For the first time this year, I find myself with my team all by ourselves. In the mountains of Honduras, teams Selah and Flocka Sheep were paired together for the past two months to work through the physically challenging ministry that Catracho Missions had to offer. We recently reunited with Emissary and all of N squad in El Salvador for a two week debrief, and as of today we find ourselves sitting mere yards away from Lake Nicaragua’s shore off Ometepe Island. It’s just the ladies, so allow me to introduce us:

Team Selah: 

A group of five young women eager to shine a light in the middle of darkness. Accompanied by their trusty Team Lead, Alayna Wood, and currently overseen and loved by Miss Khurry Bullard, one of the three Squad leaders N Squad is blessed to have. 

Things you should know about the team as a whole:

• “Cool cool cool” is a fairly common saying amongst our team

• Potty talk is not just for boys, folks. Us girls poop and we are maybe a bit too proud about it. (But hey--  here’s to smashing the patriarchy.)

• We all began this Race anxious and wary about being placed on an all girls’ team, but we immediately committed to loving one another. We have taken to shattering the stereotype that girls are competition and require time to gossip about one another. We are an absolute unit and when logistically put to the test, we’re unstoppable. Each person is radically different from the next but that has been what allows for growth between the team and for each individual. 

• We all love cookies, cheese crackers and avocados.

We’ll work left to right.

 Sarah “frickin’” Badgett de Knoxville, Tennessee

Despite being the youngest on the squad, she has been pegged as the middle child of the team, often found doing her own thing yet incorporating herself into each of her teammates’ days. She finds herself happiest when embracing a dog or wielding a machete, and seeks to do these things often, however when not involved in ministry, she is found constantly writing. She is our health coordinator, responsible for organizing Covid tests and staying up to date on the country’s safety status. Her teammates describe her as “hard-working, creative, ferocious, musical, pensive and a smorgasbord of a person.”

Emma “Erma” Cato de Gulf Shores, Alabama

The team’s resident nurse (aka “A.T. Emma”), Office addict and one of Disney’s biggest nerds, Emma brings lots of spunk to the table. You can find her beaming as the sun sets, making “mucho bracelets” and playing card games (her personal favorite is Exploding Kittens). She holds plenty of gusto in her 5’2.5” person, and uses that to draw strangers into cool conversations about the Lord. She’s one of the squad’s prayer coordinators, leading the squad into stepping into the presence of God by setting up events where we can have the space to solely focus on Christ, while also teaching about the different types of prayer. Her teammates describe her as “nurturing, bubbly, goofy, loyal, dramatic (in the best way) and a learner.”

 Madison “Joe Mama” Allison de South Bend, Indiana

The youngest sibling of the group, Madison Allison keeps the group full of chuckles with her dad jokes, hilarious stories from home and Joe Mama references. Her heart for God’s creation knows little bounds, and can be found loving the animals around her or sitting out in nature communing with God. She is our treasurer, maintaining the budget of our team, and she does so wonderfully, keeping us informed on the opportunities we can take within wise cost. Her teammates describe her as “intentional, compassionate, full of laughter, sunshine, joy and beauty.”

 Emily “Em” Riggs de Loveland, Colorado

Meet the oldest sister, Em. She’s the sane one of the group, keeping everyone in check, organizing our thoughts and sitting back to watch the chaos that is N Squad. This woman’s discipline in the Lord is unshakable. She studies the Word, knows it, and shares it with all who ask. She holds great knowledge of the Scriptures and is constantly in search to know more. You can often find her drinking coffee while hovered over her Bible or laughing at Madison. She’s the one of the squad’s logistics members, and despite the stress that comes with the job, she manages it with much grace. Her teammates describe her as “wise, smart, humble, organized, intelligent and diligent.”

 Meet “Abuela” Naomi Hasenyager de Missoula, Montana

There is much to be said about Naomi’s grandmotherly tendencies. She will answer your questions with quite the long-winded answer, she has a passion for the U.S. National Parks, and she’s typically unable to spot the horses that we point out to her. Aside from her inability to operate any piece of technology, Naomi has a giant heart for people, and intentionally seeks out her friends to understand and help them work through their thought processes. She makes close connections to those around her, and continues to pursue the Lord with great fervor. As our worship coordinator, she organizes time for the squad and team to lift praises to the Lord and to commune in the Spirit. She’s found either reading her National Parks book, the Bible, or fixated on the “new” discovery of Google Photos. Naomi is described as “charismatic, intentional, motherly, compassionate, a truth-seeker and obedient to Christ.”

