back to Bangkok Thailand, to travel down to Cambodia, I was asked
along with Jory Billiot and Weston Belkot to come away with Sean and
Andi (our two squad leaders) for two days. On a Wednesday afternoon
Andi and I traveled to meet Sean,Jory and Weston at a hostel
right inside the ancient wall in Chiang Mai. All sorts of emotions
were running around my head, heart and spirit. Once everyone had
arrived we all sat down at the kitchen table together and Andi and
Sean invited the three of us to be the leaders of our squad. (If you
don’t know how the race works, our squad is the large group of 46 men
and women I have been traveling with. The squad is broken into teams
and each team has a leader. For the past 3 months I had been a leader
of one of the teams. Andi and Sean are veteran racers who have come
back to lead our squad for the first 4 months of the race. They will
be leaving us in February.) After lots of great kitchen table time,
prayer and worship Jory, Weston and I accepted the role as squad
leaders with much excitement. We traveled to meet up with the rest of
the squad in Bangkok and from there traveled to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
We got to stay in Siem Reap for a couple days to just relax and rest
up before heading out to ministry.
some important shifts for our squad. First off was the shift in
leadership for Jory, Weston and I. Second was the shift in leadership
for the new team leaders that would be called up to take our places.
Third was a shift in the dynamics of some teams. Through all of the
shifting and transitioning that has happened I feel that our squad
has grown stronger, especially in the spirit! It was hard and
upsetting, but our men and women rose above and took on what God had
planned for them for this next season with faith.
There have been times where I have been
moved so incredibly deep here on the race and the night that Andi and
Sean handed over squad leadership to Jory, Weston and I moved me the
deepest out of everything so far. Its so hard to explain the power,
emotion and spirit that was present in this ceremony. Andi and Sean
called us up one by one and spoke words about why we had been called
to squad leadership and how God had highlighted us for the position.
The three of us were each seated in a chair on the stage that had a
bucket and a towel placed in front of it. Andi and Sean were going to
wash out ears, eyes, hands and feet while passing on the authority of
squad leadership. I had the amazing privilege of having Andi wash my
ears, eyes, hands and feet. The moment she knelt in front of me I
lost it. Tears started pouring from my eyes with every word that was
spoken in prayer and every movement of washing. My true and loving
sister in Christ was anointing me with everything that she had been
given and more. It was so powerful and so moving. The Lord placed an
amazing anointing on me so strong, stronger than I had ever felt
before. She placed the squad in my hands with full trust in the God
inside of me.
