I don’t know what it is with my team and tattoos but we all seem to want them all the time. Minutes after becoming a team at training camp we got matching tattoos. I didn’t because I was struggling with the idea of going on the race and I didn’t want a consent reminder of another thing I tried but was too scared to actually do. In the months between camp and launch I told myself that I needed to get this tattoo to fit in with my team and that I was going to be an outsider if I didn’t get it. This feeling still hasn’t completely gone away. Especially when they describe our team name by holding up their arms and explaining what the compass means.
This past month in the Philippines was hard. We might have had a nice missionary house to live in that was relatively bug free, with hot showers, and a washer and dryer, but that doesn’t make living in community any easier. We are now in Thailand and during debrief a lot of struggles from the past month have come to the surface and the little voice in the back of my head is saying “ do you really fit in?”
So when my team and I find ourselves at a tattoo parlor and I find myself thinking that I need to get the team compass tattoo. I did get a tattoo but it was not the team tat, and I am not saying that I won’t later but it doesn’t anything to with my ability to serve and love my team. God has made me unique and given me strengths that others on my team do not have. I am not entirely sure how He will use my strengths to connect with my team and squad for that matter, but I am excited to find out.
Side note: Yes, you read that right I did get a tattoo in Thailand. (sorry Mom) It is a beautiful word that is uniquely Thai. When it is directly translated to English it means, water of the heart but the sentiment behind it is true willingness to help others, even before they ask, without expecting anything in return.