 Team Lead "Momma" Alayna Wood de Austin, Minnesota

As our wonderful T.L., Alayna has been bestowed with the honor (or curse?) of being our team’s mom. She listens intently to all that we have to say, she checks in with the team and keeps us accountable, but also loves to kid out with us and laugh at the stupidest things. Having been on the Race before, she shares lots of her experiences and knowledge with us as we learn to navigate the Race and all it offers. She is a reliable, logistical woman with a deep love for teaching others and creating art.  Alayna enjoys sneaking away to consult the Lord or to video chat her friends all over the world. Our team describes her as “goofy, insightful, diligent, driven and an artist and teacher.”

 Squad Lead Khurry "Carolina" Bullard de Choctaw, Oklahoma

Khurry Carolina is someone Selah is just starting to know, but we love her wildly. She brings a steady and gentle presence and is unapologetically herself. She loves gardening, listening to podcasts, connecting with kids, laughing with us and sitting by the lake with the Father. She is always humming and making conversation with the little kids around campus. As a Squad Leader, she rotates between N Squad’s three teams, so while she isn’t a consistent member of Selah, we’ve welcomed her in with open arms. (For the past two months, Khurry has been living with Team Emissary.) Khurry is “gentle, patient, nurturing, joyful, faithful and light-hearted.”

 Now that you know a little bit about each of us, hear what each of us have to say about our time on the Race so far!

Q: What is your favorite color?

Sarah: “Blue. All shades of blue.”

Emma: “You didn’t ask me what my favorite color was. My favorite color is turquoise.”

Madison: “Yellow!”

Emily: “Green. Like a muted forest green.”

Naomi: “All shades of blue. Or sunset orange. Sunset is my favorite color.”

Alayna: “Mint green is my favorite color.”

Khurry: “Hunter green.”

Q: “What has been your greatest difficulty on the Race so far?”

Sarah: “The heat. On the mountain it was very cool weather, and Debrief was a complete turnaround from that. I was sweating every moment of every day and I very much prefer cold weather, so yeah, the heat has been killer. To be fair, I did sign up for the Central American route, so I can’t get too mad.” 

Emma: “Physically, adapting to living with bugs. Mentally and emotionally, abandoning everything I had... my family and friends, all of my comforts. Learning to live in a deep community with strangers from the US. It’s been a challenge, honestly.”

Madison: “My goodness. Um... I guess when I was sick, that kinda skunk, yeah? Being sick in a tent.”

Emily: “Being sick away from home. Sucks rocks.”

Naomi: “That’s a deep question. Um... I think maybe my greatest difficulty has been learning and experiencing all these new things without my family and community back home. So it’s been processing all these new things without them. ‘Cause I miss home but I miss having being able to process things in that space with people feeling fully known. That’s probably the jist.”

Alayna: “Probably getting Covid right before Launch and then taking a long time to recover and not being good at taking it slow. So I found myself in the mountain wanting to push myself but then being forced by my body to not do anything.”

Khurry: “Honduras. Physically, because I was sick a lot. Either stopped up nose or stomach or really, really bad concussion for two days and the weakness from Covid as well. Physically, I was never 100% and it was frustrating. It was limiting in a lot of things."

Q: “What is something on your World Race bucket list?”

Sarah: “To pet a dog in every country. So far, I’ve been very successful. I'm at around 24 dogs right now.” 

Emma: “Catch a lizard in every county. Cage dive with sharks but I’m also really afraid of that so idk if i’ll do it.”

Madison: “Uh... I wanna say skydiving but I’m scared to keep telling people that cause then I have to commit.”

Emily: “Swim with sharks.”

Naomi: “To see a waterfall in every country. In every country other than El Salvador, that is. I saw water crashing over the rocks though so that’s the same thing. Also to see a sunset and sunrise and I have done that.”

Alayna: “Volcano surfing... except that I don’t know if I want to do that as much as I wanted to before now. I mean a sunrise and sunset in each country was one, eating in a local’s house to see through their eyes was another on the list.”

Khurry: “A garden/farm ministry site-- to partner with one of those... Maybe hike a volcano? That’s what came to mind.”

Q: What is your go-to snack on the Race?

Sarah: “Honestly, anything that anyone gives me.”

Emma: “Go to snack? Cheesy crackers. I eat a looot of cheesy crackers. Or granola bars, I like granola bars.”

Madison: “Ritz cheese crackers.”

