The most common advice to World Racers is, "Be open. Don't have expectations." Of course, that's impossible. We all have ideas about what we'll eat, how much of what we'll eat we'll able to digest, where we'll go, how we'll sleep. I think that's fine. The problem is that it's easy to hold on to our expectations at the cost of avoiding what actually happens: that's been one of the biggest things I've learned so far, and I haven't even left the US yet!
My World Race already looks dramatically different than it did a couple months ago. This is mostly due to the fact that I switched from B Squad to C Squad at training camp, thereby joining an entirely different group of people headed to an entirely different group of countries next year. Read about that process here.
Making that switch was difficult, but after giving up my expectations of where I'd be going and who I'd be going with, my grip on my plans loosened. Which is why, when I got a phone call recently about switching to a different team within my squad, considering another change was an easier matter.
(I have added some new subscribers since last posting, so if you're just joining me for my World Race, blog, welcome! And let me explain the difference between a squad and a team, because it can be confusing: all World Race participants are on a squad, which is a big group of about 50 people that are going to the same 11 countries at the same time. These 50 people know each other. We were at training camp together, we'll see each other on the Race, and we're in touch right now. Back in October, I changed squads, which meant leaving my original group of 50 people and my original 11-country itinerary to join a brand new squad, C Squad. This is the squad I'm on now.
C Squad will see each other when we travel country to country, and will be all together on occasion, but my team is the smaller unit within the squad that I will be living with every day this year. When our squad arrives in Honduras in one month, the idea is that our teams of 6 or 7 people will split off and go to different ministry sites (though sometimes a couple teams or even the whole big group stays together depending on the work we're doing). One member of each team serves as the leader. The team leader isn't someone with special experiences or who has done the World Race before; he or she just has an extra level of responsibility for managing logistics, team dynamics, and communication.)
We were put into our teams at training camp back in October, and I was put in an amazing, diverse group of people. We named our team Crisco, because Crisco is greasy, and christos in Greek means anointed, oily (hence Jesus Christ, the Anointed One), and there was a sense that there would be some powerful healing and restoration happening in and through our team.
(Also, a Crisco can featured prominently in one of our team-building exercises, in which we had to rank items in order of importance for survival in the forest! Spiritual significance and an inside joke in one team name? Perfect.) Here's a picture of us on our first day together. From left to right: me, Kori, Robyn, David, Michelle, and Tony.
Meanwhile, on another C Squad team, the leader felt led to step down from the Race and stay involved in what was going on in her hometown. This left her team of 5 women one person short and without a leader.
I got a phone call from one of the Adventures in Missions staff a little while ago. She explained this situation to me, and then asked if I would consider leaving Team Crisco to become the leader of this all-women team. After a few days of discussing the possibility with people and protesting that I'm not good with logistics, I decided to go for it and leave my current team to lead this new one. It is a significant change, but it wasn't as dramatic as my route change in October: I had already let go of my countries, so what was one more change of plans?
It was one of those moments where you're given an opportunity and God doesn't really push you in one way or the other, because there is no wrong choice. But as a friend told me, taking the most challenging opportunities give God the most space to work in us. So team leading it is.
As a team leader, I will serve as a point person for my team, Brazen Hearts. I'll handle a lot of the logistics on the Race, such as communicating with the ministries we'll be based at each month. I'll also serve as an advocate for decision-making, team unity, and vision casting. These responsibilities are a surprise to me. I was expecting, and frankly, looking forward to, being a follower this year. However, I am very much at peace with this change and I know that God can use my previous leadership experiences–both failures and successes–to teach my whole team to be better followers of Jesus.
I'd appreciate your prayers about that, in fact: pray that as we C Squad leaders step up in three weeks, we'd step alongside Jesus as followers.
This is what Team Brazen Hearts looks like video chatting, minus two members, Kori and Kelly (we'll get a real team picture soon, I promise). Clockwise from top left: Angela, Nicole, Kelsey, Lacey, me (Chelsea), and, well, Angela again.
One upshot of my switching teams, you may have calculated, is that my original team Crisco was left with only 5 members. Sadly, this number shrunk to 4 as one of our teammates, David, needed to postpone his World Race due to back problems. The remaining members were Tony, Kori, Michelle, and Robyn, and these four wonderful people have now been separated and put onto other teams. This is a very sad thing, because we were growing close as a team and were very excited to be together. But like they say, "Be open. Don't have expectations." I trust that even though we can't be together, there is something amazing God's planning. So stay tuned.
And I've got to say, I am very happy to announce that the disbanding of Crisco means that Kori is joining Team Brazen Hearts! I am so happy to be with her again!
Yikes, three weeks until this all starts really happening. I should pack. I should use up my Starbucks gift card.
