How can I even begin to describe the past week of my life? Difficult, rewarding, full of love, eye-opening, affirming, accepting, filled with the Holy Spirit, and quite the learning experience are just a few of the many things I could say about Training Camp. This has probably been one of the most stretching, yet most rewarding weeks of my entire life. I had the chance to spend time with some of the most amazing and wonderful squad-mates I could ever ask for while at the same time learning from them. This group of people is seriously going to do work next year and I could not be more excited to be a part of this #N-Squad!
Here are a few things you should know about training camp:
1. Check your expectations at the door. The expectations you have will be nowhere near what you will get. I never could have imagined or expected what I got from training camp and it was such an incredible experience. I learned so much about my squad, myself, and of course God. I never expected to feel so accepted and loved by a group of people who I had never met before and this past week I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be for the first time in my entire life. God has such a funny way of making us feel so at home in the most unlikely of settings.
2. Be prepared to get uncomfortable. I mean this in every way possible from physically uncomfortable to emotionally uncomfortable to spiritually uncomfortable. I think it’s safe to say that every single person felt uncomfortable in some way during camp. For me especially, I’m not very good at sticking out in large groups because I naturally tend to hang in the background and in order to make friends and grow as a person this week it was imperative to get out of your comfort zone. I think that you experience so much more when you’re uncomfortable than just by living within the same parameters your whole life and this is something I really had to work on this past week.
3. Get ready for the tears. I don’t think that I have ever cried so much in my entire life as I did this week at camp. Not because I was sad or scared or angry, but because I felt so overwhelmingly loved by God and all the people surrounding me. Like I said earlier, I have never felt like I belonged in a place or with a group of people more than I did this week. #N Squad is such an amazing group of individuals and they are going to sharpen me and my faith more than ever before. Experiencing God as fully as I did this week was kind of a shock for me. I’ve been to Church camps and retreats before, but I’ve never ever felt as close to and loved by God.
4. Put your dancing shoes on! I don’t know if this is a norm for everyone, but my squad LOVES to have dance parties. It doesn’t matter where they are or what they’re doing, they will bust a move just about anywhere.
5. Get ready to hear people talk about food aaaallllll the time. You would think they didn't feed us the whole week by the way we all talked about food. Chik-Fil-A was probably the most used phrase throughout the entire week and if you have never had it you had to get ready to endure some pretty shocked stares.
6. Prepare to change. Over this past week my heart has changed so much and I don’t really know how to put it into words. I know that I feel differently about God and His plans for my life, but I don’t know how to convey this when people ask me about my week, even though I think this is probably the most significant thing that happened all week. I think it’s more of a personal revelation than something that people can see in me, but it’s so significant to how the race will affect me and my life as well as what God will show and teach me throughout the next 13 months.
Overall, I am so glad we had the opportunity to have this experience because I think I would’ve last about a week on the field without it before turning around and coming home. I also never would have gotten the opportunity to meet my fantastic teammates who I cannot wait to get to know better and grow with them. 2013 is going to be a wild year and I can’t wait to get started!