Emily: “I would say the thing I ate the most of was peanuts. Peanut MnM’s.”

Naomi: “Some kind of cookie. Typically a butter cookie. I’m gonna say butter cookies... yeah. Butter cookies and sparkling water. Also really like those club crackers. Not gonna lie... I love those club crackers."

Alayna: “Go to snack: Chikis and peanut butter.” 

Khurry: “Corn flakes. I’ve been eatin’ a lot of Chikis, too.”

Q: “What has been your favorite day of ministry so far?”

Sarah: “Ooh, in Honduras, one of the men of the mountain took Cici, Josh, a visiting team from America and myself up to the top of the mountain to fix the water pipes. It had rained for days and the piping was stopped up, therefore blocking the entire community’s water supply. We trekked up past the clouds, swinging on vines, using ropes to cross rivers, bouldering off of rocks, sledding down an entire mountain on leaves... and we gave the community water while having a blast. Yeah. Best day ever.”

Emma: “The day we got to throw the VBS for the kids with Josh. I absolutely loved organizing and then watching the teammates shine in their roles in the VBS. I also loved playing with the kids and face painting and coloring lion’s manes and just really getting to love those kid with all of me, y’know?”

Madison: “I don't know specifically, but I really enjoyed when we got to work directly with the Catracho team...Honestly, this wouldn’t be a ministry day, but when we were in town and we got to meet that man across the street from the hotel. So ATL, I guess. Meeting people on the streets or in their houses in Honduras.”

Emily: “One was when we were helping build beds for the Catracho girls room. When I went to ask a question, the boys had locked the door shut and were secretly hoarding snacks, and they let me in and I stayed there for an hour as we all sat there. It was precious. On a different day, I got to help Lukas repaint the Catracho logo and that was very fun. One, to be painting and two, to hang out with him.”

Naomi: “I don’t know. Um... But when we were in Honduras there was a day when I was working on the garden beds with the machete and preparing those spaces for people to learn more about agriculture and better nutrition and it was a very sustainable project. That same day I was asked to teach a Spanish class and was able to do that for two hours and it was incredible. A combo of manual labor and relational ministry, so that was pretty cool.” 

Alayna: “Crap I had one... I’m gonna go with the day that you all did VBS because I loved standing back and watching you all do something that y'all really wanted to do. Watching all the team working together. It wasn’t necessarily a personal thing but I still really loved it. I felt like a proud mom.”

Khurry: “Oh okay. It really wasn’t a ministry day but the church we stayed at in Comayagua that one night before meeting you all for travel day. We got dropped off, didn’t even know this man that we were supposed to stay with, but he asked if we wanted to go downtown to a park. So he walks us through a tour, and on the way back invites us into his home. We watched Despicable Me and while that was happening they had a discipleship class. At the end, they introduced themselves and one of the guys walks over to the piano and starts playing. Liz joins in with her violin and an entire worship session broke out. All of it was so unexpected-- the hotel situation, the tour downtown, the worship to end the night... our host hadn’t told us anything, so we had no idea what to expect but once we got there and that happened I couldn’t stop smiling. Like wow, Lord! What an unexpected blessing and connection that we made that the Lord just handed to us. Yeah. It felt like home even though we were there for just a day.”

Q: What is the longest time you have gone without a shower?*

Sarah: “NINE DAYS, BABY! I WIN!”

Emma: “Seven to eight days without a shower.”

Madison: “Seven days.”

Emily: “Eight days.”

Naomi: “I think eight days? Yeah. Either seven or eight. Definitely eight.”

Alayna: “Seven days without a shower.”

Khurry: “Five days, I think. Honestly, I just had baby wipe showers.” 

*the girls would like me to point out that during this 7-8 day period we were on a mountain that did not have water when it rained. It rained for four days straight once, and the water when it did work was freezing cold. Showers were more of an essential for the sake of everyone’s noses, not a warm luxury.

Q: “What is your favorite thing about Selah?”

Sarah: “Our quickness to right the wrongs. While we are an efficient team we also highly value unity, and when unity has been trampled on, we are very aware and make effort to restore it, whereas I think oftentimes we’re just used to sweeping everything under the rug. I value honesty highly so having a team that communicates openly and kindly is incredible.” 

Emma: “I like that it’s redemptive for a lot of us. The fact that it's a girl group that is joyful and peaceful and we say what we think but in a loving way. When we need to say tough things, we do, but bitterness doesn’t grow under the surface.”

Madison: “That we all love each other very genuinely and easily, even