Its month 5 for the G-squad. We're having the time of our lives as we get ready to hit the halfway point before returning to our homes or whatever crazy adventure God has planned for us in the future. The squad has just gone through an interesting transition period with new team changes and a "shorter" than expected debrief. These past couple weeks, my team, the Holy Banditz, have had the opportunity to minister in Arusha, Tanzania. From the moment our team was announced, we were itching to get back out into the field and have time to get to know one another while in ministry. As we traveled from Kenya to Tanzania, we arrived in Arusha and settled in. Our first day with our contact, we had an "orientation day", where we came together to discuss expectations of our time there. As we finalized our meeting, one of the key topics was bringing up our housing situation. Our contact, who was the head pastor of the church, informed us that he had arranged for members of the church to house us separately. As in NOT together. Divided. Apart from one another. Immediately, the mood had switched gears. We kindly told him that this was not possible and we did not want to go ahead with these plans. But because of saving face and not wanting to go through the hassle of looking for other homes or disrespecting anyone from the church, we decided that we could live with these conditions since strangers were being so kind to take care of us of course. Or could we...

We quickly learned how much we were missing each others presence and conversations. The pastor had decided to split the team in pairs. Ben and I of course being the only males, had to stay together, while Jill and Alex paired up and Helen and Shiloh made the final house. At first, we were all excited in how much this would allow us to get to know our roommate better and connect on deeper levels. And that it sure did. It seemed like God sure knew what He was doing. Ben and I were put in a bachelors pad with many other African males ranging from 9 to late 20's. It was great and very unexpected, even though we often had to deal with the struggle of language barriers and culture differences. That wasnt the issue. The issue was we were only together as a team for a bout a third of the day most days. Ben and I quickly came to realize that our days would end in frustration that was blamed on lack of time with our sisters. We had set up so many different ministries, that we were missing out on checking up with one another or just hanging out. Many times, we felt like jerks because of having to cut our time short with members of the church or community so that we could meet or pray as a family. It was much needed though so that we could have this essential time together.

   It's the most anticipated day of the World Race since our launch in September '08. Team changes... What does that mean? How does it work? Will I get to keep any of original teammates? How have racers done this in the past? Do we need to make up new team names too? Why does AIM hate us? LOL. Many questions like these were running through our heads these past 2 months as we came closer and closer to debrief after Uganda. We all just wanted to get it over with. After an amazing couple days of rafting and hanging out on the Nile River in Uganda, we headed back to Nairobi for our squad debrief. When we arrived to Kenya, we were told what day we were going to have the changes made, so now we had a "countdown" of time to spend with our original team before being split up. People who have come to be family as we all hoped. On the morning of the big day, the entire squad went to the meeting room to get the news. Alison, our squad leader, announced that our new squad leaders who would take her place when she was ready to go back home. It was Kyla, my former Transformer team leader, and Kelly from team Quake. Big shocker... Nobody was surprised in this news. Two amazing women of God. Then it was time. Alison read off the list. She got to the 3^rd team before I heard anything about where I would be. "Team 3... The team leader will be Ben" I already knew there was no way Ben and I would be on the same team, so I listened to what poor soul from the rest of the guys would have to be with him. As Alison read the first name of who would be on the same team as Ben, I heard a slight hesitation in her voice. "Paaatrick" I felt like she thought to herself "OH GOD" as she read my name. I immediately look over across the room to Ben who was already looking at me in laughter, and i put my head down in disbelief at what I was hearing. I was so shocked and laughing too hard to hear the rest of the names on the team. Luckily, Alison read all the team names again for everyone to hear again so I was able to hear this time who was on my team. I was even in more disbelief and came to the impression that AIM was playing a sick joke on me. The Lord had once again placed Alex and Helen from Transformers on my team and added the amazing addition of Jill and Shiloh. All friends from the squad who I had spent a significant amount of time with and already knew well. We spend our first day together in much disbelief that this change was really happening. This team was made for great things and most definitely assembled to further God's kingdom. Please pray for more boldness and unity for this family. We'll be sure to entertain everyone with our stories and antics over the next 7 months...Thank you Lord for this amazing gift and thanks AIM for listening to HIS voice for where to put all the G Squad racers on teams. I wont make any promises, but the Holy Banditz will TRY and "behave"...