We arrived as strangers with our nervous laughs and petty insecurities, coming from different parts of the country as well as different seasons of life. Unanimously yet unknowingly, we shed tears while alone in our tents the first night, unsure if we would be able to finish what we had anticipated for so long, along with slight horror at what the following ten days might consist of. Yet as time went on, we couldn’t help but share our torn and tattered hearts with one another. We suffered together, we sweated (so much) together, we cried together, we endured sleepless nights together, we smelled awful together. Despite all of this, or maybe because all of this, it became clear that when you stick forty kids in the woods together for ten days, they become family.
Training camp consisted of learning more and more of who Jesus is and what he desires. If there is one phrase that stuck out to me during my time there, it is that he is a good, good father. Going into training camp, I was definitely excited, but more than anything I was afraid. I was afraid of facing the fears I didn’t deal with last year concerning the race, I was afraid of failing again, I was afraid of the discomfort I was going to encounter not only during training camp but also for the following nine months overseas. But Jesus is faithful to put fears where they belong, which is far, far away from me. As training camp progressed, he healed my heart in ways I didn’t even know I needed healing in. He taught me about myself and about the way he has designed me and the way he loves me and the way he desires me to love people. And my fears were left in the freakin’ dust.
I sat alone in the airport after training camp, attempting to process everything that had occurred during the previous ten days, and all my heart longed for was to continue this grand adventure with these people. We left as family, with hearts that desire one another to walk in truth and in love, running towards the Father together. Their hearts are after Jesus, they live in his grace and freedom, they are passionate about sharing the gospel. These are the people I get to spend the next nine months with. Beginning September 6th, we are off to El Salvador, Malawi, and the Philippines to bring hope to the lost.
If you want to know more about this journey, message me or call me or send me an owl. I’d love to talk with you over coffee or over the phone or e-mail or real-life-letters. Whatever really, I just want to talk to ya!
Thanks for loving me well, fam and friends.
