This One Time…..At Training Camp….

…….I Felt the presence of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit all in one place and it was A-maaaazing!

It’s only been 16 days since I’ve gotten back from training camp and I feel like I’m starting to fully recover. Training camp is like the ex-girlfriend that you still get hung up on and can’t really fully get over, but then you realize eventually something better will come along and so you just kinda sit and sulk over blueberry cheesecake ice cream until you make yourself feel better, but then make yourself feel worse due to all the ice cream you just ate. C’mon….you know the feeling or maybe that’s just what I did… So then you spend your time thinking about what all happened and go through pictures and realize that an event like that will never happen again. Then just a few weeks later that “something better” comes along (Launching for the World Race in October) which turns out to be wayyy better than training camp anyways…and then we lived happily ever after.

Get the picture? Training camp runs through my head constantly on a day to day basis. It’s pretty hard to just forget the 60 some people that just became your family, the five people that just became your IMMEDIATE family, and the lessons that taught us how precious we are in God’s eyes.

One thing that runs to my mind constantly is the last full day of training camp. We were told to go do ministry out in WHEREVER God led us to go…..

In World Race terms this type of thing is called “ATL-Ask The Lord” We had no plan of action, we didn’t know where to go, but all we knew was that we needed to pray to seek guidance from God. After we asked the Lord to guide us where to go I had a vision of children running around and I think one of the girls had a vision of a park, and also I think Dex said he felt that we were going to be preached to when we go out. OK gang….let’s head to Atlanta to Centennial Olympic Park.

 

So we get to the park and we devise a plan to split up into pairs and just go out and talk to people. Mary & Tracy were together, Rebecca & Lindsay were together, and then Dex & I were together. We went our separate ways and Dex & I decided to go talk to a homeless man on the bench we saw walking in. We sat next to the bench next to him and tried making small talk, but he kept ignoring us and then eventually left. STRIKE ONE! We saw another homeless person filling up water bottles so Dex went to fill up his too. We tried talking to him, but he ignored us too. STRIKE TWO! Wow….this was harder than we though. We walked by Rebecca and Lindsay and they were talking to two younger girls. Dex and I kept walking and approached another homeless man and tried asking him some stuff about the park. He was kind of mentally handicapped so we couldn’t really make sense and he also seemed he didn’t want to be bothered. STRIKE THREE! YOU’RE OUT! So we decided to just continue walking around and see who or what God leads us to.

 

We continued walking and then towards the end of the park we see Mary and Tracy talking to a nice young couple on the bench. Hmm…all the girls found someone to talk to…what are we doing wrong?! I mean, we aren’t THAT bad looking…are we? We walked across the road and walked by the Georgia Aquarium and The Coca-Cola World site. We got to the end of the park and spotted a building across the way called “Atlanta Union Mission.” We didn’t really think anything of it and it was also time to meet back with the girls for lunch so we headed back.

 

(Kids playing in the park-Thanks God!)

We met up with the girls and they had AWESOME stories. Rebecca and Lindsay talked with two young teenage girls and eventually they ended up talking about God and Jesus. The young girls wanted to know more and so Lindsay and Rebecca talked to them about how much God loves them and how He is always there for them and the girls were really intrigued! The girl that Lindsay was talking to actually accepted Jesus Christ into her heart! J It was also her birthday so she got a start a new year with Jesus in her heart! Great job Lindsay! Mary and Tracy also had great stories as they were meeting with the young couple. Dex and I were shut-out, but we still had a few hours left to do something.

 

We went into the CNN Center for lunch and brainstormed on what we should do next. We felt that it would be a great idea to volunteer our time at a local church or organization. Great idea right? Well when you have six people from out of town, it can get a little tough. Dex knew of an organization called Rescue Atlanta that does an outreach at a church nearby. We called them but they were closed. STRIKE ONE! Then Dex and I thought of the Atlanta Union Mission. We found out its like a homeless shelter for men dealing with drugs/alcohol or those that are just having a hard time. I called and no one answered. STRIKE TWO! So then we just decided to just walk over there and see what it was all about.

We walked all across Centennial Olympic Park and finally got to the AUM. We walked in and were just amazed at how cool this place was! There were scriptures written on the walls and Christian based newsletters posted around…this was great! We knew this is where God wanted us to be. We told them who we were and what we wanted to do. The main guy said there wasn’t much to do because an NBA player was just there a few hours ago with a gang of people. STRIKE THR….then he said hang on, I’ll be right back. So after a few minutes he said follow me, so we did. He led us to a backroom where there were boxes of hygiene stuff-shampoo,soap,toothpaste, etc. We were asked if we wanted to put together hygiene kits for the men and OF COURSE we said yes!

 

We formed an assembly line and started packing away. I had my ipod touch with me and it had an external speaker we were jammin’ out to some worship music as we were working. It was one of the moments I’ll never forget in my life-all six of us packaging plastic bags with hygiene items and all singing away to worship music.

We were visited by one of the workers there named Vinny. We told Vinny about the World Race and he immediately had a smile on his face. He began to get to know us more and speak words of truth to us. Vinny had a great testimony. A year ago, he was eating out of pizza boxes in the garbage, addicted to heroin, and running from the police. He found the AUM by seeking a place to hide from the police. It was there at the AUM where he found Jesus! God completely turned his life around and now this guys is on FIRE for the Lord! Holy smokes rocky…..i’ve never heard anyone so passionate about our God! He began to preach over us (like Dex had felt was going to happen) and spoke some very kind words over us. He was happy to see that we are part of a generation that is actively pursuing the Lord and allowing ourselves to spend a year to just serve HIM. We finished by just praying for each other and it felt amazing! We exchanged contact info with Vinny and thanked him for sharing his story with us and encouraging us for the Race. We said our goodbyes and it was back to camp we went.

 

(Tracy, Lindsay, AUM Staffer, Dex, Me, VINNY, Rebecca, Mary outside AUM)

Ice Cold Coke on a Hot Atlanta Day-REFRESHING!