Like I said in our previous post, our squad got along super well immediately. We’d been part of a Facebook group and group text for some time, so we were familiar with each other and at least knew what we would look like. This broke a lot of barriers before we even met and it only got better from there!
Our squad is 18 racers from varying walks of life and ranging 20-29 years old. We cover a little bit of everything – fresh college graduates, military, teachers, professional athletes, neuro-physiologists, full-time ministers, life-long believers, new believers, outdoorsmen, city-folk, country kids, you name it. The best part is that everyone is so on fire for God that our backgrounds just don’t make a difference in how well everyone gets along – there was sibling like rivalry and love immediately! It helps that the squad is so small (others are 40-50 racers). Everything we did at training camp was more intimate and provided a lot more opportunity to interact. I’m sure racers from other squads didn’t even get a chance to meet their whole squad, and we’re all besties.
In terms of leadership and support staff, we have four team leaders, two squad leaders, a logistics coordinator, a squad mentor, and two coaches. They’re all awesome. To give you some context, I’ll break down who is who and how it works.
Racers – Missionaries; life is ministry, ministry is life. live it. love it.
Team Leader – Denise and Sam (two more coming, still on the field so we haven’t met them yet) responsible for 4-5 racers and work-site/host coordination. They’ve done this before and will share their experience because we won’t always be supported by other teams. We could be working together or across the country. They’ll be with us for 3 months training us to sustain ourselves.
Squad Leader – Eric and Tamara, responsible for 18 racers, provide oversight of treasury personnel, logistics coordination, host/partner coordination, and primary communication state-side. They’ll bounce around from team to team. These guys have done this before also. A few times. They’ll be on the field with us for 5 months training us to fulfill these roles.
Squad Logistics Coordinator – Lindsey, her job gives me a headache but I’ll be a logistics coordinator overseas so she’s teaching me. She handles our travel plans, debriefs, visas, etc.
Squad Mentor – Stephanie, essentially our handler state-side. I can’t really explain what Stephanie does, because its a little bit of everything (a lot bit?) but she’s totally cool. She’s got a very big sister style of leadership that everyone responded to super well right away. She’s done it all before and will be with us for the duration. She’ll mostly be state-side but we’ll see her a few times for debriefs.
Coaches – Mark and Jane, a married couple that volunteer their thirty years of experience in ministry, relationships, being an adult, and life to support racers growth, ministry development, and emotional stability (lets get real.. this last one is a biggie). They’ll mostly be state-side except for a few visits, but they’ll be there for us always.
God is going to work through Victoria and I in SO many ways over the next year, and we intend to share them all with you. BUT. To get more insight regarding the big picture, context, to read more about our team or squad, please use the links below to access everyone else’s blogs. I recommend subscribing to at least our team, but that’s your call.
Team: Seal Team 5 (or 6?)
Austin Goss – 6’8″ of joy and love to share
Hannah “Saha” Sahatoo – former Navy, current stud; 1 of 3 Hannah’s on the squad
Jewel Macauley – surgical neurophysiologist. what. and she’s only 24!
Teams are susceptible to change so if that happens, we’ll repost the new team.
Squad: Y Squad a.k.a. SQUAD SQUAD!!
SQUAD SQUAD!! – this is our team of 18. You can find everyone here. They all have “about me” pages and other posts about how God is working in their lives so far. Also, they’re great.
