The World Race is a safe space where missionaries can grow and mature spiritually.
It’s also a place where strange things tend to happen. I can’t even begin to recount all the crazy, funny, bizarre stories I’ve experienced on my Race. And all the while, God used these things – these quirky, sometimes wild things – to teach me, grow me, and draw me closer to Him.
Here’s a look at some of the odd things I’ve experienced on my World Race.
First, machetes. When we started the Race, it was a bit harrowing to be walking along the road and see a person come up beside you with a big, sharp machete in their hand, but that’s exactly what happened. People carry machetes all the time in Latin America.
Team Crisco Unico, showing off their machete skills
The machetes aren’t typically sheathed, either. People just hold them at their side or prop them on their shoulders. Our route is restricted to Latin America, so we became accustomed to seeing this pretty quickly. But thinking back, it was a bit strange (and a little scary) at first.
Cars speeding up (instead of slowing down) as you’re crossing the road, as if to hit you instead of letting you cross (and live). Never experienced this back home, but I did experience it in La Paz, Bolivia.
Traffic in La Paz, Bolivia
Actually, I experienced a lot of strange things in Bolivia. As we walked home from dinner one night in La Paz, some guy dressed in a doll-clown-costume-thing started following us through the crowded streets. He had a noisemaker in his mouth – something like a kazoo – and kept blowing it at me. That was freaky and very, very weird.
From Hijas: Jen and Karen (left), Kayla (right)
Out for our team date night in La Paz, Bolivia – we were followed
by the kazoo guy after we left this restaurant
And then there was the guy who was urinating as he walked down a busy sidewalk. Yes. This actually happened. It was an all too common occurrence throughout Latin America, unfortunately, but especially in Bolivia. We often walked home from evening church services in Uyuni and would pass drunk men urinating on the sidewalk or road.
In total shock – not by men peeing in the streets, but by how high we are
in the atmosphere at this altitude – La Paz, Bolivia
I wasn’t used to stuff like that happening back home, at least not to the extent it happened in Bolivia. Definitely have to categorize this as odd or weird. And also pretty gross.
Walking to church with Team Radical in Uyuni, Bolivia
My team in Bolivia was paired with Team Radical for part of the month. They stayed with us for a week in Uyuni before going to their own ministry site in the little town of Llica. When they left, we went with them and stayed there for a few days.
Radical’s translator Caleb rockin’ out with our Uyuni
ministry host Pastor Rolando
Me, rockin’ out in my Bolivian rainbow llama gear
The ministry site was very humble, and the host wasn’t prepared for so many people. The room they had for us, which was reminiscent of a storage room, had two beds, one of which seemed to be stuffed with hay (odd); but as it turns out, it was actually stuffed with quinoa (even odder). And the room was so tiny, we had to counter stack our sleeping bags and squish them side by side in order to fit everyone.
View of the town from our rooms in Uyuni
This was one of the most interesting circumstances I’ve found myself on during the Race. And although Uyuni was no cakewalk, my team felt extremely blessed when we returned to our own ministry site a few days later.
How Sam really feels about our stay in Llica
El Salvador was a great month. Fantastic. But one thing I found weird was that – well, sometimes I felt like I had been teleported to America. There was a Walmart in the capital San Salvador, a Starbucks near our ministry site, and a few malls throughout the city.
Christmas tree aisle at Walmart in San Salvador
This was so surreal for a few reasons. First, I’d been stationed at ministries outside of major cities up to that point, so it was my very first time doing ministry in a capital city where modern-day conveniences were so readily available.
Strange paradox – shopping at Walmart during off time (left), serving in
an impoverished (and dangerous, controlled by a gang) community during ministry (right)
Second, we did ministry in parts of the city that weren’t like anything I’ve ever seen in the States. We were constantly working in some of the poorest barrios I’ve seen, we would have intense discussions about safety issues involving the gangs that run these barrios, and we even had encounters with gang members as we were doing ministry.
Both photos are from the capital of El Salvador – touristy section (left), barrio (right)
I was surrounded by poverty much of the time, and sometimes I was in the presence of dangerous men…but then the very next day I’d be maneuvering through rows of pre-lit Christmas trees at Walmart, wondering if I wanted to grab a bite to eat at the Wendy’s across the parking lot.
Surreal.
Third, I’d been on the World Race for ten months. Ten months. I’d totally forgotten about things like Walmart and pre-lit Christmas trees, and the fact that Walmart puts out their pre-lit Christmas trees starting in October. I was also at a point where I was so close – soooo close – to finishing the Race that it was outright BIZARRE that I was walking through a Walmart that could have very well been the one by my mom’s house.
Street evangelism with Caleb and Pastor Juan in Uyuni
There’s all kinds of other quirky stuff I could talk about from here…like showering in waterfalls (Dominican Republic) and dilapidated outhouses with makeshift tools we deemed “poop sticks” (Bolivia)…there’s eating peanuts off the floor of a movie theater in Puerto Rico (Karen!) and salchi papa fries off the sidewalk in Uyuni, Bolivia (um, that might’ve been me)…there’s bottled water flying around the cabin of an overnight bus that’s offroading through a desert (also Bolivia), beet-red, blistered lips from the worst sunburn I’ve ever had in my life (still Bolivia), and being totally inexperienced at street evangelism but then your translator/mentor shoves a live microphone in your face and says “Here, evangelize” as throngs of people crowd around you (yep, still Bolivia).
Only on the World Race can you show up at a total stranger’s house,
in a country you’ve never been to, get fed, and then fall asleep
in the woman’s living room next to twenty other people…and
everything is perfectly normal – just another travel day for us
It’s also totally normal to fall asleep on a park bench with
your teammate…and your guitar…and a cooking pan…
as you wait for a van to pick you up after ministry
As you can see, a lot of weird things happened on my World Race. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. 🙂
I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:3-5
