Hello again blog world! Long time no post…but as most of you know, our Internet in Swazi was extremely unreliable and then our entire month in China, we were cut off from contact with the outside world completely. So basically what's about to happen is that I'm gonna have to post a slew of blogs to recap what's been going on the last 1 & 1/2-2 months (I can't believe it's been that long!!)
So at the end of November we left Africa from the Jo-Burg Airport then had layovers in Nairobi, Kenya and Bangkok, Thailand before landing in Hong Kong where we remained for a few days while waiting for our China visas to be approved. Even just the few days we had in Hong Kong were eventful to say the least–exploring the city, praying against idol worship in the village, you know, the usual–but the biggest thing that happened while we were there was the raising up of the new squad leaders and the changing of ALL the teams. Yepp, I'm now on my second team and third team name. Here are my new teammates and a small snippet about each one (you can find their pictures and personal blogs directly to the left):
Angela Ketcham-team leader, fiery, outrageous, determined, personable; I was so excited when I found out Angela was my team leader! She is a ton of fun and seeks the Lord so hard. It's been really great just living life with and getting to know her.
Alex Compton-awesome brother, caring, athletic, respectful, hard working; Having been on a team with Alex since training camp I've seen him grow in HUGE ways and it's been such a huge blessing just to see how the Lord has been working in him. I'm really thankful that we made it through team changes with each other and will be able to (hopefully) finish out the Race together.
Liz Monroe-worshipper, loving, hungry, passionate, challenging; Liz loves what she likes to call "the weird stuff", ie. rage dancing in worship, crazy praise music, and seeing all the crazy ways the Holy Spirit moves. She has a huge heart and is so easy to love!
Imelda Perez-wise, motherly, Spirit-led, unapologetic, truthful; Mel depends so fully on the Lord and doesn't care who knows it. The Holy Spirit says sing, she sings. He says lay hands and pray, she lays hands and prays. It doesn't matter who's around or how she looks, this girl is obedient.
Isaac Berg-insightful, intentional, adventurous, gentle, thoughtful; Isaac is one of those people who is always bringing a new perspective to the table. He sees the world and sees God in different ways than anyone else, and I always love hearing his views.
Abby Twarek-sweet, graceful, servant-hearted, responsible, humble; Abby is such a great asset to our team in that she is always keeping us in check. She is a woman of few words, but the words she does speak come with a lot of power and a lot of wisdom.
Together, we are team Holy F.I.R.E.! Obviously, God is holy and through the blood of Christ makes us holy; fire has a vast number of meanings in the Bible, including God appearing to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3), God as a consuming fire and a jealous God (Deuteronomy 4:24), Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11), and taking the wheat and burning the weeds in the Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13), among many other symbols. The initials F.I.R.E. stand for Fierce, Intimate, Rooted in Eternity. These are all things we want to grow into with each other and in each of our own relationships with the Lord.
I'm so excited to see what our good and faithful God has in store for team Holy F.I.R.E. and I hope you are too!
