Team Tumbler:
One of nine teams on L squad, Hand picked by God and prayed over by many staff members.
(No, not that Tumbler….)
Our name speaks a lot of truth into us as a group. It was true for us at training camp and it will continue to prophesy over us while we travel together. We got off to a rough start; very few of us had really gotten to know anyone else on the team prior to our team dinner at training camp. We were finding it very difficult to come up with a team name for such a "random group of misfits" [in our mind].
So, after much deliberating and coming up empty, we turned to prayer [probably should have been our first stop anyway…]. As we were praying, the idea of Tumbler came to two different members of the group in two forms of the word- but both very relevant.
The first came from Alia- she had a vision of a tumbler used to make mixed drinks- individually the ingredients tasted nasty, but once combined, shaken, and poured, a magnificent drink came of it.
Then, Michelle K. had vision of a rock tumbler- in it, the rocks were banging up against each other, smoothing the rough edges of each other. And afterwards, each rock came out BEAUTIFUL: smoothed and shined by each other in the Tumbler.
After two visions so closely revealed, we knew that this was the name for our team! We had had a rocky start [please pardon the puns…] but knew that beauty would come of it. Through the next eleven months, we would be speaking truth into each other's lives and molding each other into the people God created us to be. Not changing each other, but refining each other.
Even before camp was over, we continued to live up to our name. Just like in a tumbler, sometimes some of the rocks fall out. On the last day of training camp, Alia informed us all that she would not be joining us on the Race. It was a hard pill to swallow, but the peace and confidence she had in the decision made it evident that this was from God.
One rock less, we tumble on. We are team Tumbler.
Erin was one of the first people I met in the Atlanta airport. We rode the bus to camp together and we talked the whole way. And at camp, even though I tried to get to know everyone, we kept bumping into each other in line at meals or next to each other at Chapel. [And I'm not complaining about that!] She is a GREAT listener and always knows exactly what to say at the right time. Fun-fact: She is a tri-citizen.
Michelle was THE first person I met from my squad at the Atlanta airport. [Turns out I saw a squad mate sleeping on a bench before I met her and I was texting another squad mate, but she wins the cake for being the first in person meeting!] And she greeted me [and everyone else] with a big ol' hug! She has so much love and joy that is infectious! She is a worshipper and a lover.
Haha, just kidding. This guy is amazing in so many ways! He is part-owner of an IT company (yay, he can fix all my computer problems!) and has a really wicked awesome camera that he is willing to share. He gave us permission to either tell him what to take pictures of or steal the camera so we can take pictures ourselves. Yeah, he's kind of awesome. Ed is also one of the squad logistics coordinators/people/persons. He will be working with the staff at AIM in organizing all the logistics (buses, trains, planes, other things that I am oblivious to, etc) for the ENTIRE squad (all 66 of us!).
