Training Camp.
Ahh, Training Camp (TC).
It’s only been two days since I got home from Training Camp and shoot I still can’t fully believe how much God did! #WRecked
I knew when I was on my way one thing I would get out of TC and that was meeting my squad and getting placed into my team. Never in a million years did I think our squad would become a family so fast.
We are S Squad.
Sojourners.
Children of God.
Within our squad of 40 we have six teams: 2 men teams and 4 women teams
If you cannot tell, that’s me in Team Valor in purple. In the purple shirt that I may or may not have worn at least at some point of every single day of training camp. It was a “little chilly”. Had to put that phrase in here somewhere for all of my RL people, you know who you are!
Here are my people!
Team Valor!!
Valor: great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle.
Valor in Spanish means Value.
These people will be who I do life with for the first few months of the World Race.
We will travel as a squad from country to country but after our first month we will be spread out living in different areas and doing different things.
From left to right starting after myself is Jenny Summy, Whitney Munroe, Anna Casserino, Kelly Fahnestock, Sarah Zlibut, and Kristen Haley.
Jenny. What can I say about Jen? She seemed quiet to me at first, until we caught her sassy side on camera and I knew there was so much more to her than met the eye. She became and open book to me throughout our time at TC and was baptized on our last night! I am so excited to unfold who Jenny is through our time together and be able to watch her mesh into her leadership role as our squad’s worship coordinator!
Then comes my sort-of-once-coworker Whitney! We both worked for Youth Works and we both even had the same “boss” and had an experience at the same site. Finding that connection bonded us right away! Whitney became a safe space for me when TC was still just beginning. I was straight up sore from laughter after our airport scenario when we both decided to stand up in our sleeping bags with our sleeping pads inside them.
Next is Anna! When I first saw Anna I was so intrigued! This girl is going to be my go to when it comes finding out if things match and such throughout the race. One of my first memories from TC with Anna was her one leg squats after lunch, meaning she will also be helping drive me to get into shape during the race. This will be very important! (I will tell you why later). I am very excited to learn from all of Anna’s experiences! She just got back to the United States from living in Korea!!
Then comes my girl Kelly!!! We met in the airport, she was the second person I met from S Squad! We both sat quietly trying to get ourselves out of our shells and now I don’t think anything we do together will “feel awkward”. I feel as if I can tell Kelly anything and be completely vulnerable with her. There is so much trust already built up between us, I am sure many others in our squad feel the same way as she is one of our logistics coordinators!
Ay, it’s time for my mama Sarah! She hates it that I call her that but this girl is seriously so caring in everything she does! She loaned me her sweatshirt to sleep in once she found out I did not bring one and wouldn’t take it back until the last day. Sarah is another person I cannot wait to learn more about because I can tell there is so much more to her than I have already learned. She truly is steady person that will bring stability to our team!!
And last but not least Kristen! Our team leader! I already know Kristen can lead from her military experience, but for real she is a natural leader. She is a leader of a team full of many personalities but is working hard to guide us into meshing well. I know she will be a rock for me when I have any kind of homesickness, especially when it comes to the times when my brother has Marine related things. Kristen’s boldness challenges me already and I cannot wait to learn from her!
So there you have it! Team Valor!
We were almost Team Undecided or Team Pending because decisions are tough for us.
As I state above we have many personalities within our team and are working our way into meshing. We have already found ourselves to be able to be vulnerable with one another because of this though and honestly I think it will make us a stronger team in the long run.
God knew we would be on a team together before we even knew we were going on the World Race!
He has some amazing things planned for Team Valor and goodness gracious I am excited!!!
