353 days ago, we stood together in Gainesville, Georgia carefully smiling and laughing, meeting for the first time. Training camp, the most fun we never, ever want to have again. We slept in tents, hiked around with our big packs, ate portions of food on community plates, and got our first taste of a life of abandonment. Through it all, we loved and grew, taking the first steps toward unity, having no idea what the next year of life holds.
301 days ago, we met again in Atlanta. We said goodbye to everything we knew and hello to a new season. Since then, we learned, we crossed country borders together, we argued, we cried, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas together, we leaned on one another through the difficulties.
186 days ago, teams changed, pushing us outside the familiarity we’d learned to hold onto and pushing us to new struggles, new relationships. The salty seawater washed away Asia and brought us into the unknown season of Africa.
153 days ago, the alumni squad leaders left us. Emily, Bethany, and Haley are always a part of us. They were the ones who always guided us, assured us everything was okay, and calmed us down when the emotions of everything got to be too much. Yet, their time guiding us on the field came to an end. We miss them dearly, dearly, but now it’s just…us. M-Squad’s growing up.
118 days ago, something shifted, on a beach in Malawi. Ask any of us. We’re not sure exaxtly what did it. Probably the combination of no wifi plus beautiful beaches and intentional times seeking God allowed this transformation to occur. Malawi made us a true family, the blue shores of the lake baptizing our squad into a new sense of love and purpose. We loved before then but after… Things were just different, for the better.
67 days ago, we sat crammed in a tiny Hungarian apartment for a family meeting. Or a “meeting in the hot tub” as our coaches Keith and Karen called it. A serious talk, sure, but an issue we refused to ignore, and instead met head on with truth, love, and gentle words. It’s the closest thing to squad-wide “drama” we’ve ever had, but the grace and maturity with which we handled it left us all healthy and heard.
38 days ago, we met one another’s parents. Now, when we see one another, we sometimes point and shout “THAT! That’s exactly the face your dad makes!” Knowing families helps us know one another. The intimacy between us only grows and grows.
7 days ago…. 7 days ago we arrived in Barcelona, Spain for the final leg of this journey. Not only are we blessed for another all squad month, we are blessed with an all squad ask the Lord month– no hosts, no plans. Just M-Squad and Holy Spirit.
Here, we live the most intentional life together, all 34 of us under one roof. We cook together, clean up together, sleep right next to one another. We stumble through evangelism with the limited Spanish we remember from high school– or fly through it eloquently as we are blessed with fluent speakers. We feed the homeless, encourage backpackers seeking something out in the wide world. We pray healing over strangers, and use sports as a ministry tool.
Above all, we serve one another in excellence. We speak into one another’s dreams. We cry together over fears of the future. We put on goofy plays, run around the grassy fields together, and chat in hammocks under starlight. We pray together, declaring truth over one another, and gosh, we support one another in all things.
23 days in the future, we will say goodbye to one another, goodbye to the World Race season. We’re scared, we’re excited, we’re counting down the days, we’re avoiding the near reality.
Yes, this ends, but we are already stepping into new beginnings. From this family, we will be launching again– to Costa Rica, Equador, Panama, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, and South Sudan. We are seeking deeper education in the kingdom through schooling at Bethel and AIM’s G42 and CGA programs. And we’re returning to families and jobs, ready to be lights in the everyday darkness clouding our towns, ready to share everything we’ve learned to the hurting at home.
Regardless of the next steps, we are all walking forward with hearts full of dreams and heads full of new revelation. Along with that, we have the deep sense of 33 other humans out there in the world who will always be a part of this season of our lives
But, there are 23 days between here and there. For now, love, words, service, and heaps and heaps of joy.
This is us. We are M-Squad.
