Alright, so you all know I had training camp last week. So around the middle of the week we start doing team formation activities. They (our trainers, squad leaders, AIM staff) would put us into groups, give us a task to complete, and see how we interacted with each other. They would take notes on the interactions, meet with us one-on-one afterwards, switch up the groups and activities, and then repeat! We had about 2 days of team formation activities. Then after all of this plus praying for God’s will, AIM makes the final teams. And let me just say, my team is AWESOME.
So without further ado, I give you my team: Free Indeed
From left to right we have (blogs included)
Craig: http://craigbass.theworldrace.org/
Brad (our trusted leader): http://bradleyhenke.theworldrace.org/
Ronny: http://ronnywilson.theworldrace.org/
Me
Christina: http://christinacooley.theworldrace.org/
Brittany: http://brittanyneal.theworldrace.org/
Please consider praying for them, supporting them, and reading their blogs. This is my new family. These are the people I will be living with for the next 4 months AT LEAST. So I also recommend subscribing to their blogs. Because if I’m too lazy to write a blog one week, maybe they won’t be, and you can read their’s to see how life is going! We also might unofficially refer to ourselves as #teamstank. There is nothing offensive meant by this, and it will all make more sense in my next blog post 🙂
On the last day of training camp, they also announced route changes!!
So as of now (although it can still change in the future) my route is:
- Panama
- Costa Rica
- Nicaragua
- Honduras
- Malaysia
- Thailand
- Laos
- Cambodia
- Swaziland
- Botswana
- South Africa
Panama and Malaysia are new countries to our route (taking the place of Guatemala and Japan). But Malaysia was actually in my Jan 2015 route, so I’m excited to see this one back on! The astute supporter will also notice that the order of countries changed for Central America also. Not sure why… I’ve just learned to go with the flow!
As we were told about route changes, we also found out where we’ll be doing ministry in Costa Rica! This is HIGHLY abnormal that we’ll find out about a ministry contact so far in advance. So being a planner, I was super stoked about this announcement. Turns out my entire squad will come together for month 2 and we’ll work with Christian Life Foundation which is an organization that focuses on doing evangelism in the hard places of Costa Rica. So we get to spend a month doing outreach and trying to fulfill the Great Commission!!
Lastly, I wanted to give all of my lovely supporters a fundraising update!
I am still collecting t-shirt money, so all that money y’all have raised through buying t-shirts is not included in my account total yet. So once that money gets put in, I should be about $500 away from reaching my next deadline – August 19th! (Checks need to be sent in by the 8th) Y’all, this is totally do-able! AIM requires me to have $7500 in my account by launch. But I want to challenge you guys, because I think you can handle it.
By the time I launch, my goal is to have $11,000 in my fundraising account.
I’m about $4000 away from that, so how can you help me reach this goal?
- Donate to my account by clicking the “Support Me” tab on the left side of the page.
- My mom and I are making t-shirt quilts. You can use old t-shirts, or you can give us photos that we can print onto fabric and use as blocks. We are asking $10 per block (t-shirt or picture) and they take about 2 weeks to make. So if you have a lot of t-shirts that you don’t wear, but hold onto for sentimental reasons, consider ordering a quilt! It helps you, it helps me, it’s a win-win.
- I have about 5 t-shirts left to sell. Anyone want one?
- I’m having a yard sale August 8th and 9th! I’ll be selling a lot of furniture from my apartment and such. Don’t need to buy anything? No worries! Would you be willing to donate things to me that I can sell? I’m even willing to come pick them up from you! Just please let me know!
- My lovely and talented friend, Katherine, has graciously offered to host a paint party for me! Katherine is an artist, and a great teacher. So on the afternoon of August 17th, she’ll be teaching me and anyone else who wants to come support me how to paint the beautiful portrait below. We’ll be charging $35 and that includes all supplies, plus we’ll be providing some appetizers and wine. If you want to come, please let me know! I’ve done one of these paintings before, and please hear me out: if a math major can do this, anyone can! I promise. Don’t think that “mine would never turn out that good” because you’re wrong. Katherine will make it super easy and fun. Plus she’s a professional so she can offer help IF you mess up. (I might know this from experience..)
