As many of you know, August 10-20th I attended a training camp for this upcoming trip! All I read before going to camp how hard it was. It was going to be hard physically, people called it hell week. I had so much anxiety going into it. I had to make a choice. I had to choose to go into training camp with an open mind, knowing that I prepared as best as possible physically, spiritually and emotionally. I decided to call it “Victory Week”. I knew I could handle whatever was thrown at me; I knew I would be able to fight through it. (I even made it through the 3 mile hike in 50 minutes, although I wasn’t sure because I got a cramp in my leg about mile 1. But I’m so thankful for team leaders who walked with me and pushed me through it all. I even had to run down the hill at the end to make it, but I MADE IT!!!)
Well now being on the other side of camp, I can see why people say it was tough. It was. But it had nothing to do with the physical at least for me; it was tough spiritually and emotionally.
I have been trying to put into words when I say camp was hard. “What do you mean hard?!” So here is how I feel like I can best explain it. It’s like holding onto a pull up bar with your chin above the bar. Your arms start to shake, your mind starts to tell you “you can’t do this anymore” and your body just wants to quit. And then standing around you, there are people that scream hold on just a little bit longer, you’re almost there. And you get this second wind on energy and you no longer focus on the struggle; you begin to focus on the end goal. That’s exactly how it felt for me. The first few days of camp were hard. I get super uncomfortable when I’m thrown into a group where I don’t really know anyone. I don’t have that ‘security blanket’ friend. I felt like I couldn’t really BE ME. But then I heard the sweet whisper of the Father saying “hang on just a little bit longer”, I heard my squad mates encouraging each other and I heard my family back home saying “you were made for this. You got this!” and I held on a little bit longer.
The first thing that I learned is that God always comes through when we need Him. We had a night where we were taught about the Holy Spirit and the speaker encouraged us to speak out what we need, and I prayed out for a renewed spirit, a fresh excitement, peace and joy and that’s exactly what He brought me and so much more. After that night I felt like a whole new person. I felt like me again! I then became excited to meet our new family; we asked each other the same questions over and over because we couldn’t remember who we already talked to, who we already met. I then felt fully invested in my new family of 43 (plus).
We had a blast going through different scenarios they put us through. They created an airport scene (as if we had an overnight layover); we had a community tent night (basically a big sleepover lol) and intersession prayer where we got to cover each other through all areas of the night. I think one of my favorite nights was when we were told to pick a partner pack up 1 overnight bag between two of us. We were split into teams of 22 and given 3 tarps, a few pieces of fire wood, raw food and told to go make camp in the middle of this camp ground! It was so cool to see each person find their spot and see how it all worked out, lodging, fire and food for the night!
The second thing I got from this camp was freedom and healing. The first half of camp they taught us about different heart issues and gave us an outlet to really help work on our own hearts before releasing us into the nations, because
FREE PEOPLE…FREE PEOPLE.
Some of the things I personally walked through were freedom in areas of my life I held onto shame. There were parts of my heart and life so tightly locked away and shame held the key. This past week God so lovingly walked me through those doors and loved me so deeply in those moments. What I found is I truly believed the lie “if people really knew what I was hiding they wouldn’t love me, they wouldn’t accept me” Piece by piece God walked with me through those areas. I saw in this time through my squad mates and leaders that I wasn’t alone. Some of the areas I struggled with and truth began to cover me in those areas.
I also fought through believing that because I can be an emotional person, when I connect with people I deeply connect with them. I began to believe that in that area was weakness. I’m firm in the area knowing “it’s okay not to be okay.”
And I also fought through areas of forgiveness. I have been holding onto pain for such a long time because I believe it validated me. I wanted to feel the pain because I was angry, I was upset, I didn’t understand and I didn’t want to face the truth of what really happened. But again God lovingly walked me through areas where I held on tightly to unforgiveness. Once I let go and accepted forgiveness I felt like there was a hole left. He used our leaders to speak truth so deeply into that hole.
And the last thing I really fought through during this time was IS GOD REALLY GOOD?! I know I know, the Bible says He is blah blah…but that was a question that I struggled with for a few months. Why didn’t He fix it? Why didn’t get stop things from happening? If He’s good, why do all these things happen?! Although I didn’t get an immediate answer to those questions, I learned that God wasn’t mad at me for questioning; God wasn’t overwhelmed with me putting truth to the test. He was just simply waiting for me to actually ask Him so that He could give me truth to my questioning.
The last thing for me to recap training camp is I’M SO EXCITED!!!!!! I’m so ready to go out into the world and see God’s goodness and love just explode all over these nations!!! I still have about $11,000 total to be FULLY FUNDED, but I believe in God’s provision. I also trust friends, family, and others to come alongside me and join my team over this next season in life. Our squad of 43 members was split up into teams of 6. This team is who we will be doing life day in and day out. There were many different activities that we did to help find the team that we truly meshed with. Day 7 (out 10), we were assigned our teams. I was put on a team of 5 other wonderful ladies. Over and over again we heard “there is so much peace in this group” so after talking out different options we have decided to call ourselves “branches of peace.” We believe God has put each team together for specific purpose, and I’m just super excited to see what God has in store for our team this year!!!
I LEAVE OCTOBER 1st!!!!
I was given a leadership role over this next year called unsung hero. I was super honored to be asked to take on this role. I will be getting more training before launch, but basically I will be in charge of finding new ministry host for the future racers! (it will either be with my team or I will train up another team on our squad to do this!) So for example, if they want to expand their ministries contacts on the west side of a specific country; we would be giving the opportunity to go to that area and try to find and connect with local pastors and others working in ministry and see how we make a life-long connect between them and the World Race. It truly will be a place where I am stretched and grown. I get to see what it looks like to rely only on God to direct our path that month and see how He shows up and shows out!
I am truly living out the Gospel, I AM SO STOKED!!!!!
Fundraising update!
I have a goal of $10,000 total by September 15th. (so it is about $4,380 still needed).
To be fully funded I still need $11,181. I am currently looking for people who are willing to join my team!!
I am looking for:
5 people at $100
10 people at $50
10 people at $25
10 people at $10
*comment below or message me if you would like to accept one of these spots on my team!*
I still have adopt a box challenge still going on. (I will post a new picture soon).
I will also be hosting a fundraiser dinner in September! The time and date is TBA! 🙂
I am also currently trying to connect with other local businesses for fundraising ideas. If you have any ideas or work for a local business please feel free to contact me!
*If you have not been added, I have created a FB group to help keep people up to date as well “Becca Oakley’s World Race” and click join!**
