New team, new country, new life. Again.

Hi friends. It's currently 4:30am on November 18th. I'm sitting in LAX on our 13 hour layover, trying my hardest not to sleep so that I can sleep during our upcoming 15 hour flight to Bejing and then our 5 hour flight to Thailand. What better way to pass the time, I thought, than to introduce you to my new team.

That's right, I've got a new team! Remember how I said that teams would change when we went to Thailand?
Well, here's the outcome. I'm super excited about it 🙂

Team De Hoffe. ("The Hope" in German).

This is Riely. Talk about joy. This girl walks in a room and completely changes the mood. She lights up everywhere she goes with so much Jesus. She is absolutey on fire for the Lord. More than almost anyone I've ever met. She has the most beautiful singing voice ever and is going to be an awesome Christian recording artist someday. Riely is competative and adventurous and super outgoing. She loves anything that has to do with water and she's a softball player…so we're basically the same person. The two of us went out to dinner the night before team changes and asked God to put us on the same team…and He listened! We're real excited to be on the same team and real excited to find us some softball gloves in Thailand.

Andrea. Andrea is the only teammate I still have from my old team! Andrea's seriously the sweetest. She's super easy going and super hilarious. Andrea grew so much in Honduras and fell so in love with the boys, and I just can't wait to see what God is going to do through her in Thailand. I'm so glad to still have Andrea on my team.

This is Stefan. Stefan is the youngest person on our whole squad. He's only 17. But don't let that fool you. God has given Stefan some crazy wisdom that is far beyond his years. Stefan is sarcastic and witty, but he's such a sweetheart. Stefan is actually from South Africa, so he's super excited for that portion of the trip, and it'll be awesome to have a native on our team while there!

And this is Andrew. Andrew is originally from Iceland, but now, in the states, he lives in Virginia. Andrew is also full of wisdom. He's super theological and is an awesome musician. Andrew's super intentional and is good at asking people questions to make them feel loved. 

And this is Kevin. Our team leader. (from Canada!) Kevin is such a man of God. He fears the Lord, and that is why he doesn't fear anything else. Kevin is courageous and loving and really knows how to pour life into people. He is so easy to respect because he leads not out of his own authority, but out of the Lord's. I'm so excited to be on Kevin's team. 

So this is my new team. Team De Hoffe.
We are the only team with 3 guys.
And the only team with 6 people.
Oh, and I have worship leaders on my team now!
I'm so excited for this team for so many reasons.

If you would've talked to me 4 months ago, after training camp, I would've told you that I could never be on a team with 2 of these people. And the rest of them wouldn't have been my first picks either. If this had been my first team, I would have been an absolute wreck. But God's timing is perfect. And 4 months later, there aren't 5 other people on the squad that I would rather have on my team. God's grown these beautiful people so much in Honduras. And God's grown me like crazy too. And God's got an awesome plan in mind specifically for the 6 of us that is just gonna blow us out of the water over these next 6 months. And I can't wait for us to experience it together.

So now, it's time for a new life. A 12 hour time change. A completely different culture. All different food. Totally new minisrty. And this awesome new family to do it all with. I'm so ready. Bring it on, Thailand. 

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P.S. Be expecting, sometime in the near future, a video/slideshow blog summing up our time in Honduras. There. Now that I typed it, I'm accountable to finish it. I'm just a video editing slacker. But I've got 20+ hours of plane rides to finish it. So no excuses, right?