After our time in Costa Rica, we traveled to Granada, Nicaragua, where we had our first squad debrief. Our whole squad was together for the week, along with our squad leaders who are out on the field with us, and our squad coordinator and squad coaches, who came out from the home office.
This was a great time to have some rest from ministry to recooperate, spending more intentional time being built up in ourselves, to grow personally and communally with God. One thing I really appreciate is how AIM and the World Race are not just a missions sending organization, but they really are a discipleship organization too, building into us and making sure we have the opportunity to grow spiritually as well.
We got to debrief with our teams, processing and working through stuff that had come up over the past month of ministry. Even after just a few short weeks living in community doing ministry together, there were some issues that we needed to discuss, but after coming out of that debrief time, we are in a much better and healthier place to go forward together.
But the thing that stood out most to me (and probably to most people) was our time of sharing, our time of open, honest, real, authentic vulnerability. The first night, we were given the opportunity to bring to light deep ¨shameful¨ secrets, wounds, hurts, pains, etc. This wasn´t just simply for the sake of some feel-good emotional healing, but this really was for the purpose of bring what was in the darkness out into the light.
At first I thought just a few people would share. But this ended up going on for 3 nights, just because person after person kept going up to share until everyone had released those deep things in their life.
Us guys got the opportunity to do this at Training Camp, but now was the time were all the squad could step into freedom. When I had talked to people at home about what us guys did at TC, some people questioned, wondering if that was good or wise. ¨What if something happened with one of them, and now they have this dirt on you?¨ So what if that happened? Is that fear of man going to keep me from experiencing the freedom and healing that is in Christ? Jesus says that all things will be brought out into the light. Should I fearfully hold on to that, or will I release those things now, letting God start his healing and sanctifying and redeeming processes in my life in those areas now? I have repented of those things, and I will no longer hold on to those secrets in the dark, but I will bring it to the light now. I will allow God to work on and speak into my life in those areas, and often He works through His body—that is His Church: believers. Could you imagine what the Church would look like if we actually walked in the freedom of Christ that we so proclaim! That freedom is not only a freedom from the bonds of slavery to sin to be bound to Christ, but that freedom is also a freedom of healing, restoration, regeneration, redemption, and sanctification of those hurts, pains, wounds, and shames in our life that is a result of that sin.
So I chose to walk in Freedom.
