It is so difficult to sum up what feels like months of training camp. The past 5 days have been 14 hours a day of unknown adventures and challenges. If I had to try to sum it up in a few words, I would use hard, surprising, and pressing.
I arrived after having weeks of anxiety over the community and vulnerability I was about to be thrown into only to get here and find that the hardest thing was not that at all. Community and the new relationships being formed was the biggest blessing and came easiest, whereas the hardest part was everything I said I knew I’d have no problem with. I found it very hard to have my freedoms stripped away and be told how much I could or couldn’t eat and what I could or couldn’t do by people I had never met and knew nothing about me.
There were and still are so many surprises. Just this morning, I was woken up to a horrible surprise of blasting music (an awful song), at 6:20 a.m. by a couple of kids on the squad. There have also been great surprises. God showed up huge and surprised our team (the 7 we get put into) by placing us so wonderfully together. I was amazed by how perfectly he fit us altogether and the way I can see Him already moving in the team.
Pressingdefinitely described so many aspects of the constantly changing environment here. Every hour, something is changing and that really pushes your independence and control or lack thereof. This is where I learned my weakness. I am very dependent on my independence. Trusting the leadership set in place and knowing there is a purpose behind every activity and pressing task is stretching me.
I’m not sure I got a true picture of what the World Race will look like from being at a church camp setting in Tennessee but I can say I learned what the community will be. I also know how difficult it will be adjusting to the lack of independence but how rewarding it is to be vulnerable and how much healing God has in store for us. My heart is already breaking for the people we will serve and the visions He is giving are making me more ready than ever to get to the starting line of this race.
