Training Camp!
Post 1 of 3
Training camp was ten days of free fall.
Recapping in fewer than 500 words has resulted in slight hysteria, a pinch of frustration, and massive procrastination. Last night I opened my laptop to write, and four hours later I had written zero words, watched two Hunger Games films, and eaten a banana split.
I decided to break things up into a few separate posts. This is the first, to give a general context of training camp and the next posts.
What is training camp?
After extensive processing, questioning, discussing and studying – I still am trying to figure this out. It was a radical experience. There are surprises that I don’t want to give away for future participants, but I will explain some major elements.
Atlanta Airport
There are thirty-six of us nutcases that have agreed to travel the January 2016 Route #2. We came from all over the country and met each other for the first time at the airport before camp. There, lounging on the floor with half of an REI warehouse, we commenced the first significant aspect of training camp.
Build a community
Almost every day there was a new scenario that we had to get through as a squad (these “scenarios” were often inconvenient surprises), which allowed us to develop a community.
The Adventures in Missions staff also taught us about speaking truth to each other.
“But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” Ephesians 4:15
We cannot have truth and no love, neither can we have love and no truth. It can be an awkward and difficult balance, but we must love each other enough to work through the hard stuff.
Developing a healthy community is a learned skill. More to come on community in the future, but, for now, this brings me to the next chunk of training camp. . .
Learn things
Every day we would gather and worship – then listen to someone preach on scripture, process emotions, maintaining healthy connection back home, among many other topics. Adventures in Missions had the gigantic task of covering all aspects of a year-long mission trip in ten days. I have more notes than I took throughout my entire high school career (I didn’t take many notes in high school).
They taught theology, psychology, ministry, and everything between. I am still sifting through a plethora of material, but ultimately I walked away with a deep trust and faith that the staff at Adventures in Missions has a lot of wisdom. I am happy and eager to follow them on this journey.
B Squad Staff. You can always trust someone in flannel.
Get a Family
The squad of 36 of us will be traveling to each country together, but once we arrive in those countries we will break up into teams of 6 and disperse to different ministries for the month.
Every day at training camp we participated in team building exercises, and throughout camp the staff refined teams and tried to figure who we worked well with. After nine days they gave us our teams. We will travel together, challenge each other, and grow closer throughout our journey. Here’s a couple of family photos.
Team Undertow Christmas Card
Team Undertow Family Outing
More to come about insecurities, beards, and food.
Note: I had no phone or camera the whole time, so thank you to Julia Bird, Melissa Flores, Tiffany Tolliver, Lindsey Duerr, and Chuck Day for posting all of these photos!
