I’d like to introduce you to the wonderful people with whom I will be traveling the world in 2019.
S Squad – Sojourners
We are S Squad, the Sojourners. There are 40 of us total, 27 women and 13 men. We range in age from 20 to 30. We are nurses, teachers, accountants, students, church leaders. We have walked with God for a couple years or a lifetime. We have different skills, backgrounds, experiences, and communication styles. We live all over the United States. The Sojourners have things in common too. Each of us has committed to leave behind everything we know to spend 11 months serving God and those around us. We will travel to 11 countries and grow in loving, knowing, and obeying the Lord.
You can view each of my squadmates’ blogs here.
Next I’ll introduce you to each of the teams that make up our squad. We will likely have these teams for four months (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, India) before switching them up.
Team Resurgent
Back row, L to R: Colby, Andrew, John S
Front row, L to R: Michael, Lee, Jake
Team Rahkma Rua (Love and Victory)
Back row, L to R: Joseph, Ty, Caleb, Jon B, Ben
Front row, L to R: Nate, Will
Team Valor
Back row, L to R: Courtney, Jen, Anna, Kelly, Sarah, Kristen
Front: Whitney
Team Young Royalz
L to R: Sammiera, Emilie M, Kylie, Nicole, Carly, Lauren K, Katy
Team Papoula Fogo (Fire Poppy in Portugese)
L to R: Tabitha, Lauren B, Julie, McKenzie, Aleesa, Ashley
Team Poiema (God’s masterpiece in Greek)
Back row, L to R: Me, Nikki, Laurie, Shondra, Maci
Front row, L to R: Shelby, Valerie
This is my team! Poiema (poy-ah-mah) comes from the verse that our leadership chose for our team.
Ephesians 2:10 We have become his poetry (poiema), a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!
Laurie is our fearless team leader. Her calm, confident spirit and intuition in relationships and communication will serve our team well.
Valerie is our team treasurer. She will be in charge of our money for food and lodging. Valerie is very responsible and will do an amazing job!
Shelby is our team storyteller. Her job is to share with others how God is working in her, our team, our squad, and people we meet around the world. She will encourage all of us to share our stories too!
I am one of three logistics leaders for our squad. I’ll share more about that role later.
Leadership
Teresa (TT) is our squad mentor. She will be with us on the field for several months, and she will visit us during debriefs. TT is an amazing evangelist and seriously in love with the Lord.
Darla and Chris are our squad coaches. They will visit us on the field during debriefs and pour into our lives from afar in the meantime!
Lynna, Brittany, Madison, and Nick are our squad leaders. They are all World Race alumni and will be with us on the field for the first five months of the race. These people are already so dear to me! I have a lot to learn from them.
So these are the people I’ll be doing life with for the next year! I will never stop talking about these beauties, so start putting faces to names! Stay tuned for more blog posts about what went down at training camp.
Recklessly love and be loved,
Em
