One of the things that occurs on the Race from time to time is team changes. I think there are mixed feelings about team changes depending on the situation, but I think for the most part team change is hard and requires adjustment. For the past 4 months, teams on my squad have seen some team changes (nothing too drastic, but changes nonetheless). A person would get moved to a different team or a person would go home for various personal reasons. But it was always in isolated incidents and it never happened to my team, Reckless P! In fact, there was a point where we were the only team left that hadn’t been altered at all. And coming into this last debrief, none of us thought that was going to change. Team dynamics were going pretty well (yes, there’s conflict at times, but nothing that crippled the team too drastically). And thinking that leadership wanted to preserve teams that were functioning well, we thought there was nothing to worry about. Turns out, that was wrong.
It was the last day of team debriefs and we had just got done with our two-hour meeting with our amazing squad coaches, squad coordinator, and squad leaders! The debrief went really well as we had good conversation and we received numerous comments about how our team loved each other well and had immense grace for each other. Nothing during the meeting made it seem like that we should be expecting any change to occur to our team.
Later that evening, we had our nightly squad meeting where each team performed a skit that they had prepared (which was a lot of fun) and then the changes were going to be announced. I knew that things were going to be shaken up a little bit as some people had stepped down from team leadership and as a result would have to go to a different team, but I wasn’t too sure of anything beyond that. When the team leaders came out to read off their teams, I was only half-listening because I figured there would be nothing new that would apply to me. But as I heard Justin reading off the names on his list, I caught the name Eric and immediately gave my full attention. At first, I thought I heard wrong, but then I heard one of my teammates, Julie, get called by another team leader and I knew that I heard correctly.
After sitting there for a couple seconds still trying to wrap my head around what was happening, I looked back at Julie to see if she knew that this was coming. I could have fit my fist in her mouth…it was that wide in shock. They told us to get together with our new teams and pray together as we begin this new stage of the Race. Reckless P regrouped before that though as we needed to process what had just happened. There were a lot of tears and a lot of confusion and frankly, some anger as well from feeling deceived by leadership. Why did they speak so highly of our team and then go behind our backs and disrupt it? Why try to fix something that wasn’t broken? (Or at least functional…we’re all broken people)
It was really hard to accept. I love my team and didn’t want to see any of them go. And Julie was a really good friend. She was the one who I felt understood me the best and got my humor and could relate to me the most. (I think it’s just one of her gifts, because anyone of my teammates would probably say that and we are all very different) And after a week of not seeing her 24/7 it’s still been difficult at times…getting easier, but still hard.
But I also know that God is completely sovereign over this change and that this was part of His plan. One of the very first things our contact here in Odessa said was how excited she was that we had 3 guys on our team because there is a lack of male leadership. And I’m so excited to see what Eric is going to bring to the team and how God is going to use Him to push us closer to Him. In fact, if there was anyone that I felt would challenge my team the best in the way that it needed to be challenged, I would have chose Eric. He is a strong man of God who has such a heart for unity and the Father’s love being shown in the body of Christ. Not that our team didn’t love each other or didn’t have unity before, but I know Eric will just push us even further into that. He is an honest person who really seeks vulnerability with people and he leads by example well. I’m so excited to have him on our team and to see not only how he can point our team closer to Christ, but also how he will personally encourage me in my own walk with the Lord and becoming a man of God.
So I’m so blessed and happy to present to you Eric Nordhues!! I love this man and can’t wait to do life with him these next X amount of months! And because our team is different, we have changed our team name to…(drumroll)…Sozo!! Now I’m sure many of you don’t know what it means (it’s Greek), but I will explain. Sozo basically means salvation in every sense of the word. It’s used in the Bible when Jesus healed and restored sick people to health. It’s used when Jesus rescued someone from destruction like when He calmed the storm or rescued Peter when he stepped onto the water. And it’s used for the salvation from the Messianic judgment, which comes through the cross of Christ. I’ve been reading a lot of Colossians lately and it reminded me of the section…
“Once you were alienated from God…But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…” Col. 1:21-22
God doesn’t just want to rescue us from our spiritual deadness; He wants to save us from our physical ailments, our societal problems, our economical issues, our emotional troubles, etc. That’s why there won’t be any pain or tears or hunger or thirst or darkness or illness or death in Heaven; He doesn’t desire that! He desires salvation for us all, in every sense of the word. He desires Sozo.
And that’s the message my team wants to preach and live out not only during our time together, but for the rest of our lives. We want this message to burn within us so that we have to speak it out. We want to bring change and hope to this world through this message. And by His grace and through His strength, we will!
Please pray for Team Sozo. We are still adjusting to the new team and could use prayer for unity. Also continue to pray for Julie as she transitions to her new team. I’m so excited to see how God will use her in this next phase that He has her in. Thanks and love you all!
