Hello friends!
Many apologize for the complete lack of blogs as of late. Between not having a computer and the busyness of the race, it is easy for blogging to get away from you if your not intentional about it, so I hope to be better in the new year sharing what God is doing in my life!
December was a great month of ministry for me and my team. We were in Laos, which is a closed country, which was quite special. I expected to feel weird being in a closed country for Christmas, a place that doesn’t celebrate the King and His coming, but honestly I felt pretty free in Laos, and did my best to reflect His glory while there.
It was also a special time for the Jesus Jewels! We decided that our gift to each other for Christmas would be celebrating each other for 3 days each. We spent the month planning special surprises for each other.
For instance, Edie loves sightseeing, so we arranged to go to see the city’s biggest monument on one of her days (above). For Jordan we took her to the food street market where she could try all the local food, which was something she loved! For Leanna we had a night to decorate our home for the month with Christmas decorations, and had a door decorating contest. For Steff we had the other squad members that were in our city meet us at an Italian restaurant she had been wanting to go to (right). For Whitney we enjoyed a little adventure and went tubing, as well as had a card game night (below)! Overall we had a wonderful month pouring love into each other. And then we went straight to debrief (a time where the whole squad gets together for training, reflection, and rest) and there were talks of team changes.
World Race traditionally shakes things up by doing team changes throughout the 11 months. So I figured if it was going to happen for our squad then it would happen now. Well it did. They announced team changes would be announced on January 2nd.
As the Jesus Jewels prepared our hearts for change, I knew that God would put things just as they should be for His purposes. On the evening of Jan 2nd, I watched every other team leader stand up listing off their new teams, for this new season. I was the last team leader to share, and instead of listing off the names of team members, I simply called “Jesus Jewels?” and in regular fashion they all ran out and responded “SPARKLE BABY!” (this is what we do ya’ll…God put me with a bunch of nuts just like me!!!)
So…my team is the same…well sort of. Every other team had small or large changes, but we have all the original members still in tact! But it’s not because we’ve got it all together, but because God has something amazing for us in each other, and we aren’t finished unwrapping that gift yet. There is still more to receive from each other, so although it may be the same team, it is a different season. We all really want more then ever to be a renewed team. We want more, and God has more for us. I am grateful that God gave us more time to learn and grow with each other. So yes, we are the same, same, but different! The Jewels need more time for polishing…so here we go…season 2 with the Jesus Jewels! Stay tuned and watch us continue to “sparkle baby”!
