Being assigned your soul-mates for a year

We just announced to our next year’s World Racers who will be their teammates for the year.
Imagine for a second what’s at stake – you’re a part of a group of 26
peers who will spend a year together traveling around the world, ministering in
11
countries in 11 months. Some in the
group you bond with and some maybe rub you the wrong way.  But this kinid of experience is essential for Jesus-followers trying to find their own way in the world and it is waking up a generation to
its destiny.

The question running through everyone’s head has
been, “Who are the five other people who will be on my team?” On the heels of this is a second question: “Where will be
going?”

We have two groups of 26.
We brought the “A” group in first.
The excitement was bubbling over – we had held back this information
about their teams for over a week.

As I read off the list of team members, there were squeals
of delight and hugs. I told them,
“99% of Christians never get the chance to learn true koinonea (Greek for “intimate fellowship”), but you all
are different. You will have the
opportunity to learn everything there is to know about one another. You’ll see each other in the worst of
circumstances and in the best.” I told
them that their growth in this next year will be directly correlated to their
ability to be gut-level honest with one another. So, they need to begin sharing deeply.

As great as is the opportunity to see the
world and to minister to many different kinds of people, the opportunity to
know and be known deeply by five others is in some ways even more exciting.