as most of you know, i love photography and can usually be found with a camera on me at all times. i’ve mentioned it in a couple of past blogs, but the race has given me a cool opportunity to grow in my photography — by being a photography intern for the marketing (or storytelling) department at AIM. this means that i’ll be posting a lot more blogs with photos to show the work the Lord is doing in the world. for d squad right now, that means Costa Rica, but i also have a lot of pictures i’d like to share from our time on AIM’s campus in gainesville, georgia. the first three months of our race were full of sweet fellowship and growth in community living, a huge focus of AIM’s programs. so without further ado, here’s what life with gap d looked like!!
here’s a picture of some of the girls on my squad from our first week on campus! we all tested negative before we arrived, but each squad was split into two cohorts so that if there was an outbreak, it would be easily contained. so for the first two weeks, three of the girls teams were at one campsite while the boys and the other girls team was at another one. we had our meals and teaching together, but we sat 6 feet away from the other cohort and wore masks if we were closer or inside.
this is three of my teammates, emma austin, morgan, and andi, in the all-girls campsite. most days were pretty humid and sunny, so we would spend a LOT of time in the shade, hanging out in hammocks or even in our tents.
here’s some of the things we would do on campus! we weren’t allowed to leave (less exposure to covid) so some people started to pick up new instruments (like Samson with the ukulele). another fun thing to do was waking up early to see the sunrise. we’d wake up at 6:30, walk all the way up the driveway and stop at the mailbox at the edge of AIM’s campus. some people would bring their Bibles and do devos or we’d just sit and talk as we watched the sun rise. 
other than our campsites, the main place gap d would hang out was the pavilion. we ate all our meals here, had some team times when it was warm, played knockout, learned how to skateboard, and of course, cut people’s hair. one of my squadmates brought hair cutting scissors and another one had done it before, so it was only a matter of time before the haircuts started (where else were we going to get our haircut?) and so the pavilion also became a salon. one of the most memorable days from our time in gainesville was when Kaylin and Max shaved their heads (see before and after pics below). Kaylin has a whole blog written about why she did it (read it here!) and Max had said at the beginning of the race that if any of the girls shaved their head, he would too.
another one of gap d’s favorite days together was baptisms! it was completely unplanned; our squad mentor, Madie, came to campus that morning saying that the Lord put it on her heart to do baptisms that day, and 25 out of the 32 people on my squad ended up getting baptized or rededicating their lives to Christ. the best part was that most of them had been thinking about getting baptized in the days before but had only told one or two people, and then suddenly they had the opportunity to do it right then. it was a sweet day of fellowship and celebration for the whole squad :))
one last day of celebration! our last night in gainesville before Thanksgiving break (which ended up being our last night there of the semester), the men of squad d decorated the back patio and served us dinner to show us how much they love us and how our Father in Heaven loves us so much more. it was such a sweet night and one i’ll always remember :))
and here’s a picture of my whole squad! (and some of us “dressing up” for squad church – some times you just end up borrowing everything from your team) i love gap d so much and after almost 4 months of community living with them, i can say that there’s no one else i’d rather do life with. they’re an amazing group of loving, fun, intentional people that seek the Lord in everything they do and i’m so blessed to be a part of that :))
hey everyone! hopefully i’ll be posting a lot more blogs like this as i go out and capture more of what life looks like here in San Jose! this past week looked a lot like getting settled into out new home and starting ministry training with The Hope Project (also know as Til He Returns in the US). i’d love it if you could continue to support my squad and i in prayer as we start to dive into what our individual teams’ ministry is going to look like next week :))
