I’ve shared about the heart work that went on at Training Camp, and now I want to share with you all of the *other* things I learned at Training Camp and introduce you to some of my new family!
K-SQUAD
Here they are! This is the 50-person group that I was surrounded by during the 10 days of Training Camp. They’re from all over the United States. Their beautiful faces and hearts welcomed me every day. We prayed together, laughed together, and cried together. We danced together, ate with our hands together, and ran from cloudbursts together. Most importantly, we said “yes” to each other-“Yes,you are worth fighting for,” “Yes, I will stand in this with you,” and “Yes, I believe in you and what the Lord is doing in you.”
Throughout the 10 days, one phrase was continually spoken: “K-Squad, we start together and finish together.”
Taking cover from a downpour during our campout
The men of K-Squad on Africa day…they were encouraged to hold hands while moving from place to place throughout the day. They got to linking arms… 😉 ,
As we were waiting to go to a session on the first full day of Training Camp, I had looked around at the sea of green shirts around and momentarily felt overwhelmed. I suddenly felt tired—how could I get to know all of these strangers? As it turns out, talking about things like identity, forgiveness, and shame really puts you in each other’s hearts as you share your story. K-Squad has taught me that community is vulnerability, and vulnerability is beautiful. It’s saying, “I trust you with this part of my life,” and invites someone to be just as brave—not only in their entrance into the battle on your behalf, but also in their acceptance to reciprocate the storytelling and let you in. Empathy and love can render darkness powerless over us, and I learned that I need to let others shine into my life, as much as I desire to shine into theirs!
As a squad, we will travel together and all be in the same country together at the same time. I can’t wait to hear about all the different stories our squad will have from all of our different vantage points and ministries!
One update that we received as a squad was the news that we are no longer going to be going to Burkina Faso in Africa. Instead, we will be doing something pretty nifty in Asia! The squad will be split—half of us will go to Laos and half of us will go to Myanmar for a month! I’m saddened by the tragedy that occurred in the family of our former ministry host, thankful for the decision made by our leadership, and excited to start learning about 2 new countries and find out which one I’ll be going to!!
During the second half of Training Camp, our Training Team lead us through various exercises to build our teams—that’s different than a squad! My team is the smaller, 6-person group that I will actually be with every day of the race. The squad is broken up into teams that will be serving in different ways in each country! Sometimes teams cross paths or work for the same ministry for the month—that would be awesome! The team-building process was an exercise for all of us in having faith in God’s plan for us on the Race.
So here’s my team! We decided to call ourselves Kaleidoscope! We picked that name because we thought it reflected who we are as a team—a kaleidoscope is make of different shaped, sized, and colored pieces that, when reflecting light, work together to bring a beautiful picture into focus. This is exactly what we’re aiming for as a team—to reflect the same Light and bring a beautiful expression of Kingdom wherever we go.
We got to go off-campus to make a memory together! Here’s Kaleidoscope exploring Gainesville! From left to right: JJ Becker, Emily Gates, Esther Song, Jon Manning, me, and Meagan Haley!
During the last team builder, as I looked around at our team, I prayed that God would give me faith in His plan for me with these 5 teammates. I was filled with such joy and peace, and I couldn’t be more excited to learn their stories, lean into them, and do ministry with them! Our Squad Mentor described us as being a very strong team-a team that sits equally at the table together. As individuals, we have strong leadership and communicative qualities and I’ve definitely already seen that translate into action during some of the exercises we did together. They’ll be my everyday peeps on the World Race (unless we have a team change!) so please be praying for them as you pray for me, too! I love them so much already and seriously consider myself blessed. They make me laugh SO HARD and I can’t wait to do a better introduction of them at launch! Keep your eye out for our somewhat-official team hashtag, #wheresJJ…because seriously that’s what we find ourselves saying alot 🙂
Keep an eye out for the other teams! EmpowHER, Ethereal Flames, Gentle Embers, Misfits, Nos Amis, One Pulse, and Worthy Warriors!
This is our Training Team that we had for Training Camp!
