Love Your Team

Our team at debrief

Our second of four STINT objectives, after "Love the Lord", is to "Love Your Team".  Personally, this has been the most challenging of the objectives but also the sweetest to see the Lord work in.  I met my team for the first time at our initial training in April 2010.  I was immediately encouraged by the way our team interacted and was excited to see how God would grow our friendships over the next year.  Throughout the summer we had weekly phone dates with someone on the team and had the opportunity to start getting to know one another and encourage each other through the process of raising support.  There were so many times over last summer when God began to show me how blessed I was through our team.
At our national briefing before leaving for STINT we were told over and over that our teammates are God's perfect provision for us in the coming year.  They are the people God has specifically chosen to love me, encourage me and sharpen me; and He has chosen me for them too  This has been a humbling and refreshing thing to be reminded of this year.  I could never have done this year without God's provision through my team.  I had to learn early on to open myself up to be cared for by them and to allow them to speak truth into my life.  I also learned to allow God to love them more through me and to love even when I'm tired or frustrated. It has been sweet to see the gospel lived out in our community.  The gospel has been central to loving the team this year.  At times when I felt like I couldn't love anymore I had to look at the cross and see the limitless love that continually pours out into our lives.  Seeing the ways I fall short in loving others also caused me to stand in awe of God's perfect, unfailing love and to give thanks.
My teammates have become some of my dearest friends and sometimes it's so hard to believe we've only known each other for a little over a year.  God has blessed me so much and I'm so thankful to have spent a year with such amazing, loving, godly, funny and beautiful people.