Thanksgiving is now twice as awesome.

So during our squad debrief
in Bulgaria, three of our squadmates were raised up to be squad
leaders for the K Squad. Caitlin, Brian, and Stacy will be staying
on the field with us for one more month, and then they’ll be heading
back to the States after our debrief in Turkey. Our new squad
leaders will be taking over their responsibilities, and I have the
utmost confidence in their leadership. From this point on, Tamica
from Kingdom Unity and Mike and Denise from goodness.gracious will be
functioning as squad leaders, and the authority figures of the squad.

 

In light of the fact that
some of the teams will be losing team members, new leaders have been
raised up to take the reins. And in light of all of these changes,
there have been significant changes to Petra. Tim will still be
leading Joel, Jennifer, and Martha (along with two new team members),
but Lauren, Danielle, and I have been put onto other teams.

 

I’m counting this split as
blessing, because I now have twice as many family members. It’s like
an even better family Christmas. Petra will always be my family;
there’s no changing that. Those six men and women have seen how I’ve
grown and changed in the past three months, they know how God has
been working in my life, and I can say the same things about each one
of them since starting the Race. The seven of us are still bonded
together. That’s not going to change all of a sudden. We’re not
suddenly going to not be family and not care about what’s going on in
each other’s lives.

 

At the same time, I now have
five brand new family members, and I get to go to their house for
Thanksgiving. It’s great because I’ve had the opportunity to serve
alongside all five of these people in ministry settings in both
Romania and Croatia, so I’ve caught a glimpse of who they are and
have started to get to know them, and now I’m excited to figuratively
fight over the last turkey drumstick with them.

 

 

 Grant Tarjick has been newly
raised to the position of leader, and is already stepping up in a big
way into his role. He’s a down-home Texas guy with one of the best
photo faces I’ve ever seen. He’s one of four guitarists on our team
(Joe, Dez, and April also play), and can go from contemplative and
reverent worship leader to Mrs. Doubtfire (complete with balloons up
the shirt) in a minute and a half. It’s been less than three days
and I already know that I can count on Grant as a leader to have my
back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe Bunting is from
California, and is the awesomely pesky twin brother I never had. We
share a love of writing and words, and frequently use SAT words in
everyday conversation. We also pick on each other constantly, and it
secretly makes me really happy. While we hassle each other
frequently, we also have our serious moments, and there’s an almost
perfect balance between the two. We worked together in Pula,
Croatia, and I loved every minute of it. Fun fact: Joe’s hidden
talent is baking apple cup-pies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dez Loeppky is our first
resident Canadian (lucky us; we get two), and the youngest member of
the team. She has a lot of energy, a love of music (she writes her own music/has an EP), and a desire to
serve, and it’s been wonderful to work with her while in Pula. She
has a knack for bonding with people, and made friends with literally
every Croatian under the age of twenty-three that we met last month
(and a twenty-year-old German). I’m intrigued to see how large of a
Turkish following she gathers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April Wright is our
fantastically adorable vegetarian, and probably the epitome of how
cool I wish I was. We had a music swapping party in Viile Tecii, and
I’m pretty sure my music collection benefited more from the trade
than hers did. April has a spirit of sweetness and a genuine quality
to her. She strikes me as the most sympathetically honest person
I’ve ever encountered. When she hugs you, she means it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julia Luu is Canadian and
brilliant (not that the two are ever mutually exclusive). She’s one
of our squad logistics heads, and she’s really good at it. Her story
of how she grew up and got to the Race never ceases to absolutely
amaze me, and she rivals April for most genuine human being on the
face of the planet. She’s also one of the least fazed people I’ve
met. If I were on squad logistics, I’d probably be pulling my hair
out at least once a week. So far, Julia shows no signs of female
baldness.

 

 

 

 

 

And then there’s Sofia.

 

 

 

 

 

Sofia is our seventh team
member. All six of us were on seven-person teams before, and at the
very beginning of our time as a team, we noticed how small our team
looked with six. Then we made up a seventh member and named her
Sofia. Our team name may or may not have mostly come about because
of that invisible team member.