Without giving away too many juicy details that future World Racers might be looking for, I will say this much: Training Camp was one of the hardest but most rewarding weeks of my life. I drove up to Cherokee Retreat Center in White, GA on Saturday, October 13th not knowing what all to expect out of the highly anticipated World Race training camp. I was filled with excitment and nervousness as I was about to meet the 56 other people that I would be traveling to 11 different countries with.
Here are just a few words I would use to describe Training Camp:
People dressed in red, green, blue and orange. Tent city. Cold mornings where you can see your breath. Weird food you sometimes eat with your hands. Daddy long leg spiders EVERYWHERE. The occasional scorpion in a tent. A school bus. Morning workouts. Not showering or changing clothes for days. Gangnam Style. The Wobble. Sweet Brown. Star tripping. (If you don't know what the last four things are, Google/YouTube them.) AMAZING worship like I have never experienced before. Tears of hurt and sorrow. Tears of thankfulness and joy. Hugs. Camp fires. Closeness to Christ.
Training Camp was more or less an initiaion into the World Race family. We were only told what we needed to know — which was never more information than what time our next activity started and where we needed to be. (And no, we didn't find out what the activity was until the time came.) We were put in various scenarious that served the purpose of preparing us for the World Race. For example, I "lost" my luggage and didn't get to change clothes for 2.5 days, and breakfast one morning consisted of rice and fish heads. Yummy. YUCK!
Although the scenarios (and the weird food) were not the most comfortable, convienent or tasty, my Training Camp experience would have been an awful one if God were not present. He was there and I experienced Him in a new way though worship, prayer and small group discussions. As I write this, I cannot seem to put in to words how amazing our God is and how He showed up in my life this week. I am literally at a loss for words when it comes to trying to put a description around what all I experienced because God cannot be confined to just a few words written in black and white on my blog. God is full of life, color, love and joy, and I truly experienced this for the first time at Training Camp. Our God is good GREAT!
Be on the lookout for another blog post soon where you can meet my amazing teammates that I will be spending the next year with!
