Man, God is so so so good! I had the privileged to spend 10 days with some of the most amazing people that I have ever met in my life. They are all so sweet, kind, fun, and easy to make friendships with. I can’t wait to spend 9 months with these crazy people.
Each one of these people have a unique story that I am thrilled to get to hear. I can’t wait to get to know them better. My squad is so amazing! All of us fit so well together and connect easily.
When I got to the airport in Georgia, I was so confused as to where I was and where I was supposed to go. If you know me, then you know that I can’t find my way in any big building or city. If you leave me in the middle of nowhere in the woods and tell me to find home, you’ll see me coming up the driveway like I owned the place and sit down and have a nice cold soda like it was nothing. That’s just who I am. But, in a huge airport you can bet I was lost most of the time. I finally got my luggage after spending almost an hour trying to figure out where I was and tried to find where I was supposed to meet everyone. Once again, I was lost. But luckily, I ran into some of my squad mates. I had never been so happy to see someone that I haven’t even met in person yet. I was overfilled with joy. They helped me find the rest of the squad and we all went to TGI-Friday’s. It was awesome to meet them in person and get to see what they were like in person.
We eventually got to training camp where the rest of our squad was. We all met with hugs and laughter. I remember when we were all together as a squad for the first time, I had an amazing feeling of joy and love from my squad. It encourages me to see that my whole squad loves Jesus with a burning passion like me. I can’t really describe them better than that because if I tried to come up with more things, I would talk forever.
The girls on my squad are all so amazing! They are definitely some of the sweetest and kindest women that I have ever met. Since I have come back from training camp, several of people have asked me if there are any good looking ones. I can honestly say that all of them are beautiful! They are all beautiful on the outward appearance, but they are even more beautiful on thin inward appearance! They are all true to themselves and true to one another. I can’t tell you how many times I heard one of the girls say “Girl, you look like a model”. Every girl lifted one another up and told the honest truth to one another. I think that the loving and encouraging words towards one another will draw them super close to each other in there sisterhood. I am so proud and privileged to be able to call each and every single one of them my sisters! I’m excited to work and live alongside of them.
Now the fellas on the other hand, are a very different story! The second that we met, we immediately became brothers. We all come from different parts of the U.S., but I feel like we had known each other our whole lives. We are all pretty similar to one another and like a lot of the same things. These guys remind me of the brotherhood between David and Jonathan in 1st and 2nd Samuel. They loved one another as I love this group of guys. It is very easy to see the differences between us as men, but it is also easy to see similarities between us. We are all leaders which is going to be an interesting challenge. We are all trying to figure out where we fit in our team of guys. All though we are all trying to figure it out, we all know that we are leaders in different areas and that its going to make us stronger as a team of men and as a team of Jesus loving men. I can’t wait to learn more about these guys and to see what God has in store for us.
My squad has also been slowly figuring out where all of us fit in the squad and what our roles are. Nate, is definitely the worship leader of the group. He loves Jesus best through singing and praising him. Anna is literally the mom of the group. She is like the diva mom that loves everyone and treats everyone like one of her kids. In a good way. Haha. I realized what my role is in the squad. I realized that I am like the big brother or Dad of the group. I love my squad with all of my heart and would do anything for them. Even if it meant taking a couple to the chest. I’ve known for awhile that I connect with people emotionally. Not just everything else about me. One of the guys told me that it is very easy to see that I connect emotionally with people. I can easily tell what someone is feeling and it is easy for me to talk to them about it because I connect with them in the same way. I honestly don’t know a whole lot about connecting emotionally, but I know that as we go through these next 9 months, I will know more about it and know how to utilize it. I also realized that I have a couple other roles in the group. I have been deemed the medic of the group. One of the girls split her toe open and I went and grabbed some medical supplies and patched her right up. So now I’m the medic. Haha. I have also been deemed the “Animal Care Taker”. When we are on the field, we will probably buy chickens and goats for food. of course, they will be alive. Because I am a hunter and the sight of blood and guts doesn’t bother me one bit, I will now be the person to take care of them and process them for food. I’m not going to get in detail because I know that some people don’t like that kind of work. There is one other role that I kinda already knew that I was going to take. I have been deemed the “Protector and Defender” of the group. Some of the people in my squad knew that I am a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and decided that I would be the protector. It’s not just that though. I was raised to always defend others, and protect those who can’t protect themselves. It’s the way that I was raised. I have been very careful to make sure that it doesn’t cloud my judgement and that I wouldn’t let that pride get in the way of having connections with the people in my squad. I defiantly don’t want to be the guy who thinks of himself as superior. That’s NOT who I am!
My squad has been slowly coming up with nicknames for each person and its a ton of fun coming up with them. One of the guys nicknames is Adam Sandler. I came up with that nickname because every time he smiles, he reminds me of Adam Sandler. Haha. Everyone came up with a couple of different nicknames for me. My nicknames are Bear, Bear Grylls and Teddy! They nicknamed me “Bear”, because I remind them of a bear. Someone told me that I remind them of a bear because of my body size and that they see me as the protector of the group that loves them. It’s very interesting because that’s pretty much me in a quick over view. I was nicknamed “Bear Grylls”, because I’m the outdoorsy guy in the squad that knows every thing about the woods and knows a lot of survival techniques. It doesn’t surprise me all that much. But, I was stuck on why I was nicknamed Teddy. One of the girls came up to me and called me Teddy and I asked her why she called me Teddy. She said “Trev, your pretty much a giant Teddy Bear. You are super easy to be with and always include other people. You are always looking for some way to help someone. Even if it means you have to give something up for them, like some of your food, your strength, your time and even some of your gear to make sure that we have what we need. You would rather be uncomfortable or have less food, to make sure that everyone else feels comfortable and has what they need. You also always open the door for us, You always wait until we have food in our bowls first before you grab some and you always ask if you can sit with us before you even sit down. You display chivalry and kindness like I have never seen before. You also give the best bear hugs ever”! When she said that, I realized that she was right. I’m a big ole’ Teddy Bear and I love being a Teddy Bear.
I love my squad to pieces and I am so excited to see what God has in store for us.I could easily go on forever talking about my squad! So, I’m going to end it here. I know that it was a long one. Haha. I’ll eventually write another blog about them probably half way through our trip.
– Trevor Regan
