Something I wasn’t fully prepared for when coming into the Race was the importance of teams. Everybody is placed onto a team who you live with, cook with, eat with, breath with, get sick with, work out with, go to the bathroom with, get lost in foreign cities with, speak broken languages with, paint your nails with, brush your hair with, take bucket showers out of tupperware with, make coffee with, laugh with, fight with, love with, pray with, encourage each other with, sit in a room saying nothing but being together with, doing ministry with, and doing life with (have you gotten the hint that you do EVERYTHING with these people).

 

You stick with a team for several months- and then when it is decided for you- these teams switch.

 

You have already met my team:

Jessica, Kelsay, Emily, Delaney, Kalie, and Brittanee.

  

Let’s be real, you put 7 girls who don’t know each other into constant community and it feels a little bit like sand paper against a cactus in 100 degree heat.

 

During our first month together, I didn’t know how I was going to make it on this team and I asked God if these were really the girls I was supposed to live with for the next (at least) 4 months. Naturally, He told me yes. And not only am I supposed to live with them, but I am also supposed to love them with a love so unconditional that nothing could break it, bend it, burn it or destroy it. He told me that if we fought for this kind of love with each other, He would bless us beyond anything we could imagine.

 

As always, He has not let me down.

 

This month in Peru, we are reaping the harvest for the seeds of love we planted in month 1 and month 2 of our race together. This month has been HARD. The place we are living is hard. The heat we are living in is hard. Our cooking situation is hard. Some of the people we are encountering daily are hard. The “no running water and the need to shower and use toilets thing” WAS HARD. 

And I could not be getting through it without the love and strength of my team who I LOVE SO DEARLY. 

…without Jessica’s encouragement

…without Kelsay’s wisdom

…without Emily’s laughter

…without Delaney’s kindness

…without Kalie’s servant heart

…without Brittanee’s compassion

 We have encouraged each other, laughed with each other, cried with each other (and sometimes all of the above when things get REAL bad). We have learned how to speak truth to each other on the hard days, hand out baby wipes to each other on the smelly ones, and praise God with throughout all the days. 

The truth is, these women are a GIFT. What I thought was a great challenge on my race has actually been the biggest blessing. We still have tough days together where we bicker about being on time, what we want for dinner, and who gets the first shower- but there are no people I would rather being doing this life than these girlies!

 

Don’t make me change teams World Race! PLEASEEEEEEE.

 

You are magnificently loved,

Sara

 

P.S. Aren’t they cute???????