Its month 5 for the G-squad. We’re having the time of our lives as we get ready to hit the halfway point before returning to our homes or whatever crazy adventure God has planned for us in the future. The squad has just gone through an interesting transition period with new team changes and a “shorter” than expected debrief. These past couple weeks, my team, the Holy Banditz, have had the opportunity to minister in Arusha, Tanzania. From the moment our team was announced, we were itching to get back out into the field and have time to get to know one another while in ministry. As we traveled from Kenya to Tanzania, we arrived in Arusha and settled in. Our first day with our contact, we had an “orientation day”, where we came together to discuss expectations of our time there. As we finalized our meeting, one of the key topics was bringing up our housing situation. Our contact, who was the head pastor of the church, informed us that he had arranged for members of the church to house us separately. As in NOT together. Divided. Apart from one another. Immediately, the mood had switched gears. We kindly told him that this was not possible and we did not want to go ahead with these plans. But because of saving face and not wanting to go through the hassle of looking for other homes or disrespecting anyone from the church, we decided that we could live with these conditions since strangers were being so kind to take care of us of course. Or could we…
We quickly learned how much we were missing each others presence and conversations. The pastor had decided to split the team in pairs. Ben and I of course being the only males, had to stay together, while Jill and Alex paired up and Helen and Shiloh made the final house. At first, we were all excited in how much this would allow us to get to know our roommate better and connect on deeper levels. And that it sure did. It seemed like God sure knew what He was doing. Ben and I were put in a bachelors pad with many other African males ranging from 9 to late 20’s. It was great and very unexpected, even though we often had to deal with the struggle of language barriers and culture differences. That wasnt the issue. The issue was we were only together as a team for a bout a third of the day most days. Ben and I quickly came to realize that our days would end in frustration that was blamed on lack of time with our sisters. We had set up so many different ministries, that we were missing out on checking up with one another or just hanging out. Many times, we felt like jerks because of having to cut our time short with members of the church or community so that we could meet or pray as a family. It was much needed though so that we could have this essential time together.
