Training Camp feels like a distant memory, but in reality, it was only eight weeks ago.
Eight weeks ago I met nearly 40 strangers who would become my family.
We laughed together. We prayed together. We praised our good, good Father together. We ate weird food together. We camped together. We did fitness disguised as games together. We stank together. We served together. We cried together. We hugged together. We grew together. We endured a lot together.
And in four weeks, we get to reunite and travel the world while proclaiming and displaying the Gospel together.
Everyone, this is my family…
This is D Squad 2016, or as we like to call ourselves “#DbestSquad.”
Many words could be used to describe this family, but the word I love the most is “hope.” We are 36 beacons of hope because we know the Hope to which we have been called. God has given each of us more grace than we could ever deserve. He has redeemed each of our stories and has brought us together for a purpose so much bigger than ourselves.
Over the course of next year, we will travel to each country together as a squad, but once we are in country, we will divide up into six smaller teams. Each team will go to a different ministry location.
(We were divided up into our teams near the end of Training Camp based on personality tests and how well we interacted during team building activities.)
I was assigned to a team with these beautiful ladies…
Jordan, Cas, myself, Paige, Cadence, and Michelle
“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 7:38
Together, we are team Rivers.
Water was something that the Lord continually brought up to our squad during Training Camp, and when the six of us spent time thinking about what our team name should be, we were each given pictures of water once again.
Water is transformative, cleansing, renewing, abundant, and life-giving.
Every river has a source that pours into it, and every river ends by pouring into something else. Along its course, a river can flow steadily, have areas of stagnancy, or moments of turbulent rapids. A river has seasons of overflowing banks and seasons of dry beds. A river can carve out a canyon by being slow, constant, and persistent, or it could carve out a canyon in an instant of flash flooding; either way, the landscape is forever changed.
We loved how the imagery of water and rivers paralleled characteristics of God and our relationships with him.
For all of us, God is the source of our Living Water. His Spirit lives in us and is transforming us. Because of this, we are able to love and serve others with a strength not our own. In our relationships with God, there have been seasons of stillness, growth, trials, and stagnancy. Whether we grew up in a church-going home and knew no other life than one with God in it or we met God in the midst of our darkest moments, our lives are forever changed because of Him.
