Boxcar Blessings

It’s been three months now since I was lying on the cold floor of our parking garage-like meeting space in Colombia, crying tears of joy as I thanked God for the six girls I’d just been put on a new team with.

 

We named ourselves The Boxcar Children.

[^^^Courtney’s]
At first it was just because we were at a coffee shop inside an old train car and discovered that all seven of us had read and loved those books as kids, but to make ourselves laugh we came up with more spiritual reasons: the kids in the books are orphans, and we were spiritual orphans before we met Jesus, etc.

 

But none of us mentioned that they were a family. I guess it didn’t occur to us at the time because we didn’t consider each other family yet.

 

Now we are.

They’re each my sisters in their own ways(as you’ll read a bit further down), but it’s my favorite when we’re all together. 

We laugh. So much. I think the longest time we’ve gone together without laughing is like four and a half minutes. I’d say that’s aside from eight hours in the night, but Jess laughs in her sleep.

We love each other hard. We love Jesus more because of each other. We literally love the junk out of each other; feedback is one of my favorite parts of my day now.

We know each other. We can do each other’s facial expressions and hand gestures like they’re our own. We could probably get up in church and tell each other’s stories as easily as we could tell our own.

The seven of us are like a really great married couple; we love being together and know each other inside out, but we also aren’t afraid to make each other uncomfortable, we want what’s best for each other even when it means that person will hate us for a few hours, and we just never stop growing. I keep waiting for us to hit a really good point and settle there, but it never happens. And I never want it to.

I’ve had tastes of great community throughout my life, but these girls…they are it. They’ve made me understand what it means to let people love me. They’ve loved me impossibly deeply, more than almost anyone ever has, and every day I spend with them I feel like I understand a bit more of how God feels about me.

I wasn’t myself the first five months of the Race. I loved these six from the minute we were made a team, but I was so afraid they wouldn’t care as much about me, so I stayed hidden in what we affectionately call my Snapping Turtle Self. But they came in and sat beside me, shell and all, and patiently waited til I was brave enough to peek out of it. They showed me who God made me to be and walked beside me as I learned how to be me again.

[^^^Whitney’s]

I love us as a whole, but I love them each for themselves too. If I had to pick only one to keep on my team forever I couldn’t do it because they’re each too special.

 

Me and Jess…oil and water, marshmallows and vegetables, mice and snakes, any other pair of opposite things you can think of, that is us. I hate everything she loves(like Facing the Giants, Mariah Carey and the color pink), and she hates everything I love(like Star Wars, hugs, and popcorn-flavored jelly beans). We sort of hated each other in Japan, liked each other in Malaysia, and after Thailand we finally love each other. Plus we both love animals and Mindy Kaling and Ben Rector and we usually crave McDonalds at the same time. We’re each ten completely different shades of crazy, but we laugh at each other’s crazy now. And her serious side is just as great, because she speaks so much life into our team and never hides from saying what needs to be said. She’s given me some of my hardest and best feedback and I’m so thankful for her, because we’ve challenged each other like nobody else and if God hadn’t stuck us together, we probably never would have been friends, and that’d be sad because I love her so much.

 

I’d wanted Casey on my team from the first few days of training camp. Our teams were working together in month four, when we knew team changes were coming at the end, and the more we hung out the more I begged God to put me on her new team. And he did. She’s an amazing team leader who so intentionally pursues each of us and pushes us all towards Christ and invites us to do the same for her. She’s also a hilarious friend who I can always count on to catch my movie references. And she loves hugs and back rubs as much as me. She always knows when I’m thinking something but not saying it; she’s had that skill since Peru, long before we were on the same team. When I come home and roll in circles on the floor when I’m bored, it’ll be because she taught me that habit.

 

Whitney loves people fiercely. If she loves you, she’ll stand up to anyone who tries to hurt you even if that person is yourself. In my case, that person usually is myself; she will never ever let me get away with putting myself down. She loves to talk but she’s also a great listener; we make jokes about her “listening face” but we love it about her. You never wonder if she cares what you’re saying because it’s obvious that she does. She’s going to be the best wife and mom and aunt, and I’d love it if she became the next Beth Moore.

 

Tina was one of the first people I met at training camp(although at the time I couldn’t imagine calling her anything but Christina; now I hear people call her full name and I forget who that is). I liked her because I could sit by her in our worship times and not feel bad if I didn’t have my hands in the air; not that there was anything wrong with everyone else, it was just nice to have someone the same as me. I’ve actually never told her that. Ha. Anyways, now I have plenty more reasons to love her. She’s one of the calmest people you’ll ever meet. You can sit with her in totally non-awkward silence. When I’m upset and don’t feel like talking, I hang out with her because she’ll calm me down just by being herself. She’s so funny, and some people might not guess that when they first meet her. She has this quiet confidence about her that makes everybody okay with being them, because she’s okay being her. She’s the best treasurer on the squad, tells stories so well that you can hear them 3 times and still laugh, and has this funny but much appreciated talent for speaking English to foreigners in such a way that they always understand it. We’ll tell the creepy guys on bikes “We don’t need a ride, someone’s meeting us!” and they just stare blankly, but Tina says “Friend come pick us up!” and they smile and drive away.

 

Some people are scared of Lizzie when they first meet her. I didn’t realize this until she said so, because the thing that scares everyone is the reason why I liked her right away when I met her the morning of our third day at training camp(“met” as in, interacted beyond me tackle-hugging her the first hour of the first day). Some people run and hide from really honest people, because most people don’t know how to be really honest without being really mean, but Lizzie is only honest. I love her. She has this uncanny way of correcting my craziness while still letting herself be amused by it, to where she can point out any way I need to grow and I feel like she’s hugging me with her words. She’s one of the bravest people I know. I wanna be like her, but she really wants me to be me, and I like that too.

 

Annnd Courtney. I don’t remember exactly what sparked it anymore, but at some point during training camp I decided I really really wanted to be friends with her. Later in the week we were in the same group for one of our team-building challenges, wherein she and MC had to carry me through the woods while I played unconscious, and I liked that she laughed at all the moments where lots of kinds of people would just get stressed out and turn not very fun. When our trainers asked me the next day to name some people I thought I’d do well on a team with, she was the first person I said. But I was okay when we didn’t get put together, because I felt like God would make it happen later. And he did. We feed each other’s Starbucks addictions, we laugh at uncomfortable situations together, I make her talk nice about herself, and she makes me talk because she reminds me that people like it when I say things. She’s the most humble person I’ve ever met but also one of the most confident. She has the best laugh and gives the best hugs.

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So that’s my family. You should go read their blogs too.