Month Five is a big month on the Race. It’s our first month in Asia, our first month with our new teams, and our first month with new raised-up leadership. And all of this is thrilling because it means one thing: we are starting to get the hang of this puppy.
But Month Five is also a month of lasts. And because our squad has reached this point where we have grown accustomed to our World Race life, this is our last month with our Alumni Squad Leaders. It’s an exciting time, seeing three of our superstar squad mates rise up to become the new Squad Leaders, but it’s also a time of remembrance of those who came before them, something my amazing Alumni Squad Leaders have taught me to do well.
A Squad Leader’s mission is not the World Race, but the World Racers. Before a new World Race squad comes to Training Camp, the Squad Leaders are assigned to serve that squad for the first five months of their Race, before even meeting them. They show up to camp, sometimes without having ever met each other, and they choose in from the very first second. Their role from day one is to facilitate the kind of healthy spiritual community that Adventures in Missions desires for each squad, where each team models healthy communication, servanthood, and cooperation. These Alumni squad leaders are people who have done the Race before (some having come fresh off of their 11-month Race!), and have a wealth of perspective to serve new teams well.
But Squad Leading is not easy. In fact, it’s a really, really hard job. Squad Leaders invest all of their time doing ministry alongside teams, helping mediate conflict, encouraging team leaders, planning debriefs, communicating with leadership back home, helping create new teams, enforcing Race policies, and ministering to Racers one-on-one. And in the brief moments when they’re not pouring out, squad leaders struggle with their own stuff too. Choosing to go back out on the field requires them to again raise a large amount of money, say goodbye to their families and friends once more, and deal with the issues that arise while being away from home. My three Alumni Squad Leaders have had a wealth of hardships to bear through – family trouble, financial burdens, emotional struggles, etc. – and yet were consistently committed to serving, encouraging, and loving us through our World Race experience.
My three Squad Leaders – Anna Ganter, Hunter Young, and Hannah Henderson – are my current Alumni squad leaders. And in just a week, I say goodbye to them as they head on to new callings. It’s hard to say goodbye to three people who have had such a huge impact on my life these last five months. So, for this month’s Missionary Spotlight, I hope to be able to tell you just a little bit about how special each one of them is to me.
Anna Ganter
This goon.
Anna is the kind of person you think is cool just by looking at her. And maybe not the popped-eyebrow, designer-clothes, wears-sunglasses-at-night kind of cool. I mean, the kind of cool that makes you feel like you can walk up to her, say the stupidest thing in the world, and know that she’ll laugh and then appreciate you for it. She’s the kind of cool that makes you think that there really are people who appreciate you for your quirks. And the reason for thinking this is because she models that for us. She’s goofy, she’s weird, she’s hammy, she’s always smiling, and she’s ready to contribute to anything. She’s cool, because she doesn’t care about labels. She sees through falsehood, and appreciates the truth she sees in people. And for that, I’ve been grateful to be her friend.
What’s amazing about Anna is that she’s strong. She’s had probably the toughest experience on the Race of any of us because of hardships back home, and yet you’d almost never know it based on how she’s kept up on the field. She’s been a model of resilience, and she’s always looked forward to the goal set before her, despite the pain that’s tried to redirect her focus. She’s a pillar of wisdom, someone I deeply respect, and someone whose honesty and personal humility has allowed her to be a vessel that stimulates vulnerability in others around her. She loves people well, and with that love comes trust. I trust that when she offers advice, she cares about that advice. I trust that she understands where I’m coming from, and if she doesn’t, she makes the effort to. She is the kind of person who knows how to stoop down to make someone great.
I’ve learned a great deal from her, but I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from her is grace. She’s constantly willing to listen and to learn and to love, and that willingness is rare. I don’t always have that grace to be willing to learn and to listen, but she does. She wants to grow, and it’s evident in how she constantly opens herself up to us, to people who she very well could look down upon as a leader. And you know, I think it actually says a lot about a leader when they’re able to look past their title and accept help from their subordinates. I’ve had the utmost respect for how she’s been willing to do this, and risk the possibility of us respecting her less. We don’t, by the way – because we see the grace she has for herself. We see that she has struggles and fears and disappointments, and acknowledges that while these things are hard, she’s willing to take grace and keep going despite it all.
Because of you Anna, I’ve learned how to be a graceful human being who loves people well, who has grace for himself in weakness, and who boldly embraces help without fear of what people will think. I’ve learned how to love people well, to choose them before they choose me, and to be willing to accept people in love no matter what. Thank you for teaching me these things. You’ve meant a lot to me, and to all of us.
Thanks for being tall and awkward and always wearing bows. External features shouldn’t make a person cool, but these things just do. Keep rocking yo boujee self.
Hunter Young
Oh Huntie (Lil’ Darlin’).
I remember meeting this man at training camp. I was awkward, nervous, and feigning all the confidence I could muster amongst the hundreds of strangers, and this guy walked right up to me. And I remember his joy. I remember it because it was strange, and out of place, and yet totally genuine (also evidenced by his loud cackle). Here was someone who immediately made me feel comfortable in my own skin. With Hunter, it wasn’t just a generic “hey, nice to meet you”, but a “hey, you seem like a person I want to get to know. Let’s do that”. And Hunter did that.
What Hunter does best is fight. He fights to get what he wants, and what he wants most is truth. I’ve never met someone who loves personal feedback more than Hunter Young. He desires to know himself in the depth of his being with more hunger than anyone I’ve ever seen. And I think that’s because at the end of the day, Hunter likes himself. And that’s amazed me. Because showing up to training camp, wondering if I would fit in, or be liked, or even be noticed, I tried to find things that helped me be like others so I could blend in. Because when I was in that mix of strangers, I didn’t know if I liked myself. But Hunter doesn’t play by that crap. Hunter likes himself, and he’s not going to be anyone else than who God’s made him to be. He’s fearless in that. And if he ever doubts that, he fights until he knows that truth once again. Never have I met anyone like this before, especially a guy.
