I had a great conversation with my team-mate, Melanie, in the middle of the church service this past Sunday… (Yes, yes I know. I should have been paying attention but my attention span shorted out.) It resulted in an epiphany!
My team has now been on the World Race for 5 months however my race has just begun. The first four months were repeats from days 1 through 4 of training camp. How can I explain this better…
The entire month 1 in Honduras and day 1 of training camp can be summed up into one word.
-> Awkward <-
Everybody was trying or not trying to communicate with people they did not know.
In El Salvador, month 2 of the race, my team began to get real with each other. Emotions began to come out and feelings were heard. This is exactly what happened on day 2 of training camp. In both scenarios, we sat down in a circle and shared what was heavy on our hearts from the past.
Month 3 of the race… hmmm.. Guate-Guate-Guate-Mala (say it with an Spanish/ country accent). The word to describe this month + day 3 of training camp would be avoiding. I should explain this one a little bit more.
At this point the team started to get skeptical of why God had put us together for 11 months and began to avoid each other.
At training camp, a few of us began to get weirded out by the dramatic change from church life to the overly charismatic worship.. (I thought to myself "maybe their fake or even acting but they weren't). We just wanted to avoid what was outside of our comfort zones.
Month 4 arrived… in a similar way to day 4 of training camp. Best described by being challenging/ overwhelming – spiritually, physically, and emotionally.
Sidenote: At this point I was not excited about being at training camp or on the race.
Then month 5 happened…
I dated my first journal entry for the race, May 5, 2013. I now know what I should of packed for the race. I went from knowing strangers to teammates to acquaintances to friends. I live everyday with amazing women. We eat, sleep, spread Jesus, dance, work-out, and breathe together. In 6 1/2 months we will step out of an airport to once begin our separate lives all across America. (Not fair AIM.) This period in my life known as the World Race will/ is passing faster than a Honduran chicken bus or for those back at home the phrase "a blink of an eye" might be more familiar.
Training camp has ended and the World Race has officially begun.
