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How is it possible to become so close with complete strangers?
Back in August I met the people that would be my team for the first part of the race. And that is how I viewed them, just a team. A team of people that were forced together by leadership to do ministry and life together. A team of four men and two other women.
There have been many times on the race where I’ve realized how wrong I was looking back.
This is one of those times.
I initially started becoming close to the women on my team. Our friendships quickly grew. I found myself sharing everything with them.
I knew we would become friends, but I never dreamed that I could say I have two amazing, beautiful sisters.
It’s easy to assume that two of us would have paired off, but I’m so thankful to say that didn’t happen. We became a really strong trio. They laughed with me, cried with me, and called me higher in times when I was frankly being a brat.
During month four, the men from our squad were all together for manistry month. And I honestly didn’t think I would miss being on a team with them.
Again…wrong.
I was struggling a lot that month. I was struggling with relationships back home. My dad had just told me he was going to have to have surgery the next month, so I was feeling pretty crappy.
I had messaged our group chat to let them know what was going on with me since they were in another part of Cambodia. I was at a pretty low point.
Instead of waiting until the end of the month when I would see them for travel day, all four of them took the time to call me and pray for me.
This was the moment I realized that these men and women were no longer just my team or my friends but my family.
This team cared for me and loved me in ways I never thought was possible for only meeting a few months earlier.
We found out that all of us would remain on a team together for another two months with some added members, which is honestly quite a rare thing on the race. Normally after four months, teams get completely switched up.
Well after these last two months that’s what happened. It was time for team changes. I was really nervous to find out if I would remain with any of my original teammates on my new team.
If you watched the video in my previous blog, you know that didn’t happen.
I am on a new team with completely new “strangers”.
Change is hard.
But I didn’t come on the race to be comfortable. If I had remained on my previous team that is exactly what it would have been, comfortable. And if I had remained on a team with even one of them, I would have been comfortable.
I’m excited to see the way that this new group will challenge and help me grow. We are already bonding so well as a team, and I have no doubt that I am already gaining more sisters.
But it’s still tough to say goodbye.
So to my people that I spent literally everyday with for six months:
I will never forget the way you all intentionally loved me. The way we began with awkward silences in team time to all of the laughter and farts (100% the guys). To all of the adventures we’ve shared…hiking up a mountain in Nepal to sleep with the leopards and buffalos, to flying across Vietnam for the weekend, to arguing forever about what movies to watch!
I am not the same person I was when I left the states, and each and everyone of you had an instrumental part in that. Thanks for being my home away from home, love you all!
And I’m so excited to hear about the way the Lord will work through you all in the next upcoming months.
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I am currently serving in Swaziland with my new team. We are living with two other teams in the city of Manzini, where I am helping in a preschool classroom at one of the care points.
Please continue to pray for my team as well as the people of Swaziland. One specific way you can be praying is for the health of the nation and for spiritual revival. Swaziland has the world’s highest rate of HIV and TB is also extremely prevalent here.
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