Hi Everyone! Ok- so I apologize for the lack of blogs this month. We have had a month filled with lots of changes, and honestly I wanted to wait until all of the changes were complete to write a blog. And then- just when I was ready to write- our squad decided to do an electronic fast for a week. So…all that to say I’m sorry for the lack of communication, and I will now attempt to catch you up on what has been happening…
We arrived at Casa Shalom, a children’s home in Bucharest, Romania, at the beginning of this month. This is the first month that our squad has spent all together. It has been an adjustment to go from livng with 13 people to living with 30 people, but I have enjoyed getting to spend time with people on other teams. I have also enjoyed the perks of living in a big city, like a local mal complete with Starbucks!
We have been involved with a variety of ministries this month. We helped lead a kids camp for poor children from local villages. We helped with random odd jobs here at casa shalom- such as cleaning, sorting clothes, etc. We went to the park and visited with people. We spent time at a local girl’s home for abused women.
But in all honesty, our biggest ministry this month has been to each other. Like I said, it has been a month of changes. In the course of about 5 days, our squad lost 3 members. Rachel Richard decided to leave the race in order to continue ministry in Nicaragua. We also said tearful goodbyes to Taylor Griffith and Neon’s own Megan Johns, who is now continuing ministry in South Africa.
Due to these losses, our teams have all undergone pretty drastic changes. In addition to losing Megan, our team has also undergone a change in leadership. Neon’s leader, Will Miller, felt led to step up as leader of the former team Fuego (now team In.tent.city). With Will gone, Matt Ruple has taken over as leader of our team. We also have gained Kaleb Poth as a new member.
We have all chosen new team names to acknowledge that we really are a new team. So… I would like to introduce you to the Bamboo Brigade!! We chose this name because of the growth we want our team to experience together. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world, and we want our team to grow just as quickly! We chose the word brigade to show that we are united together and fighting for the same goal.
While change is hard, it has been exciting to see the way God is using all of this in our squad. I won’t lie, it has been a tough month- full of lots of brokeness. But we have also really been coming together as a squad. We have laughed together, cried together, worshipped together, and we have come to realize that God is sovereign and He is in control. Please pray for our team and our squad as we adjust to all of these changes. We leave on Monday to go to the Awakening, which is a conference for all of the current world race squads, as well as some alumni. Pray that God will use the time at the conference to continue bonding us together. Thank you! Much Love!
