Hello everyone! This is Arinn, (sophomore/softball); Emma, (junior/swimmer); and Andrew and Sean (seniors/Men’s Lacrosse). First off we want to thank you for your prayers as we’ve been training and preparing. Our team appreciates it so so much! When we first arrived for training on Wednesday, we each shared a word that captured how we were feeling, and there was a wide range of emotions as we are heading out for something totally new and different for some of us. Wednesday/Thursday/Friday we had training which included some Bible study time, team bonding, learning about entering new cultures, organizing our sports camp plans, sharing meals together, learning about the Sawyer water filters we will be bringing, spraying our clothes with Sawyer repellant, and most importantly…getting to know the members of the team on a deeper level. We also packed FOUR large bags of all sports equipment that we will be brining with us for this wonderful adventure to Zambia! Friday morning we got to pray in a large group with the team going to Uganda as they left a little earlier than we did. Before our team went to lunch we sat down together and got to share our testimonies and life journeys to one another. We finished this up on the first part of the bus ride to Chicago. This was really great for our team to start to get to know each other and see the unique stories of everyone’s lives. By the time we left campus, we shared another word to check in, and many of the anxious, nervous feelings had turned to eagerness and excitement. We are so excited to get there and get started, and the travel is already underway.
We got to Chicago and got some food before our flight took off. The first flight was about 7-8 hours which, some of us were able to sleep, some weren’t…so the movies were a nice perk for those who couldn’t sleep. We arrived in London this morning about 10:30am local time, and have a long layover here before the long flight to Johannesburg. After going through security we found an open gate and many of us tried to catch up on some sleep while others played cards or read. Our flight tonight is around 7pm London time, so we will be playing lots of games as a team and getting dinner together tonight. Thanks again for all your support and prayers!
Emma/Sean/Arinn/Andrew – 4 of the 14 members of Z Squad.
Shout out to our teammates and friends from Team Z & Zam Fam…the first 2 SEED teams to go to Zambia in the summers of 2017 and 2018. Several of us are here because of the powerful stories they shared of their SEED experiences!
Joke of the day: What kind of chocolate do they sell at the airport?
Answer: Revealed tomorrow!