The sun is rising as I sit here on the patio to the AIM office. Seven in the morning is not usually a tranquil, joyful time for me, but I can’t help it. Every time I wake up and see the splendor around me, there is no other choice but to smile. Not to mention waking up to the twenty girls and six guys I will call family for the next year.
Yesterday was a turning point. Because of two people leaving (from our original twenty-eight), we had uneven teams—two teams of eight, one of six, and one of five. Staff had gathered us on Friday or Saturday to make us aware that a change may need to happen. Yesterday we were asked to confidentially offer to switch teams. Of those that volunteered from my team, I was asked to move. It was bittersweet, as I loved my prior team, but couldn’t wait to have an opportunity to get to know my new teammates. I believe it has set the tone for the race. There will be a lot of things we have to give up that aren’t necessarily bad—some of which we already have given up—but there’s something better for us out there. God has a way that we don’t understand sometimes. We are certain we are in the best situation possible, but He lets us know, sometimes not too gently, that his will is different for us. We can either trust him—after all, has he ever let us down before—or be stubborn and possibly miss out on something greater.
I have no idea what it will mean to be on a new team—what difference it will make—but I am confident that God’s will is divine, and I am at now at more peace because of the change.
God has stretched us both physically and emotionally this week. I am completely sore and have bruises to prove I participated in the team builders, but I have so much more than that. I have a heart ready to serve him at all costs. It’s a surreal time for me; a time in which I believe there is very little I
wouldn’t do for him—a point I don’t believe I have ever been at before.
Click on the photos below to view my new teammates’ blogs.
