J squad came together in Istanbul for a mini debrief at the end of October. We knew some changes would have to take place because Aaron and Caroline, our squad leaders, would be leaving soon. We all assumed Brandy and Dan would become squad leaders. I knew this meant I would have a new team leader, but I didn’t think my team would change. Would I be ok if my team did change?
Aaron and Caroline got us together as a squad to announce Brandy and Dan as our new squad leaders. Then they announced some other changes would take place in the next 24 hours. I began to cry and I wasn’t sure why. I had just given God control and told him I was ok with the unknown earlier that week. I now had to make the decision to be ok in this moment. In my head I was ok, but human nature took over. I started trying to figure out what the changes would be in my head, which was the worst thing I could do. They dismissed us and told us we would find out more tomorrow.
I trust Aaron and Caroline very much. I knew they had been in prayer and heard from God on these changes. I knew they were doing all of this for the best interest of the squad. I believe they desire to mold a squad that will make a difference in this world. I made the decision to trust them and be ok no matter what the changes would be.
Finally the time came to announce the team changes that had been made. The only rule Aaron and Caroline gave us was that after teams were announced, we had to have 2 hours of silence. They wanted us to spend time with God and process the team changes. Don, Holland and Colby were new team leaders and Jodi, Melanie and Austin were still team leaders. Don was the first person to announce his team. Don announced Shannon, Ken, Katie, Kendra and Ashlee. I will admit I did not hear any other team changes after that. I knew my team hadn’t had many changes, but what did change I was ok with.
I knew from spending 3 months with Don that he would make an amazing team leader. I was really excited about being under his leadership. I also was really excited about having all my girls minus Brandy still with me. Losing Brandy was really hard, but I knew it was coming so I had already prepared myself. We lost Anthony and that was hard for me. We had just gotten to a place where we understood each other and then we were separated. We gained Ken on our team to replace Anthony.
During our time of training camp, Ken and I did not see eye to eye. While we were in Ireland we talked and put all of that behind us. It’s funny now that at training camp we both put each other’s names down to not be on a team with each other and now we are serving together on the same team.
Our team name is OLUR. Olur is the Turkish word for POSSIBLE. I really like our new name. We are still getting to know each other but so far things are going really well. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for us. Change is hard, but I know it is what we all need.
