I was planning on writing a blog about training camp and my experience, but I didn’t feel like I had anything noteworthy to say. I did not have the encounter with the Holy Spirit that I was hoping for or what a lot of other people experienced. While writing this blog and figuring out the focus I wanted it to have, I realized that I did receive something from God that I had asked Him for, going into training camp.
I received confirmation.
While most people were becoming free from shame, pain, un-forgiveness, identity issues, and the like, I got to feel that same freedom that had already taken place in my heart and my life over the past 2 years. God takes us from one glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18) so I know there is more growth available for me but to experience what God has been working on in my life and to know that my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ were experiencing the same thing was so beautiful.
Two people at training camp, one of the speakers, as well as one of the alumni staff members talked about how progress and growth are like a spiral or an onion: you’ll address an issue in your life and think you’ve got that figured out, but as you continue around or peel back another layer, you realize you need to go back and deal with it again. I may have addressed un-forgiveness with a friend or a parent, and thought I had forgiven them, or gained freedom from shame with a past habitual sin, but as time goes on, I realize that bitterness or shame could be taking root in my heart again and I need to weed it out so it doesn’t grow back. We should always be giving ourselves a heart check and holding ourselves accountable.
Satan will try to whisper lies to us and make us question whether we’ve really chucked off those chains that were holding us back and walking out of that prison cell that was keeping us in bondage. Satan doesn’t want us free from sin or the emotional, mental and spiritual damage it causes. We must constantly shine light on our brokenness, sin, shame, bitterness, and the lies that separate us from the presence of God, otherwise we’ll never experience full communion with Him. God has made us more than conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:31-39), which means that what Satan meant for our destruction, God has turned for our good (Genesis 50:20). God didn’t just nullify what Satan did to us, but He actually redeemed it!
The other confirmation that God gave me comes in the form of an exciting announcement to all you readers!
I was chosen to be a Storyleader.
This means I will partner with the marketing department at Adventures in Missions and have a coach (my beautiful and sweet coach’s name is Meghan, find her here: www.paintedorange.org) that will help me scope out and write stories while I’m on the mission field. The marketing staff can’t always leave Gainesville, Georgia, to see what God is doing in all the countries that Racers are in, so they appoint at least one person per squad to collect stories to share so that the rest of the world will know the amazing things God is doing. Every Racer is expected to keep a blog and post once a week, which is the same expectation for Storyleaders. Blogs can be in different formats: written, video, or photo. I’ll be focusing on writing, while my squad’s other two storyleaders, Kierstin Foltz and Sara Santiago, will be focusing on video. We are not tied down to one medium though, so we have the freedom to try our hand at different artistic outlets. Stay tuned for videos and photography from me, as well! I will learn how to tell stories using the most appropriate medium, while also honing my writing skills.
I’ve suppressed a passion and gift for writing for too long and I feel like God has been calling me out of hiding through an honest conversation with a woman at my church and now through this role, I think (no, I know) God is trying to tell me something. So I asked God if this is what He wants for me and He believes I’ll steward this gift and role well, then appoint me to this role.
I trusted God to open or close the door.
And He opened it.
So I’m going to walk through it.
Kayla Zilch was a Storyleader on her Race from Sept 2015 to July 2016. I followed her blog and got to meet her at Training Camp. She is the most honest writer I know, the loveliest creature, and now I get to call her my friend! Check out the website she just started this month: www.tobetruth.com and her old WR blog: www.kaylazilch.theworldrace.org. Be inspired and blessed like I was (and am). I hope I can be half the writer she is.
