It’s hard to believe that it’s been two weeks since I returned from Worldrace training camp and exactly 3 weeks to the day that I got in a car at 3am, drove to Winnipeg, checked my bags and got on an airplane not knowing exactly what I was getting myself into, bound for Atlanta GA,..but it has been.
I miss my new family of WorldRacers and am so excited to spend nearly a year with them living this adventure and when I say family I really do mean family. “How can you even say that word when it was only one week?” Well, here, get this… When you have experienced everything alone up until a point with all pre-mission trip prep sometimes the most refreshing thing is meeting someone who has walked and is still walking the same thing you are.
I have received many encouragements along this journey so far, but it has not come without a heavy dose of its own discouragements. So, having what were complete strangers at first listen to me, acknowledge me and accept me, that’s when walls began to crumble and I began to be myself. It could have been something as simple as giving you a hug, sitting beside you at a meal, offering to share a head lamp light on the dark walk back to tent city, cleaning out ones water bottle when it was full of old coffee, offering up extra socks, sweaters, blankets (or superman capes b/c that’s all we had) and make-shift pillows when all your gear is taken from you for a night. The family I experienced there was willing to pray for someone whenever it was needed even when it could have seemed awkward, and it was invested in relationship always.
Training camp was the beginning of a great thing!
Here is a short summary of that week.
There were many things, but my week at Worldrace training camp consisted of:
- Early dewy-grassed mornings of exercise of any type
- Breakfasts, lunches, and suppers of foods I can’t even remember now because there was so little of it. (getting used to a life with less)
- No schedules
- Running down a mountain for 20 minutes then having my squad brothers carry me back up.
- Campfires every night and morning with my squad, and not because it just looked cool or was something to do, but because we actually were really really cold….(but not me because I’m Canadian… :p)
- Cooking a fantastic meal over a campfire with my squad. The best meal cooked over a campfire I’ve ever had in my LIFE!
- Sessions full of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth.
- Learning to hear, see and understand God more.
- Crazy nights of worshiping our Lord, the one who brought all of us together, and I wish I could go back.
- Meeting and finding out who out of my entire squad I will be teamed up with
After a week of things like this, team building activities, and I’m going to say lots and lots of prayer by WorldRace Alumni with a bunch more God input our trainers chose the teams that we will be working with for the entire 11 months. Here is my team and I couldn’t be more blessed to be working with them next year. Firestarters.
Here are a few more pictures from the week.
