Girl On Fire

 

One of the hardest things for me to do growing up was being able to connect to people and develop a friendship with them. So one of my fears coming onto the World Race was being able to fit in with my squadmates, and maybe even developing a deep friendship with a few of them.

 

One of my prayers heading into the 10 days of training camp was just that I was to be able to connect with at least one of my squadmates on that deep level.

 

Out of the 32 of my squadmates, there was one of them who I was the most intrigued by, and excited to meet that first day, but whenever the opportunity came for me to finally introduce myself to her, I backed down as in all honesty I was intimidated by her for some reason, and it wasn’t until day 4 of camp that I had my first real interaction with her when we placed on a “team” during one of the team building exercises that we did to help determine our first teams for the first half of the race.  The exercise that we had to do was one where we had to get the 5 of us across a “bridge”, but the catch was that we all had to have our feet touching at least one of the “rocks”, and if we failed then the person who failed was either “blind” or “mute”.

 

One point I messed up, and ended up “blind”.  So my squadmate had to help guide me as we all tried to complete the exercise, and it was during this that I felt a vibe between us that I have never felt before with anyone, and I didn’t know it then but that was the Holy Spirit working among us, and I could sense that this squadmate was special.  

 

In the nights leading up to us finding out our teams, I prayed that if it was God’s will that I be put on the same team as her, and God answered that prayer. 

 

That is one of my favorite memories of training camp when I received that piece of paper with not only her name, but the names of the 4 other ladies who would eventually become Team Surrendered.

 

 

Just who is this awesome squadmate/ former teammate?

 

Her name is Kaitlin (or as I call her K)

 

 

Where do I even begin to tell about just how awesome Kaitlin is? 

 

First, we have a few things in common that we ended up bonding over.  Besides our love for our Lord and Savior, and a desire to serve him, Kaitlin and I also bonded over our love of dogs, ice cream, anything cookies & cream. Those things laid the foundation of a friendship that I believe can only be Holy Spirit led, and I am a firm believer in the fact that when the spirit puts someone in my life, there is reason that person is in my life, and that it was meant to be, and my friendship with her is proof of that.  

 

One thing that one may not know about me is that I have a nickname that I have had since I was young and that nickname is Bon Bon.  Coming onto the World Race was one of those times that I hoped people wouldn’t pick up on that until Kaitlin and I met, and she started calling me by that name. 

That is a nickname of mine that only a select few people are allowed to call me by, and even then there has to be a certain level of friendship before I grant permission to be called by that nickname, but I didn’t want to do anything to compromise our new friendship, so I let it go, and as a result that is something that has grown our bond, and I love being called that nickname by her.