Just like life goes on in America while I’m on the World Race, life on the World Race went on without me while I was in America away from my squad for my sister’s wedding. While I was gone, there were some big changes that happened.
We were heading into month 5 of our Race and that meant it was time to raise up some new squad leaders. Pat and Alicia had been our previous squad leaders. As alumni of the World Race, their responsibilities amongst other things included making sure our teams were working well together and calling each of us out and up to be the best we could be for Christ. Our original Squad Leaders stay with the squad for 5 months and then they pass the leadership on to others already on the squad as they transition out of the roll and head back to the states. During the month 5 debrief it was announced that Sam Kirby, Hanna Taylor, and Jena Foster would be our new squad leaders.
The transition of training and raising up new squad leaders also meant that there would be new team assignments. My team and I figured there would be changes, so I said goodbye to Team Zeal before I left the Philippines knowing I most likely wouldn’t be with them anymore upon my return.
TEAM ZEAL – Robert, Fiona, David, Maddie, Me, Amanda
It was announced that I would be on a new team with on of my old teammates, Amanda as well as Megan, Jenni, Brian, Kiersten, and our team leader Cara. Our new team name is Team Overflow. I was excited for the new changes and I received a warm welcome from my new team and I felt like we fit well together right off the bat.
TEAM OVERFLOW – Brian, Megan, Amanda, Cara, Jeni, Kiersten, Me
While we’re on the topic of change, I worked for a telephone company as a telemarketer one summer while I was in college. I didn’t love the job, but one thing I did learn from the training for the job was how to handle resistance. When the person on the other line would say, “I don’t want any!” They taught us to be able to sympathize with them and say I understand, but… The longer you could keep them on the line the better chance you had to sell them. One of my famous lines for handling the line of “I don’t want to change.” Was to say “Sir/Ma’am I understand, you don’t want to make any changes, nobody really likes change do they? But I bet you and I can agree that there is one kind of change that’s good and that’s the change in your pocket. If I can give you that kind of change, you’d be happy, right?” They’d usually laugh and agree and I’d try to give them the rest of my pitch.
You might ask why I do I bring that up? More than likely you’ve got a little change in your pocket right now that you’re not sure what to do with. Maybe you’ve got a piggy bank full of change you’ve been collecting for a while now. I’ve got a deadline coming up at the end of the month, February 28th. I have to have the rest of my money for my trip in by then or they can send me home from the Race. I’d like to ask you to prayerfully consider supporting me with a one-time gift to help me reach my goal. Help me make a change with your change. If you don’t want to support me, or don’t like me, or have a heart to give even more then please consider helping out one of my teammates that’s not fully funded yet either: Megan, Jenni, Amanda. Thanks for considering and thank you for your prayers!
