As most of you already know, The week of training camp was…stressful in a lot of ways, to say the least. But In the weeks to follow (after more stress) God showed up in a way I never expected! He showed up through my world race families. Yes, that’s right I said families. Since I was switched from N Squad to O squad, I don’t just have one family, I have two, and boy did they show their love to me through all of this.
I want to start by pointing out how amazing they were from the get go. As an N squad member there were countless hours spent connecting on Facebook and zoom chat. It was so amazing to get to know all of them and to finally meet in person at camp. God had other plans for me along with others from N squad so as we join O squad there was a lot of tears and heart break. Even through all of that, everyone from N Squad were nothing but encouraging and truly relied on God and knew that there was purpose in our switch. On top of that, there was not one second where I felt like I was no longer care for, loved, or apart of their team. That meant more to me than words can express. Then, moving to O squad I was a little apprehensive at first. I was confused, nervous and thought to myself “ These people have had months to get to know one another. What if they don’t want to get to know us? What if I don’t fit in? Will I be as close with them as I was the other squad?” My biggest question was “Would I be accepted?” I found the answers to those questions rather quickly. I was immediately welcomed and it was verbalized by many of them that there were excited to get to know me right off the bat. That made me feel so at ease. I could already see how God was moving in the whole situation and just what he was setting up. By the end of camp I had built relationships with so many people on O Squad and got to keep the relationships I started those on N Squad to top it off. What could be better?
I learned so much that week and fell in love with the brothers and sisters that I now have. I was blown away by all the happenings. The good, the bad, and the frustrating, God and my teams got me through it. I was blessed in so many ways but that was nothing compared to what was coming next.
In the weeks to follow my car was taking longer than anticipated to fix, which caused me to spend more on the rental car. I then had to set up the surgery to repair the hernia I got at camp. I was told that although my insurance would cover the majority of it, I would still need to pay about $1000 out of pocket. At this point I was starting to freak out. I wrote and re-wrote up budget after budget trying to figure out how I was going to pay for everything. Even before all of this happened money was tight, but after everything that happened with camp, I needed something to help out in a big way. At that point I decided I would have to work more and spend less. That meant I would have to work 5 of my 12 hour overnight shifts per week, including working a stretch of 4 in a row, 2 days after my surgery was scheduled. As well as sacrifice pretty much all of my social life and miss a lot of the youth group stuff I was involved with at church. At the end of the day I knew God would provide, even if His way of providing was by giving me the energy and strength I would need to make it through those shifts.
I went to work the following night, just like all the others. I wasn’t as busy as I normally am and I heard some racers were having a zoom chat. I would periodically take my break early and join them if I could. Since I had the time and it had been a while, I decided to participate. So I clocked out, went in the break room, and opened my iPad to join. It was a conversation like all the others we had before until Brandon says “Brent, we need to talk.” My heart sank and I had no idea what was coming. I must say it was a little odd as I looked at the other two who were on the zoom chat grinning from ear to ear. Brandon goes on to explain that in the two weeks prior to this conversation, an idea was brought up to the group, to bless one of our squad members. I was immediately upset that I was not let in on this opportunity because I definitely would have helped. Then it hit me. He was talking about me. He then starts to tell me that both N squad and O Squad, which has now been affectionately named NO Squad (#represent) has pulled together to help alleviate some financial stress I now had due to the car situation and surgery. The next thing that came out of his mouth just about made me hit the floor. Brandon shared that with in two weeks, almost 70 people came together and raised over $2100 to give to me so that I would be able to take a breather, not have to worry about where the money was going to come from, and most importantly not have to work right after surgery and have appropriate time to recover. My face in the picture below doesn’t do justice to what I was thinking and feeling.
On a side note, I’m bummed that the picture wasn’t taken at the moment they told me. The look on my face when this blessing bomb was dropped on me was pretty funny and I’m sorry most of you didn’t get to see it.
I have to say that I have NEVER been blessed with a gift like that, where so many people just poured out their love, money, prayers, and encouragement in such a way. That meant more to me than I can ever say. Because of the gift that these wonderful people have given me I was able to take a big chunk out of a personal debt I had, pay the out of pocket portion for the surgery, and buy my plane tickets home for Christmas, and to launch. Without the love and blessings they gave with no hesitation, I truly would not have been able to do any of that. I know that words will never be able to appropriately thank you NO Squad, but I pray that I will be able to return the love and blessings by how I can serve you and others on the race. Thank you so much for your love, your prayers, your encouragement, and your amazing gift. I will truly never for get it! I pray that The Lord blesses you all 10 fold. I love you all.
