Over the past few weeks here at Adventures, I’ve come to incredible terms with how cool it is to be immersed in diversity (not only here but in the real world too). It’s cool because I’ve seen people go about that in so many different ways. Whether that be speaking on racial reconciliation, abortion, the death penalty, or anything else semi-political, I’ve become drawn to the importance of not only talking on these topics but being properly educated on them. One thing that I’ve been passionate about all my life has been the topic of immigration and racism in the aspect of Latinos. The reason I’ve been passionate about that subject is because of the fact that I’ve walked alongside it all my life and therefore, it’s near and dear to my heart. What’s awesome about that is that because I am pretty educated on it and so passionate about it, I’ve been able to bring it to attention here and educate some of my squadmates on a topic that they never really needed to care about because it didn’t personally affect them. On the flip side, I never really educated myself on a whole lot of other topics because of the sole reason of, “I didn’t need to”. That being said, I have several squadmates who are passionate about other things and they were able to bring those to my attention and educate me on them. The coolest thing is that because we all have the mindset of furthering the kingdom and walking by faith and not by sight, we’re all pretty open to hearing different opinions and perspectives on viewpoints that we’ve only ever seen one side of. With that, because of being open and listening to what other people have to say, some people have even switched viewpoints from something that they grew up thinking they had to believe because of their parents, to something that they now believe for themselves.
One thing that I’ve loved is that since being here, we’ve never been afraid of hitting the hard topics. That being watching “Free Burma Rangers”, a movie that I believe everyone and their mom should watch. Seriously… go watch it. Or having an entire week dedicated to racial reconciliation with One Race coming and speaking to us. If you don’t know who One Race is, their mission is, “Through prayer and fasting, relationship and collaboration, One Race exists to displace the spirit of racism and release a movement of racial reconciliation across Atlanta, the Southeast, and the nation. God desires a young adult movement that will counter the tide of racial division in our city and nation.” They came in and seriously shook things up in the best possible way. Because of them being here, I’m pretty sure all the squads, mine especially, have had so many incredibly needed conversations that. Needed. To. happen. The moral of the story is that this is a major reason for why the Lord placed us here. To explore our horizons and listen to what others have to say without judging or condemning them but by inviting their opinions and passions in to broaden our own horizons and share ours with them so they can broaden theirs. A big thing that I’ve said while being here is that we weren’t meant to do life alone. That means living it with the people beside us and listening to what they have to say, no matter if you agree with it or not.
