~Maori proverb~
Introducing V Squad!
There are 54 people on my squad. We are all extremely different and come from all over the U.S., Canada, and Malaysia, but we are family. If you want to see the most recent blog posts from my whole squad, click HERE.
Also, V Squad won Squad Wars at training camp!!
Meet our squad leaders!
These three lovely people will be our squad leaders. They will pray for us, guide us, challenge us, and stretch us. The three of them will be coming along for the first four months of the journey, and after that they will select new squad leaders to take their places. To learn more about them, check out their blogs:
Lindsay Nelson, Robby Riggs, & Bethany Holland
And finally, the people I will spend every minute of my life with…
Presenting…Team Kaleo!
The seven of us were chosen by the World Race staff to be a team. We could be together for the entire 11 months or they could change our teams at some point. For now, this is my new family who I will be living, eating, sleeping, traveling, ministering, and existing with. I’m really excited and relieved to be on this particular team because we all get along great and there is room for our individual personalities to flourish.
So what does Kaleo mean??
When we were asked to name our team, Hailey immediately piped in with the name Kaleo. She explained her reasons, we all thought about it for a couple days, and decided we loved it. Kaleo is both Greek and Hawaiian. In Greek, it means “to be called” or “to place, appoint, position, or designate.” We all feel very strongly that we have been called to this ministry for the next year of our lives. God has placed us together on this team and sent us to these nations for such a time as this.
Kaleo is also the root of many other important Greek words that are found throughout the New Testament: klesis (calling), kletos (called), parakaleo (to exhort, comfort, or come alongside), paraklesis (exhortation), parakletos (an advocate or intercessor), and most importantly, ekklesia (the church, or the outcalled). Finally, Kaleo is a Hawaiian baby name that means “the voice.”
To me this is very fitting because all the meanings go together. We have been called to the World Race, placed on this team, positioned in these countries, appointed to come alongside people around the world, comfort them, intercede for them, and promote the global church, and we have been given voices to do these things. So we are team Kaleo.
Tiffany Prater
Tiffany is our lovely team leader. She will be guiding us, teaching us, and helping us grow into a unified team. I was so glad when they told me I was on her team because she is the kind of leader I can follow–not overbearing or overly dominant, but someone who wants to learn from the people around her as much as she wants to teach us. She’s already doing a great job of getting us pumped and bringing us together as a family.
Hailey Crump
Hailey is one of the creative ones on the team, which I so appreciate about her. When I posted in my “About Me” section that I was going to stuff craft supplies into my backpack, she commented that she’d be right there with me. Thankfully, we are on the same team so we can make cool things together and appreciate God’s creativity all over the world!
As far as I can tell so far, Jeff is the one most like me. We both love photography and see the world through our own eyes. I’m excited to have another person on my team to take pictures with and talk about nerdy things like good lighting:) Jeff is also the organized one, which is a good thing since he’s been selected as one of the squad’s two logistics people. He’ll be traveling ahead of us arranging our accommodations and ironing out the logistical nightmare that is 54 people traveling to 11 countries.
Joy was named well. (If her parents are reading this, good call!) I’m really excited to be on her team because she’s going to bring a spark of energy and smiles everywhere we go. She’s also going to keep us grounded and ask lots of “why” questions. If you know me, you know I love to ask “why” so Joy and I can ponder things and learn new lessons together. I also have a suspicion that Joy will be the stylish one in the group…it’s called World Race chic:)
Rosa may be tiny but she has quite the personality! She’s going to be so much fun to spend the next year with, and she can help me keep up with Spanish after we leave Latin America. Rosa is encouraging and joyful. She is also up for anything, as evidenced by her amazing performance in the Gallon Challenge during Squad Wars (for those of you who don’t know what that is…1 gallon of whole milk, 1 hour, 1 Rosa). Rosa will also be serving as our financial organizer (aka she’ll be staying calm while making sense of receipts and budgets in 11 languages and currencies).
Brent is a bundle of energy and laughter. He’s pretty much the exact opposite of me, which is a good thing. Brent is great with kids, loves to journal and have great conversations, and has an awesome boldness to approach people and speak truth to them. He’s going to remind us to have fun, but also challenge us (me) to set aside time to reflect on what we’re learning this year. During our team building challenges I thought I would really like to work with Brent so I’m very excited to be on his team!
Finally, we present the most updated version of our race route!
Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cambodia, Thailand, & Malaysia