Hunter desires truth from his friends too. He’s gone through too much in his life for false identity and phony motives to get in the way of true friendship. He cuts to the chase quickly, because he doesn’t believe in masks or walls or blocks (or whatever colloquialism you want to use to describe it). He wants to know you, so that you can know yourself. He believes in the strength that comes from identity, and he will fight to the death for that to be realized in the people he cares most about. And if you’re believing crap, or sitting in it, he’s going to sit with you, and he’s not going to stand up and get out of it until you come with him. Because he’s only in this thing if he’s gonna go all the way.
The biggest thing I’ve learned from you, Hunter, is how to stand firm in my identity. I’ve learned to love the man that God has made me to be. Sure, I get frustrated with myself sometimes, and wish I could fix myself, but you’ve been that example for me that has helped me realize that I can be a mess and still be loved. That I don’t need to have it all together, but that I can dance in worship and not worry about how stupid I look, or I can like that movie even if I’m the only guy that likes it, or that I can be a man of faith who seeks after the Lord in radical ways despite how others might question my sanity. You’ve taught me to find truth in who I am, and that’s invaluable, my friend. I pray that you continue to seek that truth, and that the Lord uses you to impact so many more lives like you’ve impacted all of ours.
Love you buddy. Also, I’ll gladly watch “Devil Wears Prada” with you whenever you want. I’ll bring Salt and Vinegar Pringles.
Hannah Henderson
My dear Hendy/Henderson/Hendy-Lou-Who.
First of all, I don’t think I really had any idea what a whack-a-doodle this girl was until Month Three in Honduras. I remember thinking she was really sweet, and kinda quirky, but I didn’t know if we would really ever connect much on the Race. But then Month Three happened, and well, it was like I had made a new best friend.
Hannah is a gem. A peach. A ray of sunshine. A ball of fire. Whatever you can think of along these lines, she fits the bill. She’s a spitfire disguised as a swan. She has wild ideas, and is always willing to say “yes” to anyone else’s. She reads atmospheres like nobody’s business, and can brighten a room in seconds if she feels it’s needed (though, I’d say most of the time, she brightens the room anyway). She’ll stay up until past midnight talking about Narwhals, just because. She’s not in this for the authority, or the title, or the adventure, but for us. From day one, Hannah has been one of us. She’s dived into our World Race experience without looking back. She’s been fully committed, eyes on the prize, focused on the task at hand, with no plans to turn around anytime soon.
I’ll never forget watching her in Honduras hacking away at that ridiculous garden, trying to chop down that tree with that dull machete. I took a couple of whacks at it, just for fun, but realized my hands wouldn’t hold up without blistering, and I didn’t think that this tree was worth cutting down. But Hannah kept working on it. For almost an hour, I watched her chop at this thing, even though it seemed like nothing was happening. Hannah was persistent. And finally, that tree came tumbling down as Hannah grinned the dopiest grin, radiating triumph. And with that moment, I learned two things: 1) Sometimes, the things that look impossible aren’t impossible, but just require faithful perseverance, and 2) the hardest things to tackle are met with the sweetest of victories.
The biggest thing I learned from you, Hannah, is persistence. Throughout my month with you, I had many days where I wished I could stay home and not go to ministry – it was rainy and cold outside, and I knew ministry would have us working outside. But you always kept going, even if you didn’t want to, and you always had the exuberance that got others pepped up and willing to get out of bed to go. And even when it was raining, and we were digging up stupid tree roots and lunch was just around the corner, you kept working on digging out those roots even when the rest of us decided to give up early. And you didn’t have to do any of this. You, as a Squad Leader, could have had many more things to do to take you away from the mundane tasks we were asked to do, but you persisted. You chose in, and you persisted. And whether that was hacking down a dinky little tree with a dull machete, or sitting and listening for hours in a one-on-one, your persistence has showed me how to live life well. The way you’ve persisted in loving people and encouraging them has encouraged me to strive for the same. So thanks for committing to this thing. Thanks for committing to investing in me, because you’ve done more than you might ever know. I hope you know how grateful I am to you.
Oh and by the way, I’ll always remember you, Hannah from Squad Leading. I still owe you a pupusa.
I’m grateful to have had these three amazing souls alongside me on this 11 month journey around the world, and I’m even more grateful to know that we’ll be reunited very soon. In about three month’s time, I’ll see each of them when they meet us in Rwanda for Month 9 debrief. It’s still a long time away from now, but I’m excited to see them soon because I know that God is going to do some amazing things in their lives until then. Because of the impact they’ve had on us 43 Racers on O-Squad, I can’t imagine what kinds of things God has planned for them after this.
In time, I’ll share more about the new Squad Leaders who have just been raised up from our squad – Daniel, Victoria, and Katie – because they’re amazing and I know they’re going to fill these big shoes well. But to my friends Anna, Hunter, and Hannah, I bid you Godspeed on your next adventures. I pray that you guys know that you are leaving us well. You committed to five months of following the Lord by serving this squad, and you’ve succeeded. You’ve done your job, and you’ve done it to the fullest. I can’t thank you guys enough. I pray you never regret any part of this experience, because even in the moments where you messed up, or did something you’ve regretted, it only established further in our minds that you are real people who love God, love people, and love truth. You’ve been the most honest versions of yourselves you could be, and you’ve encouraged us to be the same.
Keep being weird, loving Jesus, serving people, and posting pictures with lots of cats in them. We’ll still be on the other side of the world from you, but regardless, we will love you for it.
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And now… a collection of pictures featuring Hannah, Hunter, and Anna in their finest moments:
