Merry Christmas!!! … O Squad went ahead and celebrated Christmas on December 2nd since we were all together. Kirsten George made each one of us very special and unique envelopes filled with goodies, we had a white elephant gift exchange using stuff from our packs and had pizza for dinner!
My squad knows me so well…euchre, turtle, ‘jeez oh petes’, skydiving, a sunset aaand my favorite color is sky blue!
our Christmas feast! and let me tell you, after living in Africa for 3 months, this was sooo goood! haha
O Squad in Nairobi after our Christmas Party :)… Definitely a Christmas I will never forget*
Next item to cover! December is what we call ‘manistry’, where all of the guys on our team (yep, all 13 of them!) set out to have some good quality man time! They’ll be camping out and doing quite a bit of hard labor for a young girls orphanage home…all while grunting and chopping things down I’m sure 😉
The ladies of O Squad are working with church’s, orphans, street kids and women in the sex trade all over Thailand.
Moving to a new continent isn’t the only transition we’ve made in the past 2 weeks. Prior to leaving Nairobi, Kenya and flying to Bangkok, Thailand, our teams switched up once again! Team Redemption was an amazing team that I know I will stay close with long, long after the race is over but man oh man, was I sad to see us split up. BUT God’s got a plan, so I came into my new team with a positive attitude and excitment for what the Lord had in store for us 🙂
Team Redemption 🙂 aka Team Redeem aka Dream Team
During my time with Team Redemption, I learned what it looks like to live in real, intentional community. I was constantly learning about the Lord’s character from each member of our team- He had a way of teaching us all different parts to the same puzzle. We loved to laugh together, so that made for a grand time regardless of the situations we found ourselves in…which in Africa can vary from going off the road in our van named Courage during what seemed like a hurricane to having to speak out of the blue somewhere where the contacts said we would absolutely not need to have anything prepared. Haha oh, those jokesters! Team Redemption was extremely encouraging as I worked on figuring out what it meant to be a team leader. They helped build my confidence, gave me room to grow in boldness and followed my lead as we made our way across 3 countries in Africa (multiples times)- I couldn’t have asked for a better team <3 Man, God showed up in huge ways – within our own time together to seeing true miracles of healing when we were out in ministry. I will continue praying for each member of Team Redemption, and I ask that you continue praying for them too. Man, they’re just so great!
So here’s to a new continent, a new country and to my new amazing team! I’d like to introduce you tooooo….
TEAM SEQUOIA!
A sequoia is a type of tree. This tree has deep roots that connect to the roots of other trees to make a network of trees. One of the reasons our team chose this name is because that is what we are doing this year. We are connecting with people all over the world creating one body in unity under Christ.
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17: 7-8
Ashley Van Houttum from the great country of Canada. Ashley was on Team Glow with me the first 3 months of the race while we were in Europe. She is an extremely sweet, thoughtful and wise woman of God with a lot of love to give. We’ve had some great chats while running through Ukraine and Romania. She’s grown a ton during her time in Africa, and I cannot wait to finish this race with her back by my side <3
Ash and I in Dublin 🙂
Tracy Hagar is another Michigander! Hooray! My team may have gotten an interesting idea of what Michigan is like from me saying things such as, Jeez oh petes!, celebrating Sweetest Day (which apparently is ONLY celebrated in Michigan…who knew??), eating reheated Taco Bell and drinking warm pop…or as my southern friends would say, soda or coke. Tracy and I got really close prior to the race and I’m really excited to get to know her better than ever. She’s a strong, bold, fun loving woman of God that I know I can learn so much from. Man, I am so pumped to have her on our team! Plus we only live 45 minutes away from eachother, so when we go back home, we’ll only be a short drive away J
Jessica Sims was on Team Redemption, and I cannot tell you how glad I am that we were able to stay together. Whether we’re in ministry or it’s just our team, she’s constantly pouring love out onto the people around her. She’s been blessed with a beautiful voice that she’s been using more and more during ministry -most of us end up listening to her instead of fully singing ourselves which she just looves haha J We can’t help it though, she’s just that good! She’s got a great sense of humor, boldness that pushes us to be more open with eachother and she has a way of lightening situations that could be frustrating otherwise. To top it off, she’s a fantastic running buddy J
Jess and I during one of our village celebrations/preachings
Jonathan Beckman, oh what a guy! Jonathan was also on Team Redemption and has tons to offer to the team. He’s been called, ‘John the Baptist’ on more than one occasion for the wisdom he has. Not to mention the joy he finds in skinning goats in Kenya- don’t worry we ate them for dinner after (sensitive subject alert….we won’t talk about it too much but a street dog stole his goat skin off the clothes line while it was drying out) He’s got a great sense of humor and has developed the ability to put up with me and Jennifer’s ridiculous jokes starting when the sun comes up haha J Jonathan is extremely considerate and thoughtful of the girls on the team. He has a solid relationship with the Lord that he is always looking to deepen and strengthen which pushes us all to more. So happy to have him on Team Sequoia!
jonathan sporting his mountain climbing gear in Tanzania:)
Nathan Salley has also joined Team Sequoia from Team Redemption! Hooray! Nathan is an outgoing, quick witted, natural leader and I’m so pumped to have him on the team again. He’s also one of our squad leaders and we’re blessed to be able to encourage him however we can as he pushes the squad into where the Lord’s leading us next. The Lord’s given him a gift of insight and vision for the team and squad which he’s walking into more each day. The Lord’s blessed him with a powerful and influential voice that he’ll change a lot of lives with during and after the race. Another bonus- he knows that nothing beats a good dad joke to make me smile J
