This first month in Ecuador has been nothing short of amazing and I am so incredibly blessed to have been here and met everyone that I have, even though it was for such a short amount of time. While I was trying to decide what I wanted my last blog or two from Ecuador to be about, I realized that I never introduced my teammates to you guys, and they have been such a big part of why this month has been so fantastic that I want to dedicate this blog to them. At training camp, we chose the name “Agapetos” for our team because it means “beloved” in Greek. We all felt some connection to this word and we all want to grow into the beloved children of God that we are this year. When we found out our teams for the first time, I was really worried because I hadn’t spent a lot of time with any of my teammates, but team Agapetos is a solid group of people. We all have our issues, but we love each other so well and I am so incredibly excited to get to spend the next ten months (it’s already down to 10!) with this group of wonderful people.
Our team leader is Kayla Rhea. 
I am so glad that she is our leader because she has this awesome subtle leadership quality about her that makes her perfect for the job. She’s so open with her life that it makes us all feel comfortable enough to open up to her and she never makes us feel like she’s in charge of us. It’s more like she’s just there to help us make the wisest decisions possible and to give us a starting point. She’s also really great at keeping the group grounded and making sure we remember why we’re on the Race. She always reminds us that we are here to help, not to be comfortable or to have our needs met. We’re here to be servants of God and show that through our words and actions even when we’re not feeling our best. I might be a little biased, but I think she’s the best team leader I could ever ask for and I’m so thankful for her and her wisdom.
The next team member is Daniel Castillo. 
There is no good way to put Daniel into words. He’s ridiculous and fun and caring and so many other things. This man is a true man of God and I am so thankful that I have gotten the chance to know him better. I was a little intimidated by him when I first met him because he is such an extreme extrovert and just loves to talk to everyone and that is so different from me, but I think he has been one of the people that has helped me to grow the most over the last couple of weeks. He feels things very deeply and is never afraid to tell you what he thinks the Lord is speaking into him, and I absolutely love it. He’s definitely an encouragement to our whole team and I never feel like it’s a party without him. He has also been so kind as to be our translator this month, and we never would have been able to form the relationships we have without him.
Another member of Team Agapetos is Marie Collins. 
She is so much fun, but it took her a little while to come out of her shell, but I’m so glad she did! She is hilarious and I love that she is exactly who she is. She’s very much from North Carolina and has a thick accent (at least I think so, but she says it’s nothing compared to other people) and I love that I have absolutely no idea what she’s talking about sometimes. It makes things so much more fun. She loves Phase 10 more than I do, which I never thought could be possible, but we still haven’t finished a game together. She is also so insightful about the Bible and I love listening to her talk about it. She is such a great asset to our team and I’m looking forward to seeing her grow with us this year.
Melissa Meeks is another addition to our team.
She is a Registered Nurse, so we all feel a lot better that we have someone who knows what they’re doing when it comes to medical stuff. She also has one of the biggest hearts on our team. She’s never afraid to jump right in and love people, even when she can’t communicate very well because of the language barrier. She loves kids and animals and never misses an opportunity to give them a little extra love and attention. She also feels things very deeply and wears her emotions on her sleeves, which is something new to me. I’m learning from her that it’s ok to not put on a happy face 100% of the time. It’s ok to have bad days and times where you just need to tell everyone that you need a couple of hours to work things out by yourself before you can be with the group. I’m glad she’s on our team, and I think that working with her is going to teach me a lot and I’m interested to see how we both grow.
The next member of team Agapetos is Alex Carvalho.
I’m really glad he’s on our team because he reminds me so much of one of my best friends from home and it’s kind of like I never even left. He has a super sarcastic sense of humor and I love it. He also has an endless supply of movies for us to watch and knows all the tricks to getting free music and books off the internet. He also thinks he has the best taste in all of them, but I’m not so sure about that yet. Plus he's above average in so many ways, like he can see colors better than most people and he can spit a pretty far distance. I love that he’s not afraid to call you out on things. If he feels like you’re supposed to pray or share something, he’ll straight up tell you to suck it up and do it and it’s great because I usually need that little extra push. He has opened up to our team so much since being here and I’m so glad that we’ve gotten to know him a little better.
The final member of our fantastic team is Beth Barnett.
I love this woman so much and everyone makes fun of me for how much I tell her that I do. She is probably one of the coolest people that I know. She loves rap music and has rapped for us and she’s showing me all the awesome Christian rap music she listens to (did I say “rap” enough times in that sentence?). She’s just super caring about other people and how they’re feeling and always offers us tea when we’re not feeling the best. She’s also pretty quiet most of the time, but when she speaks in front of people, it’s always fantastic. She has a knack for knowing what people need to hear and how they need to hear it and I’m so excited to learn from her.
That’s my team! I love each and every one of them even if we might not always like each other. We have our stuff to work through, but I am so thankful that we have been placed on this team together and get this time to learn and grow from one another.
