Good day my sweet Family and Friends!
I want to share with you what happened to me at Training Camp a couple of weeks ago. I am not going to share what events happened at Training Camp so that I can help preserve the excitement and the unknown for future racers. I do want to share what the speakers shared with us and what God changed in my heart.
Ron Walborn, the Dean of Alliance Theological Seminary in New York was one of the guest speakers for the week. He was such a huge blessing! He opened up new thoughts and ideas on many topics and was a huge help on breaking God out of the box I placed Him in.
Some of the topics that were discussed this week were:
Expectations (Billy Swan).
An expectation is a desire, goal or need that we believe will occur in a certain way or certain time. Our expectations are going to be challenged this year. We may not know that we have any expectations until they are not met. Some expectations that we might have are food, living arrangements, teammates, leadership, communication at home, ministry context, training camp, myself and God. Billy discussed how our expectations are usually self-centered and how God cares more about our character than our comfort.
This was a good topic to be discussed because I was told to go in to Training Camp with no expectations, but of course I did. I expected to be totally changed within one week and to get along with everyone on my squad, because after all, I was only going to be around them for one week, right? I also expected God to show up in big ways and to change me so much that I wouldn't recognize who I was anymore. This only led in frustration and the realization that I can't change overnight or "overweek" but it is a process. My journey does not start and end in a week, it started a long time ago and it will continue until the day that Jesus calls me Home. Thank goodness for that! I am so thankful to have the time that God is blessing me with to further His Kingdom and to fall more and more in love with my Father.
Storytelling (Tim Fizzle).
This was to help us understand that there are so many different ways to share the Gospel in other cultures. The main way people communicate with one another in Africa is by storytelling. We were challenged to share our stories with a squadmate the circumstances in our lives, how God showed up, how His life changed my world and the relationship that came from it. We were given 3 minutes to do so. I struggled with this because there has been so much that has happened in my life that I didn't know how to shorten it to 3 minutes. By the end of the week, I was able to share my story and how God pursued me to have a relationship with Him.
"but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, aslways being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" 1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)
Ron discussed Modernity and World View and Their Impact on Spiritual Power, The Discipline of Honesty, The Garden Concept of Spiritual Formation, Bounded Set v Centered Set, Grieving the Seasons of Our Lives, Discovering Your Spiritual Instinct, and The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Believer's Life.
I want to share more about Ron and what he discussed in my next post, I found it to be really interesting and so fantastic.
Listening Prayer (Tim Fizzle).
One of the most incredible nights of the week.
I am giving you an outline for the week so that I can go into further detail in my next posts, coming to a blog post near you soon! Very soon.
Sweet Family and Friends,
God is doing some great things and I cannot have Him in the box that I created for Him. He is not the god in the box that I have been following and hiding from. He is Love, He is Good, He is Hope, He is my Father. I want to share everything that happened with you all right now, but I want to do it in sections so that you are not all overwhelmed with a week's worth of information in one post.
I love you all dearly and am so thankful for each and every one of you.
Love, Kaitlyn Michele
Prayer: Praise! I am over 100% funded. Thank you all! Stop funding me! BUT if you are interested, I have some teammates that are needing some financial help with going on the race. The next deadline is June 15th, where everyone needs to have $6,500 in their account. There are some of us who have not reached that goal. If you would like to support my fellow teammates and other squadmates, please do not hesitate to contact me, I have names!
Prayer that this last month in the states is blessed and that I continue to seek God daily and not be stressed out by the little things that "need" to get done.
Song: Fill Me Up by Jesus Culture.
