Hey y’all!
About a week and a half ago my lovely squad mentor, Madie, pulled me aside and asked me to speak at the Awakening. (Don’t worry, I will explain what the awakening is in a sec). As soon as she asked me I felt butterflies all in my stomach. I love one on ones with people and sharing my heart but getting in front of a crowd intimidates me.
Before I launched for the World Race I already felt the Lord was calling me to share with others—Share my story, share my heart, share the wisdom I’ve received, and share my words. Our coaches asked all of us to pick a P word to live out this year since we are P Squad and my word was/still is PROCLAIM. I didn’t know what this would look like, but as soon as Madie asked me to speak at The Awakening I knew I needed to do it.
So what’s The Awakening?
Awakening is a few days where my squad (who’s in month 2) and two other squads (one finishing month 4 and the other finishing their entire 11 months!) spend hearing from others, worshipping together, evangelizing, and interceding in prayer. I lobed getting to hear stories from the other squads since they have walked in our shoes at some point in the past year. on the first day there were three talks that were led by someone from each Squad. I spoke on surrendered and the other two girls talked on brokenness and dependency.
As I prepared for this talk, memories flooded to my mind of when I fully surrendered and times when I should have done it sooner. I definitely did a lot of processing as I wrote out my outline for what I was going to say. I got emotional as I prepared knowing how vulnerable I was about to be. BUT also really encouraging knowing that freedom comes when we hand it ALL over to the Lord.
I couldn’t have done it without the support from my squad mentor, leader and teammates. Speaking in front of groups and on such a vulnerable subject was out of my comfort zone but the encouragement I received was so great. I just want to give a huge shoutout to my squad. They all showed so much love to me and made my heart so happy looking out as I talked and seeing so much love from each one of them. I LOVE MY SQUAD. Daily, we walk together through vulnerability with each other and though it looks different for each person the support is always there. We are a family and I am so thankful to go through this season of surrender, brokenness and dependency with them.
I have a video of my talk this morning (shoutout to Martha) and wanted to share with y’all. I am so grateful that the Lord is using me in this way right now and I pray that for everyone who watches this will lI’ve a life with your PALMS UP in surrender to the Lord! If you’d like to watch my talk click here!
