So Training Camp is over, and it was a doozy. I’m still processing it all myself, so I’ll write a more detailed blog on it later. For now, I want to share something really cool that happened at camp.
If you’ve read my prior blogs, you know that my journey to this point was not easy. I did not want to do the World Race. Now, I’m all in. But at the beginning I was still trying to find a way out of not following God’s direction. Giving up the job I had looked forward to stepping into for so long was difficult. Seeing a friend of mine step into it was even more difficult. Seeing my friends posts about getting jobs was difficult. And all these things still get to me occasionally.
One day at camp there was a huge storm; lightning, thunder, rain, all of it. I LOVE storms. They are prime time for me and Jesus. I sat out on the porch of the Training Center watching the storm listening to worship music and hanging out with Jesus. He gave me such joy from that storm. Then, I crawled into my tent that evening to go to sleep, and made the mistake of checking Instagram. All those feelings of comparison, hurt, and jealousy came flooding back when I saw things my friends and other successful designers were posting. My joy was immediately gone and I was once again struggling with things I thought were past me; inadequacy, comparison, jealously, fear, etc. I went to bed that night feeling pretty down about myself.
Previously that week, there was a breakout session on Story Telling on the race. This is a fairly new role that the World Race is developing. They identify people with a skill for photography, videography, and blogging and mentor them and pour into them. The people chosen for this role will be Story Tellers for the World Race. I went to the session of photography and video and knew it was for me. I had fully planned on doing these things on the Race anyway. It was a perfect role for me. So I signed up and prayed they would pick me.
The day came that they pulled out the Story Leaders for a meeting. I wasn’t one of those people. I was so disappointed. It was personal time and I was sitting in my hammock reading when my Squad Leader came up to me and told me to come with her. She took me up to the Story Leader Meeting. There was a mistake and I hadn’t been notified that I was to be a Story Leader. I was beyond excited.
As a Story Leader for my squad (there are 4 others as well), I will be charged with telling the story of the race, of our ministry, and of the people we will be serving. It blew my mind how God restored my calling. Just a few months ago I was sure that I was supposed to step into a full time role as a designer where I was currently working as an intern. He showed me the World Race is what He wanted for me. The night before this Story Leaders meeting, I began doubting that again when I saw postings on Instagram. Just when I began doubting him, He restored my purpose to me. During the time that I was struggling with the calling to go on the World Race, there was a line in a worship song that gave me hope. The line comes from Hillsong United’s latest album, ‘Touch the Sky’, and it says, ‘Your will never returns void’. What a beautiful promise, and it’s something I’ve found to be true in this short journey of mine so far.
My name is AnnaKate and I am a Story Leader for the World Race.
