After our last squad debrief in May, I said goodbye to my last team, Hijas del Rey, and hello to my new team, Abundant Joy**. I was also asked to team lead this new team.
Walking into Ecuador, I was really excited. I was nervous-excited about team leading. I was stoked to be at this sweet location called Casablanca in Quito with most of the squad (including every member of my last team). All the details we had about our ministry for the month sounded fun and challenging. It was shaping up to be an awesome month.
Then, our first moment in the door at Casablanca, we learned that there had been a mix up, and my team was actually going to be staying outside of the city, by ourselves, at our ministry location. To say I was disappointed and scared is an understatement. I felt robbed, and I felt vulnerable. I had no idea how to lead my team, and I wasn’t going to be with any other team leader to figure that out with. Leaving the next morning to head to our new location was a little brutal–saying goodbye to the rest of our squadmates, taking 3 buses for a total of 3 hours, getting separated from the rest of my team with no money and no communication, and getting dropped off on the side of the road in an unfamiliar town were all the events that launched our first month as a new team.
When we actually started ministry, I started learning just how hard it is to lead a team of my peers. It’s awkward, messy, time-consuming, humbling, and demanding. I cried more that month than I had the first four months combined. On top of the new dynamic of being a leader, and missing the women I had grown so close to on my last team, we also had some pretty awkward and difficult miscommunications with our ministry hosts and a jam-packed schedule. I felt crazy and tired and inadequate pretty much all month.
About halfway through the month, my team had started a study together on Hebrews. I was feeling really discouraged, and had just had a breakdown the night before, and as I was reading Hebrews to prepare for our discussion, I felt a nudge from the Lord to read James instead. James starts pretty much right off saying “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 1:2-3). First I was frustrated reading that, because who wants to face trials, right? But then the truth sank in: I want to grow in character, I want to be strong, and the only way to do that is to push through hard seasons well.
When I finish the Race and look back, I will remember Ecuador as a month that pushed me in uncomfortable ways, that challenged the things I thought about myself and the Lord and ministry, that refined my through fire. And I’ll be thankful that I persevered and came out of it better.
Team “AJ” at the equator: Jaide, Kay, Lesa, Kayla, Katie, Brie, and myself
**Cool story about my new team’s name: when I was asked to team lead, before I ever knew who would be on my team, I started praying about what my team would be known for, and I kept hearing the Lord say “joy.” So when our new teams were announced, the first time we all met together to come up with our new name, I told the girls what I had prayed and what I heard. Another teammate, Lesa, said she was hearing “abundance,” so we named the team Abundant Joy. Before I left for the Race, my friend from home, Briana, prayed for a word from the Lord for me for each month of the Race, and she wrote each one on little post-it notes for me to read at the beginning of each month. When my team got to Ecuador, I opened my calendar and read the word that Bri had for me for the month, and the word was “Joy Abounding.” CRAZY, right?
