Hello Friends!

I am writing to you from Lima, Peru, in this our final month of the race.

For month 11 we are doing something a little different team-wise. Back at Mendoza Debrief (end of our month 8 in Argentina), Megan (our Squad Mentor) announced that we had three different options for Month 11 and that we each needed to pray into that individually and see what the Lord had for us. The three options were, College Ministry (Crew) in Ecuador, Jungle Ministry in Peru, and ATL ("Ask the Lord") in Peru/Ecuador.

The moment Megan said “ATL” I was convicted and knew that that was what the Lord wanted me to do. Why? A few reasons. The first reason was that I very much didn't want to do ATL. My teams and I had a lot of trouble with ATL in previous months. 

Spoiler alert: relying on the Lord completely for what each day is supposed to look like is challenging. In many ways it's much easier to have a host and a schedule. Someone tells you what to do and you show up and do it.

Seeking the Lord and then going and doing what he says takes deep intentionality and trust. We had months back in Asia where in a sense my teams chose to“opt out” of ATL and just find a ministry to partner with in order to have that schedule and security. (My team's unwillingness to engage with ATL is something that was really frustrating for me)

Note:The Lord still worked in and through these months, and I'm very thankful for the people and ministries we connected with. I think we were still put where we were meant to be, there was just some challenge regarding the attitude towards the concept of ATL in general. 

For Month 11, I knew that the Lord was asking me to revisit ATL with the chance to actually engage with it (and with other people who had also said yes to it). I also had the sense that God wanted to redeem it for me.

Furthermore, one of the most important things about Month 11, is that it is a space to transition into Month 12, also know as The Rest Of Your Life.

During The Rest Of My Life I'm not going to have a ministry host telling me when to get up and what I will be doing every day. I'm just going to be living life, and seeking the Lord in the day to day. From before training camp to now I have always strongly felt that in a way the race is training me for everything that comes after. This includes day jobs, relationships, and trips to the grocery store. We are called to live with a kingdom mindset no matter where we are. Just because you are not in a foreign country doesn't mean that the Lord is not calling you to missions work. We are called to show up every day, wherever we are, and live kingdom. What better time to start to transition back into this “everyday” mode of living than while still on the race during this final month.

All of that said, I want to share a cool story about how God started showing up in our ATL month before it had even started.

So, as mentioned, everyone on the squad individually prayed into what they were meant to do Month 11. There were 10 slots on Jungle ministry and no limit on Crew or ATL. As soon as I knew about the plans for Month 11 (when Megan announced them at debrief), I started praying for my month 11 team.

I prayed that the Lord would put together the exact right team of people I was meant to be with and that he would bless our time together. Through the following 2 months, I prayed for my Month 11 team whenever they came to mind, not knowing who they would be.

When names were announced, there were 12 people in the ATL category. We were given the option to split into smaller teams as people got a sense for where they were supposed to be headed. The hope was that the 12 of us would be able to meet at mini debrief in Cusco to pray about the month and finalize teams. However, we were encouraged to go ahead and start praying into what our teams should look like in advance. So the last few weeks in Bolivia I started praying more specifically into what the Lord wanted for my month 11 team. He told me a list of names.

Because some people had limited access to internet and others expressed the desire to wait and decide when we were all together, I kept this list to myself.

However, the way things ended up working with travel to Cusco and trips to Machu Picchu and Rainbow Mountain, we ended up not being able to meet as a group before the date that AIM needed a list of the final teams. During these few days of traveling and adventuring, a few people expressed in the ATL group chat the people they felt they were meant to be with for the month. I opened the list of all 12 names and quickly scanned for the remaining people in the group not yet allocated to teams.

It was all the names that the Lord had given me several weeks prior.

Completely floored by how cool God is, I made a group chat with them to share this.

Shortly after, one of my teammates responded saying that she had gotten a list of the exact same names.   

Weeks before anyone of the 12 had announced teams for the month the Lord had told both Morgan and I the SAME LIST OF NAMES. Not only that, but once the other teams were chosen, this same list was the exact list of people still not allocated to a specific team.

WOW.

God. Is. So. Cool.

Every person I have talked to of the 12 ATL'ers for this month was nervous about the fact that we needed to spit ourselves down into teams. The process had the potential for a lot of drama/hurt/people feeling left out, and I think pretty much all of us were nervous that something to that effect would happen.

Instead God so clearly chose all three ATL teams and then gave my team confirmation three times over.

I am still completely blown away by all of this and so thankful to the Lord for his presence and kindness in this process. It's so clear that he has big plans for this team and I can't wait to see what else is in store. 

Without further ado, I would like to introduce you to team WOW (Women of Wisdom):

This is a picture from our mall ministry on Halloween. We talked to people, handed out candy to kids who were dressed up as clowns, ladybugs, and everything in between; and I drew portraits of people (more on that in a future blog). From left to right (with links to everyone's blogs if you click on them): Morgan Penshorn, [me], Caitlynn Bruscher, Meme Shepherd, and Vanessa Almodovar

As I said, we are currently in Lima and in a couple of days we will be headed to Trujillo. Please be in prayer for my team and our month- that we can love and support each other well and that we continue to see God show up in amazing ways.

More accounts of our adventures and exploits to come. For now I just want to say a huge thank you as always for your prayers, support, and for following along with these crazy 11 months.

Much Love and God Bless,

Hattie