Bare with me as a I poorly attempt capturing moments from a week at training camp that changed my life. These moments truly are too precious for words.
For the past few months now, I have been slowly preparing my heart for this upcoming year..knowing it was going to be something new that I had never done before. I’ve been connecting through facebook, google hangouts & snapchat with my squad to just try and get an idea of what our year together is going to look like. I created silly scenarios in my head about what training camp would look like, what we would do together, and how we would connect. In the moments approaching I felt a lot of anxiety. I wanted more answers. Why is it that every worldrace alumni was adamant about keeping this week such a giant secret?!?!!?
I’ve gotta say though, I wouldn’t of had it any other way.
Training Camp is a week full of challenges, being pushed to your brink, it’s full of laughter, silliness, it’s full of new friendships, vulnerability, transparency, freedom, breaking of bonds, openness, fear, and unity. It’s a week where perfect strangers turn into family. It’s a week where your heart is exposed in places you never thought another human eye would see. It’s a week of sleeping, eating, and showering in ways different than ever before. It’s a week of laughing and screaming so much your voice starts to sound like a 50 year smoker.
I’ll give you a kodak snapshot moment that I experienced this week.
It was during squad wars. Squad wars is when the 3 squads at training camp come together for some crazy fun & clean competition. Our squad was the blue squad, so of course, like in any good clean competition, you’re gonna go all out!
They also plan squad wars the day before we go home & so by this point we are all as close as can be.
So, set the scene. Each team is decked out in the color of their squad and has as much team spirit as a crowd full of cheerleaders. We are screaming our heads off, dancing like we don’t care, and just pumped up for life. We have competitions we are playing- some we are doing better than others- but it was one of the first ones in particular that we had won and my team just went bazurk. We are screaming, jumping in each others arms, and just loving life with all our hearts. Of course I chose this moment to look around at the group surrounding me and just began tearing up. In ONE week- I had fallen completely in love with these people. I loved their hearts, their passions, what drove them, what made them laugh, how they interacted, how they loved Jesus, and even how they teased each other. I love everything individually about them and corporately I loved how when we came together no one was ever excluded. This was my squad.
This week we were also assigned to our teams within our squad. So there is 37 racers in our squad and than we have 3 squad leaders for a total of 40 people. There was a good amount of time etched out the last three days of our week where our primary focus was team building activities.We would be assigned to random teams and we would do some sort of activity together that required cooperation and working together so that they could begin deciding what teams would together well on the field for a year. These activities were all a blast.
One of the last activites I was with a group of 5 other girls and when we were done it was pretty much announced to us that this was going to be our team for the year on the field. I looked around at the table full of beautiful warrior women and just praised God for the year we are going to get to experience together. Each of them uniquely brings such a beautiful gift to the table that is going to be foundational for our team as we are sent off this year. I am so excited to create memories with them and seek out Jesus’ heart together!
Meet team anchored in waves!!!!
From left to right
Megan, Britt, Melody, Me, Jenna, & Lindsey <3
I am so excited to do life with these five girls this year & to see what the Lord has in store for us! I simply cannot wait. I am also excited that I have been given the extraordinary opportunity to be the team leader for my team! This will be a new challenge added to my year that I believe will grow and mold me in new ways of stepping out.
So, that was training camp.
I wish I could depict more to you about how truly transformative this week was for me and how excited I am to launch in September to do a year with these people, but alas as I said before, some memories are too precious for words.
Another sweet realization I DID HAVE about myself this week is that I AM a verbal processor. I am also a lover of hot beverages. So if this wasn’t enough info for you and if you find yourself looking for some good company over something warm- I am your girl. I would love to spend time and talk more one-on-one and tell you about training camp and everything else the Lord has in store for me this year! So please contact me if you would like to do that.
I will also be posting a blog this week with some logistical updates. Stay tuned 🙂
