This is way overdue but I want to introduce you to my team. We’re Fierce Pursuit and basically we are pretty awesome so without further ado…
Angela Ketchem
Angela is our fearless leader who hails from the great state of Texas. She graduated from Hardin Simmons in Texas with degrees in Psychology and Sociology. She is a wonderful writer so you should definitely check out her blog. She also has a crazy war dance when she worships that makes you shake you head and smile the first time you see it. She’s a feisty red-head who loves music and pranks. We have basically discovered that we are soul sisters with similar tastes in just about everything. I’m super excited to see how God continues to grow our relationship. Angela is currently $5,800 away from being fully funded.
Mark Hengst
Mark is our oldest brother at 26 and is from Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Mark grew up in the Lutheran church but attended a Pentecostal Bible College. He has a southern gospel voice and is known to break out in hymns during prayer so watch out. He knows the bible front to back and is very helpful in locating verses since we don’t have access to Google or Biblegateway.com. I’m excited to see him grow into the man God has called him to be. Mark is currently $8,000 away from being fully funded. Holla atcha boy.
Ashli Blackwell
Ash is our team’s southern belle from Mississippi! I didn’t realize how much influence my southern mother instilled in me until this last month with Ashli. She loves to cook and serve (like any good southern Baptist woman does) and spoils us with delicious meals whipped up from a random assortment of ingredients. She may or may not have peed her pants from excitement when we saw our kitchen this month in South Africa. Ashli was a Hospitality and Tourism major and graduated from University of Southern Mississippi in 2011. She has worked for Marriott this past year. Praise the Lord because Ashli is fully funded!
Jochem Veldhuijzen
Jochem is originally from the Netherlands but has lived in Grand Rapids Michigan since he was four. He has degrees in accounting and finance from Grand Valley State University. Is has an incredible gift of reaching out to strangers on combis, airplanes, or shopping malls. He also loves children, especially African ones. I’m not entirely sure when he plans on cutting his hair next but I’ll be the first to let you know when that crazy head of hair is back under control. (Jk Jochem!) Jochem is quickly becoming like a brother to me, which I appreciate a lot. We share a love of hip-hop music so you can find us washing dishes together while jamming to Drake or Nikki. Obvi.
**UPDATE: Jochem is planning to get a haircut this week at debreif. Praise the Lord because it is out of control.
Amy Dillman
Amy is my sweet and sassy teammate who you will find doing Zumba at any given time. She loves to work out and will hopefully be whipping me into shape this year. She has a degree in social work from Olivet Nazarene University and has worked with pregnancy resource centers this past year. She has a passion for empowering women and children. She is super sweet and delicate but don’t let that fool you into thinking she’s weak. She has an amazing gift of prophecy but is ready to grow in that this year. Amy is fully funded but as some of you may have heard her laptop was stolen this past month in Zimbabwe and her aunt is fundraising to get a new Macbook to her while she’s on the field. Amy is iSquad’s logistics person and she needs a computer to help plan and secure housing, transportation, and ministry sites for all 61 of us this year.
**UPDATE: Amy recieved her new computer YESTERDAY at debreif. Thanks to everyone to prayed for her**
So far we haven’t had much access to internet which means our blog posts are pretty sporadic so you could adopt our team and receive email updates whenever one of us posts a blog to get a better picture of what we are experiencing. Jochem, Amy, and Angela are always snapping pictures so you’ll probably see a lot of those posted on their blogs and who doesn’t love pictures? Please pray that we continue to grow and fight for each other as we enter month two. We are just beginning to get a feel for everyone’s role as we discover each other’s strengths, skills, and passions. We are all on the same race but God has definitely placed us on different journeys, which is completely ok and embraced, but not without some conflict. We are very blessed with this month’s ministry site right outside of Nelspruit, South Africa with another Iris Ministry. with individual beds AND indoor plumbing that actually flushes. We are placed with another team from iSquad, J159 whom you should also check out.
