Team Bonding

The first time I opened the letter from Bethany leadership announcing my acceptance on the Kenya team and read over the list of the rest of my team, I was....interested to see how it would work out I guess.  None of the 8 of us, well at that point it was more like 13 or 14 actually, but none of us hung out together in the same circles or spent any time together.  I was an intern with Esther in Texas and while at Bethany but we'd never really been close, and the same thing was true for all of our relationships.  We'd been in class together and been on the same campus for a year, but we didn't have much else to build on as a team.

We soon discovered how extremely diverse we were, to the point of conflicting personalities and preferences.  The only thing we had in common was enough insanity to spend 16 months in the middle of know where Africa and the stubbornness to see it through!  Those are not two very good qualities to build a team on...insanity and stubbornness.

We attempted to do some bonding activities while still together at Bethany, which were helpful, but they were more like get-to-know-you activities since we hardly interacted at all naturally.  We never got past that first layer of personality type and likes and dislikes.

However, starting the first night in Nairobi, God began to strip those layers down to reveal our hearts to each other and bond us together as brothers and sisters.  It happened so slowly and casually that I didn't realize it until very recently, almost a year after we began.

After returning from a retreat where we discussed our team dynamics and did some processing together, we did an evaluation.  Each of us described the other members of our team, their strengths, weaknesses, the first thing we think of when they come to mind, etc.  Then we read the results aloud for each person and prayed for them.  It was stretching to hear my personality laid bare and to realize how glaring my weaknesses are to the people around me.  At the end, as Jason was praying for us all he encompassed each of our personalities or our place on the team in a few words...and I suddenly realized that we work!  Our team works!  We fit together perfectly with all of our idiosyncrasies and extremes! 

It's incredible.  I never thought I would see the day that our team would be unified, but I think we might be making progress.  I even saw the evidence of this while working with the short term team here this past week. 

Bethany sent a group of people for this week, all from different places and with different reasons for coming, but all lovers of Jesus and wanting to serve.  So we had them build desks for some elementary schools in the area in serious need of help.  While we were working and interacting with them, again I had a moment where I realized that our team really works well together.  We've figured each other out, we deal with each other's issues pretty well, and we generally enjoy each other's company, which is saying a lot after a year!  With the backdrop of the very newly thrown together and stressed out short term team, our team seemed like best buds! haha! 

Of course, now that I wrote this down and people can read it, we'll probably have some wonderful falling out...but with the grace of God we'll make it through. ;) 

Praise God for his mercy and that he can take a misfit band of his followers who are willing to be humbled and smoosh them all together to reflect his character.  Amazing.