My extremely talented teammate Doug Linstedt made a beautiful video summary of our Month 1!
A Ministry in Masi from Doug Linstedt on Vimeo.
We became quite attached to those kids… (Enough to give them nicknames – we’ll never forget “Kirby” in particular, the little one with the tire.)
Our “Month” 1 was, in reality, only 2.5 weeks. But Masi will always be the place where we began this new year away from our homes, first grew together as a team, and got used to the idea that we are finally, really, World Racers.
Leaving our mark on the Kiddies Corner daycare wall
Right now I’m at a beautiful hostel in Nelspruit, South Africa for 4 days of Debrief with our whole squad. We’ll get the chance to rest and debrief together every few months along the Race – this is mostly where my duties as Logistics leader kick in. But thankfully, this first time, many things had already been taken care of! So we are generally free to relax. 🙂 Our Squad Parents and Squad Mentors fly from the States to all of our Debriefs. They lead this time along with our Squad Leaders (don’t worry, more on all these titles and what they mean later!). They structure our Debriefs to help us process our trip so far, and to prepare us for what’s ahead.
I will write more about this time in Nelspruit soon – it’s already been both wonderful and intense, and very important for all of us.
Annnnd some news! I can officially announce that our ministry next month in Swaziland will be El Shaddai orphanage!! It’s a beautiful, peaceful haven atop a mountain and ALL OF B SQUAD will be working there together for February 🙂 We’ve heard powerful stories from previous squads about El Shaddai (it was featured in a recent Adventures in Missions article), and we’re very excited to see it for ourselves!
