Hi Friends!
Last week, I got back from a 10 day extensive “Training Camp” in Gainesville, Georgia. I’ve been dying to share pieces of my experience with you! Since I love pictures, I thought I’d share some of my experiences with you through pictures!
Living: During the World Race, we will likely be living out of our tents for a multiple months, so, at Training Camp, we practiced living in our new humble housing! We replaced our mattresses with thin sleeping pads, our sheets with sleeping bags, our closets with 60 liter backpacks, and our roofs with tents!
To embrace our future months on the Race, we also did not have access to toilets, running water (with the exception of one hose for 250ish girls), laundry, or showers (keep in mind we were in Georgia in the middle of the summer!). Needless to say, things got stinky, so baby wipes and Febreeze quickly became our most prized possessions!
Worship: Most days were jam-packed with exercise, team building activities, sermons, trainings, and tons and tons of worship and prayer! I’ve been listening to our Training Camp worship playlist on repeat for the last week and a half, desperately trying to re-create the experience. I’ve never experienced anything quite like worship at Training Camp. I’ve also never been in the room with nearly 300 young adults who love Jesus so much and so desperately want to serve Him! It was incredible to experience a little glimpse of what Heaven will be like!
Squad: This is my squad (“i squad” or “ignited squad”), after winning Squad Wars! I’ve never loved a group of strangers so much after 10 short days! Because the only alone time we got for the entire 10 days was when we when to the restroom (in a porta potty, so of course, we wanted to get out of as quickly as possible), these people went from strangers to family in a few short days!
Each of these people (40 squad mates + 2 fearless team leaders) will travel to each country with me. Once inside the countries, the squad will break up into smaller groups (our teams) to different ministry sites. More to come on teams (!!) later.
When given the letter “I” to identify our squad, our squad mentor, Erika, shared “Ignited Squad”. I love the illustration of being ignited for so many reasons. Ignited means “to be aflame, lit, ablaze, kindled”. In order to be ignited, a fire must be constantly connected to something external, a source (i.e. oxygen & fuel). Our Source, that we need to be constantly connected to and surrender to, is God (what a great reminder to continually press into God!). “Ignited” is also past tense, which means we already have the Eternal Source within us! We just need to stay connected to it. Furthermore, being “ignited” also reminds me of fire. I studied the 1 & 2 Peter a few months ago and the author used an analogy that a refiner (God) uses fire to make pure gold! This past six months, I’ve been constantly reminded of God’s refining in my own life, so I am excited to have this illustration to remind me that He is constantly refining my team and I, by burning away what is temporary and leaving only what will last (Him!). What a great illustration!
Our “YES” Moment — This is my entire squad after we all said “YES!!” to serving the Lord and each other with all of our hearts!!
From Left to Right: Top Row – Abigail, Jenna, Alexis, Me! Bottom Row – Doug, Jason, Josh!
Team: Team formations were one of the most exciting parts of Training Camp!!
This is my team, “AO1” (Audience of One)!! I am so, so, SO thrilled to get to serve alongside these incredible individuals for the first few months of ministry! I can’t wait to share more about each of my teammates in the coming months on the field! [Their blogs are hyperlinked on the left if you want to read more about them!!]
This blog doesn’t even skim the surface of all that happened during training camp. Each day was a whirlwind of activities and emotions. I don’t think I’ve ever cried and laughed so much in a 10 day period in my entire life! I’d love to share more about my experience with you, so please let me know if you’d like to grab coffee, ice cream, go on a walk, or do anything else!
Prayer Requests! – I would love, love, love for you to pray for my squad and me as we prepare for launch on August 4th (!!!!!) to Serbia. Please pray that as we abandon our comforts, family, friends, holidays with loved ones, etc., God would use us in mighty ways to share His love. Please pray for safety, Christ-like hearts, healthy community, hearts on fire for Jesus, and that we would be disciples that make disciples! As always, I’d love to be praying for you too! Please feel free to send me prayer requests anytime!!
Love you all!
Claire
P.S. My teammate, Jason, made a fun video to capture some of our experiences at Training Camp!! Here is the link, if you’re interested in seeing more of what we did at Training Camp: WR Training Camp Video!
