I’m Leaving Again-What Is Alumni Team Leading?

Hello friends! Some of you may or may not know already, but I am very excited to share with you all that I will be continuing on with the World Race and spending August-December at AIM headquarters in Gainesville, GA as an Alumni Team Leader (ATL) for a new gap year squad! As you can imagine, I am so completely excited for this next season of my life and everything that the Lord has for Gap D, so I wanted to use this blog to fill you all in on what exactly Alumni Team Leading is, and what that will look like for me this fall.

First a little back story . . . as early as month one of my own Race, the Lord had laid Alumni Team Leading on my heart. This is still so crazy to me, because at that time I didn’t see myself as a spiritual leader, and I had no idea that I would become a raised up team leader on my own squad at the end of Costa Rica. Looking back, it becomes apparent that the Lord wanted my “yes” early on, because He knew what I didn’t know: just how hard saying yes to alumni leading would become. My first three months of team leading on my own race were so hard. As TL’s, we were given more responsibilities than we thought we would have going into it: grocery shopping for the whole squad every week in a polar opposite culture than we were used to, using currency that we weren’t familiar with, setting up cleaning/cooking schedules at our apartment, communicating with hosts about ministry schedules, hoping that we remembered all of the important information we needed to relay to our squad, taking our teammates to the doctor, communicating with our squad leaders about schedules/getting groups together for ministry/this person has been throwing up for three days do I take them to the doctor or are they taking a sick day, and making sure that team times were still happening regularly. It was a lot, and I found myself burned out from it more often than I would like to admit. Then, we switched team leaders going into Swazi (Kimbo if you’re reading this, you killed it), and I was honestly really excited to be “just a racer” again, without the responsibilities of team leading. Then our race got cut short and we returned home 2.5 months earlier than expected because of COVID. I applied to be an ATL the week that I got home, and when I got accepted I was over the moon. This excitement was amplified when I was told that I would be heading back to Swazi/South Africa for my portion of team leading. There were contingency plans in case international travel wasn’t possible, but we were pretty confident that things would be better by September. Fast forward to two weeks ago, and we learned that squads aren’t launching until December, and the first 3.5 months (aka the portion of the Race that I will be involved in) will be discipleship/missional training in Gainesville, GA. Now don’t get me wrong, I am OVER THE MOON EXCITED to get to walk with the humans of Gap D through this exciting and unique beginning of their own Race. If anything, I think that the gap racers this year will be even more well equipped to go into the international missions field in December because of the new setup, and I think that the Lord will light a fire in people’s hearts for missions here in the States (look around, we need the love of Jesus here now more than ever). But looking back, if I had not had a yes for team leading in my heart for so long, saying yes to alumni leading when everything looks so different than I had expected would have been a whole lot harder.  

SO with all of that said, you might be wondering what Alumni Team Leading is. Every year, the world race puts together leadership teams for all of their new gap squads. One part of that leadership team are the Alumni Team Leaders, and every team within the squad gets an ATL. These are individuals that have done World Race: Gap Year before, and their job is to spiritually disciple their team, set the tone for the culture on the squad, offer spiritual/emotional support, and help guide their team in every day life. They are there for the first three months of the Race to help support the Squad Leaders in getting the squad off to a smooth start on their journey. My ATL from my race (shoutout Hannah Bolitho, you da bomb) made such a huge impact on my Race and my team’s Race as a whole, and I can only hope and pray that I will lead my new team with the humility, strength, honor, sense of humor, and wisdom that she lead mine in. Being a part of setting the culture for a new squad is a huge responsibility, and I am so honored that the Lord has asked me to say yes to that.

Now for the part that we all knew was coming: fundraising!!! AIM gave all returning 2019/2020 Gap Year Racers a credit towards team leading since our own Race got cut short, so I will only need to fundraise a total of $2000. This money will go to housing, food, and transportation this August-December in Gainesville GA. Just as with my own Race, I am prepared to fund whatever I don’t support raise, but I am accepting donations because I won’t be able to work as much this spring when I go back to school. If anyone feels lead to donate, donations made through the link at the top of this blog are tax deductible, or feel free to Venmo me or send me cash/checks in the mail. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about why I am so excited to Alumni, please feel free to reach out to me over Messenger, schedule a phone call, or plan a coffee date! As always, the most important way that you can support me is through prayer! Please keep myself, my fellow ATL’s, all of the Gap D participants, and the AIM leadership in your prayers as we all prepare to walk into this next season of making disciples, spreading the love of Jesus, and bringing Kingdom over the next few months!  

To everyone who continues to follow my journey, thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope that reading about everything that the Lord has done/continues to do through young people in missions makes you as excited as it makes me, and I am so expectant that this fall will come with many more stories of the Lord’s faithfulness and the work that He is doing in and through the participants at AIM. I can’t wait to share all of those stories with you all!

Until next time!

-Nicole