So it is now Day 6 of camp. All of our squad smells of campfire, dirt, sweat, sunscreen and multiple brands of bugspray. We are exhausted and overheated, but more importantly we have been beautifully wrecked to begin our intense spiritual and personal transformations.
After lunch, our whole squad heads up the hill to the Pavillion and it is announced that our teams have been selected! This is what we have been waiting for all week. These are the people we will be traveling with the whole 11 months! This will be our family.
Drum roll please….
I found out that I have been BLESSED with the most awesome team ever! I am so, so, so excited for the people that I will be living in community with across the nations. Adam Smith is our team's fearless leader; I am so excited to learn from his wisdom and his super fly dance moves. Joe and Abigail Beard: the squad's one and only married couple; I am so lucky to have them and their Godly marriage to encourage me and the rest of the team this year. Payton Runnels, who will bring laughter and her amazingly bedazzled headbands along. Diane LaCour, who will add a little suga' to the bunch with her super sweet spirit. Tyler Lee, who will serenade us and lead us in worship with his awesome guitar skills. And then there is…me, aka C$. I am so appreciative and honored by the position that I have been asked to fulfill as the team's treasurer by my team leader and squad leaders.
I know that the Lord hand picked our group, I couldn't have asked for any better individuals to serve along side for the next year.
Our team name is Ethne Thomas. I know, I know. It really just rolls of the tip of the tongue. 🙂 However I promise that there is a very intentional purpose behind our very unique name.
Ethne is a greek word and it is used by New Testament writers to describe "unreached people" or "unreached nations." In it's Celtic form, the word Ethne means "Fire." The first goal of our team is to spread the hope and freedom of Christ's love with the passion and drive of a wild fire to all of the unreached people and nations.
And then there is Thomas. Poor Thomas gets a pretty rough depiction in the bible. He is known as the "doubter." He requires a little extra proof from Christ that His crucifiction and ressurection could actually be legit. But the side of Thomas that we don't get to see, is that after Christ met him at his need (allowing Thomas to physically touch his nail wounds), Thomas became a fierce warrior and apostle for the Lord. He spent the rest of his life being a missionary and preaching the gospel. He spread the church to India, and that is where he became a martyr for the boldness of his faith in Christ. Like Thomas, many of us on the team have at one point or another doubted the power and majesty of the Lord. We had put Him in a box. But our view has radically been changed and we have forever allowed Christ out of the box and are filled with a desire to share His victorious name with the world.
My team and I are so excited about this next year! We know that God will stretch us and challenge us. We know that the Lord will humble us and bless us by being used as a blessing to others. We are stepping out in faith because we know that Abba Father is faithful.
Please pray for my new family and I for the next year as we follow the Lord's calling in our lives. Pray that we can build one another up. Pray that we can speak truth and healing to those that God has prepared for us in advance. Pray for our safety and for our financial support. Pray that we can forever be transformed by seeing the power of Christ's perfect love as we venture out together on this journey.
Thank you so much for your continued encouragement! Love you all!
<3 Cassie
