Every few months the entire squad comes
together for debrief. At debrief our squad parents and other AIM
staff come out to check in with us, encourage us, teach us and love
on us. It’s a great time to rejuvenate and refresh after really
intense months of ministry. There are a few things that stood out
from our debrief time that I’d like to share; things that on of our
staff shared with us.
Mike shared about 5 prisons that we
allow ourselves to live in. We imprison ourselves in comparison,
regret, excuses, bitterness, and withdraw. We talked about how each
of these hold us back in our day to day living and prevent us,
especially on this journey, from living in true community. It’s so
interesting because these are prisons that people live in and we
allow ourselves to continue to live in them. It was awesome to talk
about experiencing freedom from these prisons by denying the lies
people have been told and giving it all to God.
Another important part of debrief was
my teams debrief.; the time for squad leaders, squad parents and AIM
staff to check in with our team. If you remember, as I closed out
Latin America, mostly El Salvador, I mentioned that our team was
tired of each other. As we checked in about the last three months at
debrief we voiced some of the concerns that we have been having.
After we had gone around the table and each said how we were ready
for change the staff made some interesting comments to us. They told
us that they had a lot of wisdom to share with us but they wanted us
to work out our own stuff and in order to best do that they were
going to leave the room and that we were not allowed to come out
until we had decided to fight for (instead of with) each other or
that we wanted to go home. We were also told that the odds of our
team ever changing were slim to none of the rest of the race. So,
they all left the room and our conversations began. What specifically
was said is not important. What is important is that we all aired our
frustrations and for the first time in a while we all felt heard. I
don’t think anything was left uncovered. We each decided that each
person on our team was worth fighting for, was worth preferring over
ourselves, and that we desired to stick it out together. In addition
we talked about some practical things that we can do and focus on to
help us not be in this place of frustration again. We have also
agreed to hold each other accountable for areas in our character that
we know need refining and that by refining will enable us to work
better as a team. It was definitely an intense 3 hours and luckily we
finished just in time to eat dinner 🙂
Isaiah 43:2, 18&19: When you pass
through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the
rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze….Forget
the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new
thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way
in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
God is so good and He has this all in
His hands 🙂
