When you think of Training Camp, most people think: Harsh conditions, intense work outs, strict rules.
Not too far off, but a little different.
World Race Training Camp was: Harsh breaking of expectations. Intense spiritual revival. Strict focus on love.
We were asked to make a list of our expectations for the World Race: what do we think we are going to eat and do? Where do we expect to stay and visit?
What if these things don't come to fruition? Will we be OK with surrendering those expectations? If not, well we learned we better deal with that now! Because the Race, well there's no telling where it will take you.
At Training Camp, we were taught these lessons one by one:
* We will eat what is set before us, so as not to offend our gracious hosts. (I have no problem with that — except for that African Oogali we ate for breakfast, lunch, & dinner on 'Africa Day'. Yeck. That stuff is going to need some serious Adobo & Tabasco — gotta add that to the packing list!)
* We will do whatever our Ministry Contacts (aka: hosts) need our help with while we are serving their community. We were informed this might not always be holding orphans & playing with babies. It might be yard work. construction. physical labor. And if you don't like kids? Well, you might be holding orphans the whole time. You are at the disposal of the tasks God places before you.
* We will stay (sleep) wherever we can, wherever is provided for us. Where ever that might be. It may not always be comfortable: we had several 'travel scenarios' to work out during training camp. On one night, groups of 12 had to sleep in one big tent b/c 'our ministry contact only had a few rooms to house us in' (probably scenario!). On another night, we had to share tents, towels, clothes, b/c 'half of our luggage was lost by Asia Air.' Everyone's most challenging night was when 'the bus broke down in Africa and we all had to sleep on the bus.'
All 54 of us. On a school bus. Yea. hah! Luckily I am a champion sleeper and managed to sleep through the whole night.
* God is going to be grooowing & streaaching us each in our own unique way over the course of this trip. So they had us getting prepared for that:
-7am Squad Work Outs: all those carbs we'll be eating are going to add up! (Carbs = safest thing to eat. They say if you can't boil it, peal it, or cook it — don't eat it!)
-Hiking with all of our stuff on: my new life as a turtle
-Camping a night under the stars (no tent!): surprisingly quite nice
-Making dinner for 54 people over a camp fire: teamwork at it's finest
-Sharing the bathroom with 150 of your new closest friends: definitely a first mover advantage in this game. I learned to wake up early to be clean!
-Opening yourself up to ALL that God wants to do IN us, so that He can work THROUGH us.
For me this last one meant swallowing my pride of wanting to be a 'Team Leader' and breaking me of my 'making friends that are guys' comfort zone (Can you blame me? boys are just more patient -and let's be honest I'm slow. Boys will wait for you/ sometimes carry your stuff/ perhaps pay for your food/ etc. All stuff girls don't generally offer. hah)
So yeah – you guessed it: God landed me on an All Girl Team and I am not the Team Leader. LOL. God's ways are not my own! aahaha 😉
But by the end of the week I realized that a participant World Racer on an All Girl Team is exactly where I am supposed to be. I am going to learn to support others, step back, and let God run things His way. I realized that God has let me 'see' what's going on and feel like I have some decision making power/ maybe some 'control' over most of the course of my life. Well, He's takin all that back! He wants me to learn what it looks like to have blind trust. Just to say 'Here are the keys! Let's go where you want to, God!'.
So I handed those keys over and it looks like we are headed to 11 countries over 11 months!
Training Camp is over, my training wheels are comin off, and He is gonna take me for the ride of my life.
wooooooohooooyeeehaaaaaw!