They poured so much love into us during those rough 10 days…and accepted group hugs from 50 smelly campers! I was so in awe of them and all of the staff, actually, at Adventures in Missions. I believed what they would teach us because I saw them walking that out—that’s discipleship. I want to walk like them, because I know they’re walking like Jesus. It was truly incredible to hear from God through our Squad Mentor, Ashley—multiple times we would all look at each other and be like, “Did she read our minds…?” because she would give us the perfect exhortation or encouragement at the perfect time. She and the rest of our Training Team were so Spirit-led; it was beautiful and refreshing to be around them and that work environment. I know that before Training Camp, I had no idea who the actual people at Adventures in Missions actually were—and now I have met them, watched them, had them pray over me. I do not exaggerate when I say I greatly admire all of them (and kind of want to be besties with all of them…) There are a few on the Training Team that you may see later, too! That would be Ashley, our Squad Mentor, who will fly out to meet us and continue pour her wisdom and love into us at our debriefs throughout the year. Our Squad Leaders, Jami and Casey, will spend the first 5 months of the World Race WITH US! YAY! They just finished their own World Races just a few weeks ago and are already stepping up to lead K-Squad around the world! They are epic and their heart to follow God is radical. As I got to know them better over the 10 days, I had this crazy realization that these people SUPPORT RAISE (like I’m doing for the Race) THEIR SALARIES. That blew my mind. They raise support so that they can lead us and raise us up to be disciples who make disciples—so their coolness factor increased about 1 million points. Please pray for them as they lead our squad! WE LOVE THEM and I am SO thankful that the Lord used them in my life at Training Camp. We also have 2 Squad Coaches who will fly to our debriefs and love on us too–the Banses!
While we’re on the topic of leadership, we also learned at Training Camp that some individuals on K-Squad will have different leadership roles, all of which are servant leadership roles. We have Team Leaders—ours is Esther!— to serve our teams as well as leaders to serve the entire squad in different capacities. I won’t go into too much detail about those right now, but I would like to share something super exciting for me—Adventures invited me to be a Squad Story Leader (Storyteller)!! I was so excited and honored—of course I accepted this role! As a Storyteller, I’ll be serving my team, the squad, and Adventures to share the stories of what God is doing around the world! I’ll work with a coach to develop content—they described it as being “on assignment” for AIM, “like the Christian version of National Geographic,” haha! 🙂 As many of you know, I love to write and tell stories, so I am so thankful and joyful to be a “steward of stories”! I love that this can be part of both my ministry on the race AND my personal ministry to you all, wherever you’re reading this from. I didn’t expect this at all, but I am so happy that God had something that is near to my heart planned for me and my World Race. He knows my desires and loves me so well, and I’m so excited to see what He’s going to do with my passion for words, stories, and people!
There are 3 Storytellers for our squad, and my brain happens to be continually synching with Katie H, one of the other Storytellers! Today, as I was writing this post, she finished making a quick vlog about our Training Camp! (my videos are sitting sadly undeveloped right now…hehe) So CHECK IT OUT, friends! Meet K-SQUAD! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiliJTJCy-I
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Training Camp was quite the ride. I have 6 weeks until Launch! That’s crazy! I’ll be going a day early to receive some Story Leader Training and I am STOKED!
I am so excited to serve on the World Race and in the exciting role as Story Leader, but I I actually still need to raise another $4,200 before July 22nd to be able to Launch and travel to our first country, Côte d’Ivoire in Africa! Please prayerfully consider supporting me financially, in any way.
Monthly Donor Update: Right now, if 47 more people committed to supporting me at $39/ month for the next six months, I would be fully funded!
RIGHT NOW, and until July 11th, a lovely company founded by a former World Racer has offered me a partnership! This partnership is a huge blessing and it came at the PERFECT time, as I’m in the last month to meet my next goal! That’s our Father for you though–He provides so perfectly. The company, Go Rings, will give me 30% of all order that are placed that have my name entered at checkout! They hand-make and sell these darling rings in silver, gold, and beaded versions that have 11 bands to represent our 11 countries and 7 fixtures to represent the 7-person teams (or 6 in my case, haha).
They also make bracelets and earrings I am so thankful for this opportunity and totally stand behind their values to help send others! Check out their products and don’t forget to put my name in the partnership box at checkout! www.gorings.net
Thanks for reading!
XOXO
Brittni
