We have entered month 5 on the Race and its typical for that to come with a couple of changes. One of them is team changes. Community, discipleship, and learning how to be the Body of Christ is a huge part of the World Race. Adventures in Missions has a huge passion to introduce what the Church looked like in the Bible into our concept of church today. In order to continue to grow and not be stagnant in our walk with God and being sharpened as a believer, as well as getting to know more people on our squad of 51 people, there are a couple of team changes that occur throughout the year. So at month 4 debrief we had our first team change.
I’ve been on a team with Danielle, Lindsey, Joanna, and Sarah as team Themelios since training camp. We spent the first four months of the Race figuring out what 24/7 authentic community looks like, what the World Race is supposed to look like, what ministry can look like, and what Asia is like! We had a tough conversation back in month 1 in India where we were honest with each other about how we were not each other’s first choices to be placed on a team together. Some of us had expectations of what community on the Race was going to look like based on what community back home looked like. When our team dynamic didn’t meet our expectations we had to be honest with ourselves and each other. When we put that on the table, we began to lay those expectations down, and accept and embrace where we were at as a team of 5 girls all in different stages of our walk with God. That was a good lesson we learned early on as a team: be honest and lay things out on the table; set aside your expectations and accept and embrace the reality of the situation.
I struggled a lot in the beginning but through that I learned how to choose the girls on my team by showing them I loved them even when I didn’t want to. Anyone who is married understands the struggle of getting used to living with someone and not always wanting to choose their spouse when they don’t feel like it. Loving someone is a choice and being on the World Race has taught me what that practically looks like.
I’m super thankful for each of the women on team Themelios and how they collectively challenged me and encouraged me to be who God created me to be. I’m proud of the ways we showed the love of Jesus to children, women, youth and our ministry hosts over the last four months in Asia.
Team Themelios with one of our squad leaders, Amanda, in Cambodia
Going into this new season, my prayer was the same as it was going into training camp and getting my first team: “Lord, you know me better than I know myself. You know what I need better than what I think I need. So, whoever you want me with during this next season, let it be so. I trust you with the people you’ve chosen for me to be my community. Help me to choose them.”
On the 1st of May, announcements were made and team Bamboo was born!
Meet team Bamboo from L to R: McKenzie, Danielle (from my last team!), Caitlin, Klancy, me, Allie.
Right away I knew that these particular girls were placed on my new team because God wants me to dive deeper into spiritual gifts, vulnerability, and spiritual growth in this new season which is exactly what I was praying for! It is very fitting that our name is Bamboo because it is a symbol of flexibility, renewal, regeneration, freedom, and rapid growth. These girls have strengths, knowledge, and experiences that I want to learn from and will challenge me in different ways from team Themelios.
An example of this was our very first time having dinner together as a team, the topic of conversation started off with what our spiritual gifts are. That kind of intentional conversation is something I have learned to love and I was so happy that we were diving in to things I was craving right away. We have spent our first week together creating space to be vulnerable with each other and build each other up. Because of this, we have experienced a lot of growth as a team in the past week which has gotten me so pumped for the next four months together. After just spending one full week together, I can only imagine what 16 weeks will look like!
Our first week of ministry has come and gone. We put on a 3 day English camp full of songs, games, crafts, and skits for 40 children, ages 5-14 and it went so great! It’s amazing how teaching English is a popular avenue to sharing the Gospel overseas. Our squad leaders came to visit and we received comments from them and from our ministry hosts how well we worked together as a team, how we fed off one another using our strengths, and how successful the camp was. We literally planned the whole thing the day before!
Please keep us in your prayers as we move forward as a team and in our ministry this month. The next two weeks we will be going to schools teaching English and sharing the Gospel to students at different grade levels ranging from preschool to 9th grade.
