Our last few days in Thailand are being spent in Bangkok at
Avana Hotel. A hotel with a pool. A hotel with a spa. A hotel with air
conditioning. A hotel with free breakfast. A hotel with a hair dryer. A hotel
with room service. A hotel with wifi (though not free). Honestly, we are being
spoiled… and we are absolutely loving it.
At the end of this de-brief our former squad leaders, Tim
Dixon & Di Dinnis, will be heading home to the good ole’ US of A, and our
new squad leaders will be even more official. The past couple of months have
brought upon a little change in teams, as 4 people have now gone home and 2
have been raised up to squad leadership. Team X-Stream had only 3 members, and
of course, couldn’t stay that way. Michael and Joni & Tim and Di did some
shifting and Shabach has lost Janell King to team Liberators (soon to be
re-named). This means Shabach is now a team of 4: Chelsea, Leslie, Tim &
myself. Janell is now team leader (ow ow!) of the Liberators and Carly, their
former team leader, is the newest, and fourth member, of X-Stream. Squad
leaders did an awesome job at keeping the team changes minimal and I trust
their decisions, I would even go so far as to say that I am excited for them.
Though Shabach is already starting to realize the hole that Janell leaving
creates. In the past months I think I learned the most about community from J.
Our friendship was definitely something we both had to work towards and fight
for, but I am constantly being reminded that it’s worth it. When J gets crazy,
we all get crazy. From mattress fights down hallways in Siem Reap, to late
nights giggling in Kuala Lumpur. I am certainly going to miss her, but she is
beginning this new season with all of the support she could possibly have from
Shabach. Please be praying for all of these changes and for people’s
receptiveness to them, and just for community in R-Squad as a whole. If you’d like to continue to follow along with J, you can find her blog here: http://www.janellking.theworldrace.org
new team shabach at launch in LA when we were still 2/3 of shabach
