So here we are on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, but I feel like I’m back in Africa. Being white once again causes what would be a normal walk to the mall to turn into people staring like crazy and asking to take a selfie with you. We are very much noticeable here, and the hundreds of motos, constant honking, people staring, language barrier, and just the feel of the city brings me back to Africa. I definitely wasn’t expecting that after being in such touristy parts of Thailand and Malaysia, but here we are! An Asian Africa!
This month is a bit different than ‘normal’ in that almost this whole month is dedicated to squad leader training. Our four alumni squad leaders have been with us since January but will be going home at the end of this month, and me and my fellow River Otters will be assuming our position as squad leaders. YIKE. It’s still so wild to me, but training has been good. We are learning about so many things including safety protocol, communication with the Adventures office in the States, what a healthy team looks like, how to lead from a Biblical standpoint, and so much more.
On Monday, we are each going with an alumni squad leader to a different team for about a week to get some hands-on experience, and then we will be coming back together for another week to have some follow-up training. At the end of the month, the whole squad is flying to Bali for our month six debrief (what?!), and then we head to the Philippines!!
I am still learning a lot about my role as a squad leader, but I wanted to give you a few details so you can better understand what I will be doing. There are five teams on my squad, and us squad leaders pray into which team we think we should be with for the month. We each go to a team, and that team is our ministry. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not involved with the ministries we will be partnered with for the next five months, but my focus is just a bit different. I will usually be going to ministry as normal but may sometimes stay back if I have leadership calls or other responsibilities that need to be addressed. If any issues within the squad come up, the squad leader team is the point of contact for the Adventures office in the States. If there are issues on any of the teams, we do what we can to help them. That could mean going to the hospital with someone so the rest of the team can go to ministry or helping a team figure out what to do in a difficult ministry situation or safety situation. We are their support in whatever capacity they need, and we are focused on loving and serving the teams.
***And. Squad leaders track their own finances. Adventures gives us budgets for transportation, lodging, food, etc. in each country, and each team has a treasurer to pull money out of ATMs, make receipts of money spent, and enter in all the transactions in the software, but squad leaders do this for themselves. So here I left for 11 months thinking I wouldn’t even be doing anything related to money, yet here I am. Don’t worry, I’m not mad ’cause I actually think it will be fun!! #accountingmajor #nerd
Squad leading will be so new to me, but I love my fellow squad leaders and am excited to get to know so many more people on our squad of 33 as I move from team to team each month. You can pray for wisdom and discernment in this next season on the Race and that I would lead out of love first and foremost. I simply want to encourage people on our squad to fully pursue the Lord without leading from a place of selfishness, position, or personal gain. I pray God will be glorified above all else and that every failure only leads me to pursue Jesus and the people around me more and more.
If you know nothing about geography but keep wondering where in the world I am/will be in Asia, this is for you 🙂
