Wow, what a trip alumni team leading continues to be for me. I have seen more power in prophetic words than I ever have before. God is teaching me what redemption looks like on all fronts.
Back in August, I met my team for the first time. We were sitting in a circle when Abigail handed me 2 stickers, one said ‘Rejoice Always,’which is the meaning of our team name, and the other said Wolf Pack. Upon reading wolf pack, I thought, “Oh man, really?!” Outwardly, I smiled, but inwardly memories of a hurtful time in college flooded my head. Without skipping a beat, my team explained “We call ourselves the wolf pack, and you are part of us. We are united and you belong here. We are so glad we’re together.” They were powerful words. In that moment, I felt the Holy Spirit impress upon me the word “redemption”. I saw God use my team to speak truth and love over a place where mountains of lies and hurts once lived. They did all this without any knowledge of how God was using their words to bring healing to my soul and a new hope of redemption.
I’ve seen God at work in the seemingly little things where individuals independently carry miscellaneous team supplies, and save zip lock tortilla bags or Pringles containers to use later for storage during travel days or when we pack lunches. I am all about reduce, reuse, and recycle in its rawest form. On the race empty ice cream containers come in handy and zip lock bags are hard to come by so when you find one you’d be wise to hold on to it, at least I think so. Previously, there were times when felt a bit alone in carrying the extra supplies or in seeing the value of saving certain things. While it’s a small thing, it’s unifying—(or..should I say it’s redeeming?) and humorous at times when your friend is expecting you to pass the Pringles and instead you pull out a bottle of hot sauce. My birthday is in July, which means that it’s the one month that is not a part of the 11-month journey. My team knew that, and threw me a surprise “Birthday Party” complete with a cake in my face, encouraging notes, and Havaianas flip flops. Cake in the face is a Chilean tradition that we carried over into Peru. My shower shoes broke, and I was struggling without them. It wasn’t an easy job finding sandals out of the season, but they did it, and I love them so much! The love I receive from Taylor, Tom, Abigail, Sarah Beth, and Nicole is bottomless.
The team is generous and uplifting. Complaining is a rarity, and when it happens its usually coming from my mouth. It’s truly a blessing for me to get to be submersed in a group of people who believe the best in others, choose positive attitudes, and live out of a mindset of abundance.
