 “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.�
II Corinthians 12:9
Nepal ended with a bang as we raised up new leaders and changed up our teams. During this time I was feeling pretty sick with a cold and recovering from a stomach virus of some sort. They tell us to leave our expectations behind on the Race, but you never really realize how many you actually hold onto. I may have had an expectation or so coming into team changes so I was completely shocked when I read the SEVEN names of my new team.Â
You may not know this but at Training Camp my 1st team, Anchors of Hope, had 7 members. One person never launched with us. 2 teammates returned home during the middle of month 2 in Moldova. This past month 1 more of my teammates made the tough decision to go home because of sick family member.
This last one hit me hard. My friend, Burton, has become very dear to me. The reality is setting in that he’s actually not on the field with us anymore. I’ve been realizing that Burton helped me feel more secure. He’s been my protective big brother in more ways than one, and he’s shown me what it’s like to be pursued as a sister in Christ with no hidden agenda. He’s spurred me on towards Christ and spoken His truth to me like no other man has ever done. He’s watched out for me. Now he’s not here.
My team leader, Rachel, has been raised up to a squad leader. That only left me and my last teammate, Shay. We have become close friends over the past 3 months, and I just felt pretty sure that they wouldn’t split us up…I mean come on…There’s only the 2 of us left out of the 7 that we started with!
Well, God had other plans than mine (as usual). He placed me on an all girls team of 7. This was completely overwhelming to me at first. First off, I’ve never really wanted to be on an all girls team but with the shortage of men on our squad it’s pretty much inevitable at some point on the Race. Secondly, Shay was nowhere on my list of new team members. There was only 1 girl on the list that I’d actually had a REAL conversation with. The rest were pretty unknown to me. Add all of this to the fact that I was feeling crummy with sickness and hadn’t had enough sleep in days. I’ve also been dealing with a lot of homesickness during this holiday season. I was running on empty.
I would like to add that I had complete peace about team changes going into this. Lots of other people were really anxious about it but not me. I could hardly believe my reaction to my new team. I think I cried like 5 times that day! It was one of the most emotional/hardest days of my Race. I knew all the truth. God is sovereign. His plans are best. He has purpose in this. I knew it but just couldn’t seem to muster my emotions to get on the same level with my head. I felt like I hadn’t had time to process the past month much less all of this newness. A new team. A new country. All during the Christmas season. Changes galore.
To be continued…
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