We had a mini debrief at the end of our ministry month in India where all the teams met at GEMS, a ministry 3 hours east of Varanasi, India. My team was lucky to have been able to fly from Bangalore (southern India) to New Delhi (northern India) and take a 12 hour train ride from there to Varanasi. This was much better than our 41 hour train ride from New Delhi to Bangalore earlier in the month.
At mini debrief, 3 new squad leaders were raised up because Garrett and Lauren will leave us after month 4, and 3 new team leaders were raised up. Michelle, Bri, and Jason (all former team leaders) became the new squad leaders and will go around to different ministry sites this month with Garrett and Lauren to get the gist of things. The 3 new team leaders are Taryn, Logan, and Kate and they are going to do awesome. Along with new leaders came new teams. My former team of Ben, Michael, Jenny, Emily, and Erin was completely dispersed and I now have an all-girls team.
I reacted differently than I expected myself to in that I was sort of lost for a day or two after having my team split. I felt like we worked (I worked) so hard for our team dynamic to mesh well and we had grown in our experiences the past 3 months, which made me feel like I reached a wall after our team was ended. I didn’t know how to start anew. I didn’t want to make similar mistakes. I didn’t know what step to take first. I realized the comfort acquired over the first 3 months with my team and was not sure what to do right away without it. So, and I’m sure my malaria pills played a significant part in this, when I found out my new team I was super excited and at the same time kind of apathetic.
Many people were trying to adjust to new teams and while sad about leaving their old team, began feeling a sense of belonging and safety within their new group right away. This is how I, along with my teammates felt, when we got together at debrief. We are stoked about the level of intimacy we will be able to develop with all-girls. For example, one night at debrief we had a volleyball tournament between all the new teams. As I’m waiting for my team at the courts and mingling with others, a group of people came running up in the dark, chanting and wearing their swimsuits on top of their clothes. We all look at them and as I asked, “Who is that?” someone responds, “Staci, I think that’s your team.” “Sweet!” I yelled as I ran towards them. Okay, we are hoping for a bit more intimacy than running around fully clothed and with our swimsuits on top, but who wouldn’t be excited to have such fun teammates? (we were suppose to think of creative attire and wear it to the tournament for points, hence the swimsuit).
So my new team for the rest of the race is:
Corinna Gallagher http://corinnagallagher.theworldrace.org
Olivia Haughey http://oliviahaughey.theworldrace.org
Rachel Gust http://rachelgust.theworldrace.org
Kendall Thompson http://kendallthompson.theworldrace.org
Brooke Blackburn http://brookeblackburn.theworldrace.org
With a new team comes a new team name. Welcome to team Tambo Tribe…that's right. So the name is in reference to the Bible….which is good. When we came together we spoke of how we wanted to walk more in the victory that we know we already have. In the Bible, when a battle is won, celebration occurs and there is always dancing with a tambourine. Our desire is to live every day in victory, believing that Christ has won the war and all we need to do is walk in this victory with freedom. When you know you have won or overcome a battle in life, you have a peace overcome you and you walk with freedom (in our case we love to dance in freedom)…freedom to be who you are, to speak about the victory that exists, and to live as if the victory just happened.
