Onward Journey

So your Real Lifer has been home for a short while now…

How’s it been?

Is it just what you expected?  

Did they run into your arms at the airport and give you the biggest hug ever?  

Or did they walk up kind of cool and seem somewhat excited to be home?

Did you expect them to be so thrilled to be home and want to tell you ever little detail?

Have they shared their stories with you?

Do they seem a little strange?  Less put together than how you sent them out?

Have you questioned whether or not they should have even gone to Kenya?

Re-entry into the United States of America, home of the Free and the EVERYTHING can be a bit overwhelming!  

Give your Real Lifer a lot of grace especially now that the newness of being home is wearing off.  Mission trips do such a great job of taking us out of our natural environment and putting us in a place that we have to seek God on a daily basis.  During these last three months God stretched this Kenya team to live simply and to love the least of these.  God gave all of us a heart and a vision for Kenya and so many other things.  The real challenge and probably the hardest part of mission trips is going BACK HOME.  God has spun and re-spun the potters wheel so much that we often come home not even knowing what we look like to other people or how to even act, think and do “normal” things (ie shower and brush your teeth without other people in the bathroom).

All of this to say that it’s going to be ok!  Something that I told the Real Lifers often on the field was “It is OK not to be OK”!  This word is for you and your Real Lifer now.  Life as it used to be three months ago is no longer but God has taken your Real Lifer out to be brought back in.  Just as you prayed for them on the field pray even more for them now.  If they are being hard to live with ask them to go back to their rooms and be alone with God, they will come out a much more loving person.  Ultimately love on them, they have seen a lot and had to deal with a lot over the past few months.  Their world view is totally different now and that is a GREAT thing.  If you haven’t already sat them down and asked them to share all of their stories PLEASE do so, let them know that you care.

Logan, Brian, Regan, Blair, Denise, Jenna Ghizas, Jenna Johnson, Kelli, Mandy, Liz, Holli-Noelle, and Lindsey were AMAZING people to work with these past few months.  I am in Thailand now and I just finished up a final debrief for a World Race squad that I led and many of them asked me about my experience and the two things I told them were: that the Gospel was our focus and that SO many people came to know the Lord and that from day one I was consistently honored and humbled by their respect for Blair and myself.  Thank you for allowing them to travel to Kenya to serve the Lord.

Blair and I will be heading to Nicaragua in June to lead another Real Life team for two months.  Both of us feel a great call to disciple our generation.  I specifically feel a call to direct young people back to purity and to empower them to know who they are in Christ so that they can then empower the people around them.  In doing this each of us must raise support.  If you see the impact that we have had in the life of your Real Lifer please consider helping us financially to continue on empowering our generation.  

You can visit my blog at www.patricedeaton.theworldrace.org  to give, there is a link at the top left that says “Want to help support ME?!?” or you can go here… 

https://adventures.org/give/donate.aspgiveto=worldrace&desc=For%20Patrice%20Deaton  

and to help support Blair please contact him via his web page www.blairnightingale.myadventures.org his support situation is a bit different so please contact him before giving.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support these past few months we couldn’t have done it without you!  Blessing to you all!