We've had lots of them. I don't want to taint the awesome parts about this trip with downer news, but the fact is that it has been a very trying month for all of us. We came as a team of 11 to Nazareth with 4 leaders and since then have experienced more trials than I knew It would be possible to have. On our second day here, one of our teammates had to go to the hospital and stayed there 3 nights before he got the OK to come home. Since then, we have been having one misunderstanding and confrontation after another. It has been riddled with tension and interpersonal problems that pushed all of us to our limits. Seriously. Ok, enough gloom. Yes, it sucked. A lot! But God is faithful and more redemptive than any of us could ever imagine. Sadly, that redemption did not come by way of restoration within the team. In week 4 of being in Israel, 9 of us moved from Nazareth to Tiberias and 2 of our students chose to go home instead.We are so sad to be without them, and it was not easy to say goodbye, but we are praying for them and hope they have a much better time going back home and being with their family (they were a married couple) than they would have had staying with us.It's been hard to adjust to life without them, but that is not the only change that was made. Our school leader visited us for his regular check up and found us in our interesting situation. Just in time. He took time to talk to each of us individually and put a lot of prayer and effort into our team. His final verdict as our leader: four leaders was just not working. We knew it was an unusual situation from the very beginning, and putting it into practice only accentuated the inherent issues. Therefore, we sorrowfully parted ways with another 2 team members. The remaining married couple with us left the day after our school leader did and now our team has found ourselves significantly smaller. Those who remain are a team of 7: 4 girls and 3 guys with my friend Alexandra and myself as the remaining leaders. There are big shoes to fill and a lot of stepping up to do, but with God's grace we will be able to do it well. It is a little intimidating considering our young age and that this is the first time for either of us to be in Israel, but God is good and we know that He is not done with our team yet. We are continuing to go forward leaning on Him and trusting Him to help us as we readjust and find out what our new team dynamic is. The tension has finally dissipated and we find ourselves hopeful and expectant for the next half of our time here. We will be traveling a lot and doing a lot of different types of things, so we will need an extra extra ammount of grace and favor. Not to mention protection and humility. So please please please be praying for us!!! For our team and all of our hearts and that the remaining month here would be marked by enough fruit and unity for 2 months put together. =)
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March 2023
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