Hey Team!   This is your first of many "hey team blogs." It's time for all of us to be communicating with each other regularly. Our numbers for this trip are growing by the day...we're now up to 23 participants and of course, your 3 fearless leaders! This is exciting news!  You guys are working hard to get all of your paperwork in and raising your money for your trip. Keep up the good work, we're proud of you!!

I hope you're getting excited about this trip! God has gone before us to plan it all out and we get the privilege of experiencing Him as He moves and works in our midst. Let me paint you a picture...an incredible thing is about to happen! On June 30^th, 26 of us are going to gather in Gainesville, GA. We'll be strangers and everyone will be a bit nervous about what's about to happen...it's really a beautiful combination of anxiousness and excitement. During the following 2 weeks as we journey together to an incredible island called Puerto Rico...we're going to become family! We're going to live together, eat together, play together, worship God together, brush our teeth together, love on people together, and encounter our living God together!! Two weeks may not seem like long enough to bond and become family, but you'll be amazed at how quickly we mesh. God has brought us all individually together to do something corporately to advance His Kingdom...I personally can't wait!  

Now it's time for all of us to focus on this team blog. The interaction here is our chance to begin to get to know each other. Some of you have already started commenting and chatting about pizza crusts, flavors of ice cream, and the sorts. But now I'd like all of us to lean in and get REAL with each other. Let's talk about the things that make us who we are... our gifts and our struggles, our passions and our fears, the things that make our heart beat and the things that make our heart break. We, as your leaders, have been praying for you and preparing for this trip. We have come up with a few questions that we're going to be posting on this blog starting today. EVERYONE, yep we mean everyone, is expected and required to respond to these questions. It's not hard, you simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and add your comment. The only requirement is that you be honest and real with us. We want to get to know YOU! We, as your leaders, will be responding as well so you can get to know us. 

So here we go. The first question that waits for 26 responses is:

What is the REAL reason you signed up for this trip?