It is with a thankful and excited heart that I introduce to you our new team…
TEAM CHANGE
[Klarissa Stovall, Karah Park, Parker Mulvain, Tayler Patton, Katie Stuart, Me and Colin]
You probably recognize some of these names from our last team and there are a couple new ones too! God graciously blessed us with another amazing, amazing team to learn from, grow with, and serve others together. Again, He has placed Colin and I on a team we honestly don’t deserve. I could not be more excited and thankful for Team Change!!
Now you might be asking yourself why teams changed… This is a normal process for the World Race. Teams are shuffled and changed as new squad leaders are raised up from within the squad at the end of month four. As our three new squad leaders were all previously team leaders… teams obviously needed to change a bit.
As team changes approached a couple of weeks ago I was terrified. I loved Team Oaks. We had spent four beautiful, challenging, fun months together. We were finally coming out of our shells and feeling comfortable to be ourselves and share the hard stuff. We were finally unified in ministry and understanding how to live together well. I didn’t want our team to change… and I prayed against it.
But lo and behold on the day they announced new teams our team did indeed change. And of course, as I mourned the end of Team Oaks, God simultaneously changed my heart to be fully excited and thankful. First of all, thankful to get to know two incredible and fun people, Parker and Katie, two people I know I will learn from and get along with really well.
And secondly, thankful to move into a new season with a fresh beginning. Before coming on the World Race I had a picture in my head of what I was going to be like on the race. How I was going to pour my heart out and love my team well, love Colin better than ever before, pursue God passionately, and serve the people we met with nothing but joy. But, as any World Racer could tell you, expectations never work out. Selfishness, homesickness, and everything I didn’t deal with in my heart before the race got in the way. God used my first team and the first four months of the race to help shed and heal a lot of those things that got in the way. And He is still working on me, as I will always be a work in progress. But now I am excited to move into a new team and new season of the race… I am ready to strive to be that person I thought I would be. And I am excited to let God work in me and in our new team as we all have a desire to be more than we were before.
Team Change is named as such because we are all ready for change. Change frightens me and I almost never deal with it well. But everyone on our team, myself included, is ready to stop resisting how God wants to heal us and mold us and change us. As scary as it is, I am ready let God grow me in ways I never knew were possible.
In addition to welcoming internal change, we as a team want to usher in a position of change for the people we meet. Changes from darkness to light. Changes from despair to hope. Changes that will save their lives and the lives of generations to come.
So watch out world… Team CHANGE is comin’ at ya!
UPDATE: Our whole squad is still in Nelspruit, South Africa. For the past week we have been living at (camping!) and serving Manna Fellowship Church. AND… our India visas have been approved! We have our passports back and will be able to go to India in January! But we recently found out about a change in our route. As we are still in South Africa we will remain here for the rest of November and will head to Swaziland at the end of the month. We will spend the majority of December in Swaziland and will unfortunately not be able to go to Mozambique anymore. There is political unrest and fighting in the country and it would be unsafe for us to go there at this time. But we are thankful that God is in control, has us exactly where He can best use us, and always, always knows what is best.
