Hi Friends!
Over the past two weeks I have been in Georgia, getting trained & acquainted with my new leadership team & squad. I want to introduce them to you! This time around, I will be squad-leading with Alyssa Muntz & Patrick Ryan. Our team leaders are Matt Kane (who co-lead with me for our original Z-Squad last August), Catherine Read & Shea Hendry (all were racers with me on Z-Squad), Abby Thornburg, & our wonderful mentor Tammy Moye (one of my original squad leaders). It is such a blessing to be running with so many from my last squad, & also to have had a couple weeks to get to know these wonderful new faces before heading out onto the field.
From the left: Me, Matt, Shea, Tammy, Catherine, Abby, Alyssa, Patrick (For some reason this photo in front of a stranger’s birthday poster is the only team photo we managed to take)
This is a photo of the entire squad during our last day at launch training! They are such an amazing group of people & I am beyond excited to journey with them & see all that they do over the next five months.
Need a recap on what the heck I actually do as a squad leader? As an alumni squad leader, I am part of a leadership team that is on the field (obviously). My main role is to develop & create the environment in a World Race squad. This looks different everyday, but includes modeling & practicing healthy communication (we like to call it feedback), challenging racers to pursue personal growth & development, facilitating & planning squad debriefs, training new squad leaders & team leaders, being a main point person in emergency or health incidents, communicating regularly with World Race staff in Georgia, the list goes on & on. I typically spend anywhere from 7-10 days with every team I visit each month, & jump into whatever ministry they are a part of, along with helping to create a safe space for healthy community within the team. It is honestly such an honor to be able to be a part of each racers journey!
Whats Ahead? Today, I am officially leaving the states & heading to Chile with this brand new group of 31 excited racers! I am writing this from the floor of the Boston airport during our eight hour layover – yay for being flexible! From here we will head to Santiago, Chile & I will be bussing down to Frutillar with Abby’s team for the next eight days. This team will be working with children at risk, helping with school teachers, as well as teaching english & music!
I want to thank you for all of your support! I am so thankful to get the chance to be out here with this specific group of people to be a blessing to these five countries! I can’t wait to share more from our first week soon!
Love, Emily
