So I've been in Chicago since Tuesday for training, teachings, worship, and time with my group.  We have been debriefed on all kinds of things and already been challenged.

The first night I was here, we had a meeting for all leaders.  Meetings and worship continued into the next day and they did focused training for team leaders, treasurers, and logistics coordinators.  Ben and I are the logisitics coordinators for I Squad.  I feel so blessed to serve my team in this way.  Ben will be taking the financial role because he was a math major and I will be taking the role of coordinating travel and debriefing when the entire group of sixty is doing something together.  When the Adventures in Missions (AIM team) said we should split the roles me and Ben immediately knew which one was for us! God set it all up! This role will be a wild ride, so pray for discernment, guidance, and wisdom as we learn and plan.

When all four squads showed up it started to hit me that I would be leaving for so long.  But this is what I have been wanting to do since high school when Ashli Hanna Brown went and now it's my time!  Right away we began to live on World Race budget, which means we have five dollars a day per person for food. So $5 for three meals.  My team leader and treasurer were smart and went down the street to the grocery store and stocked up for us under budget.  Check out what you do when you have no fridge:


Just yesterday, we practiced listening prayer and went on a treasure hunt:

For a treasure hunt you pray and ask God to speak to you about where you should go or what you should do.  As we listened we made a list of the things we felt we heard God saying, or the pictures He gave us.  Here was our list:  green jacket, you are free, tall grass, yellow submarine song, stroller, flowers, cemetary, line of people waiting, a window, and then we heard talk a walk.  So as we began walking near the hotel we decided to enter a neighborhood.  We decided to turn right when we noticed a yellow railing on the end of the road with a sign that read DEAD (like cemetary) END.  There was a man mowing grass and flowers in the lawn and low and behold there was a man in a green shirt sitting on the side of the house with crutches and a broken foot. Woahhh!! We knew we were supposed to stop here.  So we approached him and I started asking him questions and we all got to know a little about him and then after he asked about us we prayed for him and his foot!
As we continued the walk our leader felt we should walk a certain way and when we did we saw a stroller and then we saw a line of moms waiting to pick up their children from school.  Instead of trespassing, we just stayed outside the school property and prayed for and blessed the children and the mothers. This treasure hunt thing was fun!

 
God is so in love with us and wants to talk to us, it is just a matter of taking the time to listen. Dare you to listen! My devotions today were from Psalm 5:3.  We must wait for Him, God has something dear to say to you :).

You all should also know that my team is perfect! God totally knew what He was doing when He put us together.  Ashli loves to do nails and so do I, she also has a boyfriend, Liz knows how to give me hard love in grace, she does makeup and is super fun, Mark is quiet and strong in spirit and will burst out in song any time, Jochem is genuine and funny, and Angela is real when she shares and an empowering leader.  PUMPED to SERVE with these guys! We're officially fam:


From the left, top row, Joann (coach), Liz, Jochem, Angela, Ben (Squad leader),
Tom (coach), and in the front is Ashli, me, Alexandra (Squad leader), and Mark.

My mom and dad got to meet all of them when they came to a thing for the parents.
I have two of my mom's children on my team.  Why don't I look like my mom?! 😉
(And if you can't tell… they all have red hair except me.)


Lastly, I had to say some hard goodbyes in the last week.  Pray for my family, Matt, and Jen, and all my friends as we do this journey of life together from different locations.  I will be praying for all of you as well, and know you are LOVED by me!  This is a season of growth for us all! I firmly believe that, let it be true spiritually, physically, and mentally!
 
xoxoxo. more later!