some of them not being able to talk, another who hits himself over the head almost every minute and another who can't really make any conversation. Nobody comes to visit him. No friends! No family! He gave me his Bible to read to him. And he showed me some of the Psalms that he has marked because he likes them so much! Psalm 91 being his favourite! And every piece I read to him which he likes, I have to mark it with a star. I read a piece out of his little spiritual book with a daily devotion. That piece also spoke to my heart!! How amazing it is when God blesses you when you least expect it! While we were speaking, some commotion was going on in his room behind us. A worker was busy with something and talking to another worker across the little dust covered square where everyone just sits around, waiting for the day to pass. He asked me if I heard what she said. "No", I replied. And without really blinking an eye, he told me that one of the men in his room just died. And as I looked over to the door, the next man was sitting in his wheelchair, waiting to move into his bed. I was dumbstruck... How could this be? This is life! But no one showed compassion towards the fellow room mates, no one making an "official announcement" of breaking the news to them as gentle as possible. Where is his supporters? Where is his fellow runners? Where are the ones motivating him? Where are the ones that help him along the road? I am really privileged to have eight amazing people in my team, constantly cheering for me during this race I am running! They encourage, share wisdom, build up, teach, listen, laugh and seek the face of the God all of us serve and have as our Father and Friend! But it is not only them I share this race with! I also share it with many other believers all around the globe! And within these three weeks, I could meet some of my fellow believers, fellow racers, and fellow family members! What a privilege! May I always encourage with passion, positivity, and purpose to those around me, so that Jesus' prayer more that 2000 years ago may be true in my life and bring a smile to His face! That the believers will be one, like the Trinity is one! May I never think of myself as anything more or anything less than what is required to be one with His other children. May Paul's words be true in my life: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strive a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize" - 1 Cor 9: 24-27 Jesus said that He already gave us the glory that was given to Him, that we may be one, like He and the Father is one. So that we may be brought to complete unity. And then the world will know that the Father sent Him and that He loved them just as much as He loved Jesus... HUGE!!! Is there any better way to bring the message to the world?? So let us start runnin' man!