Life on the race. Some have been caught off guard by the ordinariness that remains out here. And for sure, there are ordinary moments. You still have to do the dishes and someone will always feel like they’re doing them too much. You still have to take showers and wash your hair. Although, I hope the bucket showers I’ve been taking for the past 2 1/2 months do NOT become normal. 🙂 You still get up every morning and go to sleep every night…but even that isn’t completely normal. In the span of 10 nights, I have slept in 9 different beds/tents/floors.
I’ve fallen asleep under an African sky bigger than you could possibly imagine. I’ve woken up to the sounds of roosters, car horns, motorcycles, thunder, the rushing Nile River, worship, laughter and tears. I’ve been tossed around in the incredible whitewater of the Nile River. I’m currently sitting a few kilometers from the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I’ve watched and felt healing and life restored to empty people, marriages, children. I’ve seen my squadmates come alive in ways they never felt possible. I have spent almost every single moment of every single day of the past four months with the same 5 people. We’ve worshiped together, prayed for each other. We know each other’s families and friends. This is not ordinary.
This is not ordinary.
No, this is extraordinary. It is extraordinary to get to live life with people who want more for me than I want for myself. People who want to grow and allow me to be a part of that. It has been an extraordinary 4 months with Team Quake.
But our leadership also wants more for us than we want for ourselves. They want to see us grow beyond where we are. So at our last debrief, we switched things up a little. Ok, a lot. All eight teams were switched around and we now have seven all-star teams ready to continue this extraordinary adventure together. Our first teams taught us all so much. They became family in so many ways. And these new teams are ready to propel each of us forward, to keep us from becoming too comfortable out here on the race and giving in to the ordinariness of it all. I’ll get to continue to be on a team with Jill and Shiloh and add Ben, Patrick, Alex and Helen to my family. Together we are the Holy Banditz. (I had NOTHING to do with the name. 🙂 I won’t get to spend all my time with them because I’m also transitioning into the role of squad leader along with my squadmate, Kyla. So we’ll spend time with all the different teams as we care for the squad as a whole.
And as I write this surrounded by beautiful African children, as I stare at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, as I listen to my squadmates worshiping our God in freedom, I know…
…This. Is. Extraordinary.
(I wish I could upload some photos, but the connection is too slow! I’ll try again, I promise!)
