What is Team Launch? It is a 6-week stay here at the All-Nations base with your future team just before heading to the field. In our case the destination is Chihuahua State, Mexico to work among the Tarahumara people.
What is the reason for Team Launch? There are 3 main goals for this time:
Strategy: Spending time and prayer on a vision for the work among the Tarahumaras. What do we focus on? Where do we start? Where is this all headed? One example of a project we are doing is writing an approximate timeline of dates for when we will move, when we will begin language learning, teaching them to read, starting the Bible translation, and more. Of course, the Lord will direct according to His timing, but it serves as a guide to help us keep in focus.
Relationship: It has been special for my husband David and I and our family to interact with our other teammates, Pauline H. and Juanita B. (along with Danelle S. who will spend a year with us). We can begin learning positive ways of working/communicating together. Connecting with the All-Nations staff is an important part as well. Some of the ways this happens is group discussions after topics, devotions together each morning, and occasional meals together evenings.
Commencement: It is a time of bringing the years of preparatory training to a close and opening a new chapter of being sent to the field!
One highlight of our time here for me has been having a ladies session each week. One of the women on the All-Nations staff leads out in this. It's a good opportunity to begin sharing together and encouraging one another as the women on the team. Hopefully, this interaction can continue to grow as we live and work closely together in Mexico in the years to come. It will be lonely many times without our family and friends back home, so we will need each other. (For Juanita, her parents will live in the same general area.) We studied parts of a book called The Good and Beautiful Community, by James Bryan Smith. He points out that God's will for “community” (or in our case a “team” ) is to work together in unity. It takes good communication with a balance of encouragement and accountability. When difficulties and disagreements arise our tendency is to react, avoid it, or run from it. But God calls us to a higher standard: work through it peaceably! These conflicts can actually help us grow and bond.
The All-Nations executive committee is working hard to equip us for our future work in Mexico. Blessings to all as you serve God where you are!
—Rosene S.
