The start: STINT Briefing Conference

Tuesday, August 13-Monday, August 19, 2013 (Chicago, IL)

STINT Briefing started at about 3:15am on Tuesday, August 13, when my dear friend Heather (going to Paris on STINT) and I got up to catch a 6am flight to Chicago.  After delays and exhaustion, we finally made it to the hotel.  I was the first of my team to arrive, which made me super nervous since I hadn’t really met any of them in person!  Anxious thoughts were running through my head: "Are we going to get along?  Who will I click with?  What will our dynamics be?  But really…will we like each other?!"  Once we were finally all there, we had a kind of awkward first night, but for the rest of the week were able to mesh pretty well!  Out of the 6 of us, I am the only true extrovert, which makes things very interesting, but very fun!  Most of us do not clash a lot, but what is the coolest thing is that as Christian brothers and sisters, we automatically have so much grace and love for each other which can only be from God!  We were able to be pretty vulnerable with each other in only the first week, have some incredible conversations to get to know each other, and just enjoy each other’s company!  We even Skyped with one of the guys’ girlfriends on our last morning in Chicago!  Cru uses a phrase, “The Honeymoon Period”, for our first little while with our teammates and in our STINT location.  We definitely were in a Honeymoon Period for STINT briefing, which makes it easy to get to know each other!  We laughed a lot, talked a lot, and just loved each other well!  As we prepared to leave, it made me so sad that we had to separate our group, at least for the first 2 weeks, since only 4 of us were going to Tilburg immediately from briefing.  But the last two, we are praying, will have full financial support by September 2, their expected departure date!  In just a week, I grew to love these 5 teammates even more than I ever anticipated was possible to love someone I had just met!  God took every fear of mine associated with joining this team and proved to me once again that He has it all under control; He has a great plan for the 6 of us as a team and as a ministry launching group at Tilburg University.