Wow. The end of the WR is upon you. Racers are home or soon will be. The reentry season has begun for them. You may be asking yourself what you will do each day, now that the squad blogs will be slowing down. Or how will you cope without your daily influx of photos of children around the world, or videos of smiling racers. It can leave a hole in your day to be sure, kind of like when your Racer left…only different. You may find yourself having some of your own reentry issues! This blog is to let you know this is normal and to encourage you to redirect your thinking.
One way to address the feelings you, as parents, feel during reentry is to transform your mindset, from one of this being an end to recognizing it is actually a beginning. The day to day might not look very different, but what happened internally to you, as your racer traveled the world, is not going away. God may have stirred your heart. You may have rediscovered old dreams, long buried amidst the years of family rearing and work constraints. You might have found some new interests you had never considered before. You might realize, now that your children are raised, you have something new or different to offer those around you in your daily life. You poured into your children as they grew, but now you see God isn’t finished with you just because your nest is emptying. It’s a new season with a different mission field.
We want to let you know that the parent FB groups stay open indefinitely, so you can share what you are up to, or struggles you might be having with your racer. If God is directing you in new ways or you have life changes, please feel free to share with your group, or reach out to Parent Ministry if you need some encouragement. We don’t stop, just because your Racers are home!
There are many ways to connect with Adventures, for those of you who are seeking God on your next steps in your journey.
- Parent Navigator-Walk other parents through the WR journey on the FB pages.
- Landing Zones-Provide places for racers as they return, where they can continue discipleship and get readjusted to life in the U.S.
- STM Leaders- Our short term missions department is always looking for people to lead short term trips, both domestic and international.
- Coaches-Coach a WR squad on their journey around the world. Must be available to travel 4 to 5 times a year and be a married couple.
- Launch Volunteers-come back to launch to be available to help and encourage other parents who are scared just like you were.
- Serve team- Helping out with WR training camps and/or Project Searchlight (not your own racer’s). This can be helping in the kitchen, setting up, and other places as needed.
We also have retreats for those parents who have felt the stirring but have no idea what their next step is. We post the information on the FB pages whenever we have a retreat coming up, or you can message us your interest, and we will be in touch whenever our next one is coming up.
It has been our privilege to serve you, and we will continue to do so. If you want to connect in any of the ways listed above let us know. If not, that’s fine, but please stay in touch and let us hear from you from time to time!
