Hey Everyone!!
I can’t believe a month has already gone by. I hope you have been able to follow along a little bit through social media but posting a few photos doesn’t really do justice of what we all have experienced this month and everyone has a different story to tell. Check out this blog of my girl Shelby who explains the beautiful hearts and ministry of City of Refuge. https://shelbykaplan.theworldrace.org/post/month-one-city-of-refuge and by Colby who wrote about the different ministries by taking the stories of different people on our squad. https://colbywayenberg.theworldrace.org/post/colombia-in-the-rearview-month-one-wrapup
But…I want to talk about my awesome SQUAD (S Squad).
Our team consists of 39 current World Racers who are on the race for the first time, including myself, plus our 4 amazing Squad Leaders who have done the race in the past,Teresa (TT), our bold, fearless Squad Mentor, and then our encouraging and supportive Squad Coaches who come visit us at the end of certain months.
This previous month in Colombia was what we call All Squad Month. We lived together and did ministry together.
During training camp back in October our leaders spoke truth into our squad of what God was revealing to them or what they saw in us as team.
These words are: leaders, unified, family rooted in love, we love each other deeply, mature disciples, CHOSEN group.
The Motto for our team thought of by our leaders is “LIVE WHAT WE BELIEVE!”
This month has been such a sweet time seeing how we have LIVED WHAT WE BELIEVE already in just a month.
Even though we lived in extremely close quarters and at times, split up into different groups depending on the day and ministry, we came together and served and loved well.
This month, especially during worship, I kept thinking…
“wow I am so blessed for the people on this Squad and that God chose us, regardless of our past, to be here…on the World Race. How lucky are we that we are able to worship God, freely, together in such a safe space.”
Community this month was so special. We laughed together, cried together, opened up to each other. We were vulnerable, encouraged each other, spoke truth into each other, lifted each other up, prayed for each other in all areas including healing, spiritual warfare, blessings, for good dreams, peace, chains to be broken etc. (the list could go on forever). Who wouldn’t want to be in an environment where people are For you and not Against you? Where they want to encourage and not tear you down? It’s amazing!
We walked out in obedience to God this month which included waking up early and reading our bibles, going on prayer walks around the neighborhoods, knocking on doors to invite the local community to come to our events, pray for strangers that we came in contact with and do whatever we were told to do to help out City of Refuge.
We stepped out in boldness while loving, serving and praying for people at the park or on this one certain street that was home to many people suffering from addictions, selling drugs, doing drugs and prostituting their bodies right in front of our eyes.
PS These guys were not addicts-they are retired and were at the park just enjoying the day but I loved talking with them!
We loved on children and gave lessons, danced, sang songs and put on mini skits to teach them about the love of Jesus.
We went into a public school in the community for the first time and taught them about different lessons like identity, purpose and the power of words and told them different stories about our own lives to relate. We were even encouraged to mention scripture from the bible, pray for them and talk about Jesus which is usually not allowed in public schools similar to the US. God definitely opened the doors to that opportunity. We invited these high school aged kids to an event the next day and were able to witness a few of them accept Jesus Christ!
We got to share the hope, love and freedom that Jesus brings to people all around us including our Uber Drivers and saw them accept Christ in their hearts.
We loved our ministry hosts and the men and women in the program who lived in the same building as us. We spent a lot of time with them and got to hear their stories. These people impacted our lives greatly and speaking for myself, they will always have a place in my heart.
These women have become my friends! Picture on the right is Lora-She has such a beautiful Soul and has graduated from the program while we were there and is now living on her own <3
City of Refuge held 3 services a week to welcome all in the community
Our Squad rocks at Worship! We have so many musically inclined peeps on our squad who bring so much light to worship and really allow space to feel the Holy Spirit. It is always such a beautiful experience seeing everyone be comfortable and free to worship however they want…Arms open wide, kneeling, dancing, journaling, praying for others. It’s a time where it truly is a Judgement Free Zone and I love it!
Friday Night Worship in the Bakery for the Community
God has already been moving in the lives of the people in my Squad and it is super cool to be able to watch my brothers and sisters grow in all different areas. We are becoming more and more of a unified, Jesus Loving Family. We all have different gifts that God has given us and are working together to build up the body of Christ. Our Squad is filled with people with huge hearts who want to share the goodness of Jesus and how he has and is transforming our lives.
These amazing people are the people I will be living out the journey God has set before us for the next 11 months.
This month, the month of February, we will be in Ecuador. We traveled over 30 hours on a bus to Ecuador and then we separated throughout the country with our groups of 6 or 7. My team, Team Valor, will be staying in Quito with another team of 6 females from our Squad. I am looking forward this month and to seeing how God is going to rock our world and use us to spread light to the communities around us.
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Love you all so much and I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for all of you and your love and support!
Love you,
Kristen
