Fifty Seven People in One Roof - ALL SQUAD MONTH - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

March 8^th 2017

This month in Ecuador has been hard. It’s been incredible, our ministry has been so incredible, but the month? It had its challenges.

You see, this month was All Squad Month. That means instead of living with just my team of 7 girls, all 57 of my Squad lived together under one roof. That’s twelve guys, fourty-two girls, three squad leaders, and one house.

I’ve written about Casa Blanca in my Be Like The Banana post (click on that to read it if you haven’t already), and I wrote about our host parents who have laughed, danced and cooked with us every single day. It’s been so great being with my squad.

It’s also been really crowded, and there’s been no alone time. I really like my alone time. I like curling into my bed at the end of the day with quiet. Here, there is almost never quiet. Even when my room (filled with twelve beds) is full of sleeping people, the dogs bark all night, the roosters crow all morning, the cell tower clicks 24/7 and my brain can’t get QUIET!

But, God doesn’t need quiet to work.

God worked through the close proximity of my squad to push me far out of my comfort zone. There was literally an evening where the floor was open and God told me it was time to be vulnerable. As soon as my squad leader Alissa said “Okay, I just feel like I need to open the floor up and that there are some people that need this space to talk to the squad.” I let out a yell. God was telling me. Nate beat me to raising my hand and while he talked about what he was learning this month, I was nauseous, dizzy, and my heart was beating out of my chest. It hurt. So, the moment Nathan was done, I stood up and blurted out “Okay, I either need to throw up or start talking.”

I shared with my squad how hard it is to live in such close quarters, I love the people around me, but over the years I have learned that I recharge in the quiet. I recharge best in solitude with the Lord, I recharge by getting really good sleep, and I like the quiet. I’ve become an introvert, far from who I was five years ago, and I love quality time resting in quiet. Here, that isn’t really an option. It’s been overwhelming, and it’s also taken it’s toll on my communication with Freddy.

Yeah believe it or not living in different hemispheres has been hard for us! So, I shared with my squad that sometimes I get overwhelmed with this journey, sometimes I want to hide, and sometimes I have caught myself hiding. I’ll sneak behind our cabin and sit with the dog, Sonny, in the grass and just shut my eyes and hope that I can keep the precious moment of alone-ness I’ve found just a bit longer. Usually, I’ve found that this “solitude” only lasts a moment. The property is small and people are everywhere.

So, I poured my heart out and I smiled as I shared my struggles with my new family. I shared that this month baggage from when I was a high school kid crept into my head, and that I let it fester. I shared that I needed to be reminded from the Lord that I have been redeemed, and I shared that this was all very hard to process through in a house full of people, away from my guy.

But hey, you know what’s great? My team, my loud, busy, and amazing team came beside me with love. They supported me. That night, I was the second of almost 30 people to share with the team. We are all human. We don’t have it all together. But we have something that would blow some people’s minds – We have community, and we have the love of the Lord. In that we have strength, in that we have victory. So, despite our struggles, my squad is pressing into God. We are leaving Ecuador tomorrow and we are not leaving defeated, we are leaving triumphant.

So – This month had its challenges, but fortunately I’m in love with a guy who fights hard for me, who loves me immensely and writes to me every day. I have a God who reminds me of redemption and I have a team that supports me, loves me and is my family.

To let you in on some really wonderful memories made this month – (In no particular order) here are our top moments:

Getting to know Mabe, Fabi, Gustavo and Gregory. The first three work for Incalink and are native to Ecuador, and Gregory lives here at Casa Blanca and is from Manitoba, Canada. They have all become like family, and as I previously mentioned, they laughed with us, loved us, danced in the kitchen with us, and encouraged us greatly this month. There is Patrick, a manager here and Hunter, an intern here, and those two have become honorary members of our squad as well.
My team spent a solid day cleaning out a closet listening to Disney songs, laughing, coughing through the dust and singing together. We got to take a dusty, nasty old closet and make it sparkly and amazing. We were very proud.
We had the pleasure to teach about 20 people English all month long, and made some really wonderful friendships with them. We had about 10 kids that came every day, and between 5 and 10 loyal adult attendees that also came daily. We got to teach them English, and pray for them each day. At the end of the month one of the girls we taught brought all seven of my girls a pair of shoes that her mother hand made for us. Wow.
We discovered this amazing corn stand on the street, where the vendor grilled corn and then lathered it in a mayonnaise sauce and then covered it in butter and cheese. IT WAS SO GOOD
We got to travel to Banos for Carnival and spent two nights with an amazing couple who ran a boy’s orphanage. They loved us so well, gave us so much wonderful advice and we got to explore their town. I got to hike some volcanos on horse-back with three other girls from my squad and the four of us had an incredible time in the mountains. I love riding horses.
We were in Ecuador during their biggest holiday month – Carnival. We went out on a Friday night and got to explore the down-town streets of Quito (the capitol of Ecuador) and we were covered in foam, silly string, we had eggs thrown at us and water guns squirted at us – we were fully immersed in the holiday. We danced with the locals and ate the amazing street food and got to experience Ecuador in a really special way.
I got to go to the Equator, and I got to lay in both hempisheres at the same time!
I also got to curl up on the couch with my girl Emma and read my kindle for like three hours on rainy afternoon. That was great, we were both snuggled up reading and it was so refreshing.
As much as I sometimes felt overwhelmed, I did get to spend some wonderful time with people in my squad that aren’t on my team and it was greatly rewarding.
I got to lead worship two Sundays in a row in a Spanish church, in Spanish. I wasn’t very good at the words, but I got to play the piano and I loved it, even though it was hard to figure out what anyone was saying, I got to use my gifts in a different language. How cool is that?
We spent the month with an amazing church, La Luz Alliance, led by Pastor Efren and his beautiful wife Monica. They were so great and saying goodbye to them is so hard!