Let me just start off by saying two things:
1. My mother was upset with me after returning from training camp because I kept forgetting to flush the toilet. NOT my fault! Direct result of using porta potties at training camp for 10 days. Sorry Mom!
2. My skin is definitely browner than when I left for camp, but I still can’t tell if that’s from the sun or dirt.
Anyways, for the past few days I’ve been trying to find a way to condense my training camp experience into a single blog post and it’s just not possible.
Unless you’ve been through it before there is simply no way you can fully understand. Honestly, I’m still trying to process things myself.
I DO know I felt joy, shared tears, relinquished pain, and witnessed the Holy Spirit at work like I never have before. The Lord completely blew my mind during those 10 days.
I have 49 new sisters and brothers (mostly sisters, 40/49) that I get to do life with for the next year. They are the weirdest and wildest kingdom seekers I’ve ever met, and I love them all dearly. We’re from all over the map, with various personality types, countless experiences, different brokenness, and yet still unified through Jesus Christ. It’s a beautiful thing to see all of us together. You can feel the Lord moving through us and that makes me giddy!
My squad parents, mentors, coaches, etc… I’m not sure of everyone’s specific titles, but the peeps in charge of overseeing my squad are downright incredible. They’re filled with the spirit to the point that it seeps from every part of their being. Each of them has such an inspiring, encouraging, and comforting soul. Thank the Lord for each of them!
Here are some pictures!
This was our beautiful tent community! BUT my tent broke the first day of camp… I slept in my hammock tucked between two trees not visible in this photo. I actually loved it so much that I’ve decided not to take a tent on the race at all!
Our squad having a pretty awesome mosh pit in celebration of completing a 2 mile hike with our packs on!
So. Many. Hammocks.
When you fall asleep during the airport scenario and your squad mates are still awake.
Jay and Jacie!
At camp I was such a real, raw, and authentic version of myself. It almost freaked me out a little. I don’t think I’ve ever been that “me” before.
I felt comfortable in my own story.
I felt comfortable in who the Lord is calling me to be.
I even felt comfortable being uncomfortable.
As I eased into this comfortability within my squad the Lord revealed to me something I’m not so great at.
Vulnerability.
This word I often associate with weakness and susceptibility. A word that makes me cringe. It’s just not my cup of tea.
I wanted nothing to do with it, but God had a separate agenda. He showed me exactly what vulnerability looks like. I witnessed so much of it during camp. Individuals not being afraid to say man, yeah… I’m a sinner and I do this and I battle with this. To say, yes I do that, have done that, struggle with that, but God redeems me. I am His beloved child made in His own image. In those moments when my squad mates were vulnerable I found myself not identifying them as weak, but as strong and beautiful.
2 Cor. 12:9-10: But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
So for me this is a year of embracing vulnerability, not only with God, but also with the 49 new members of my family.
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