So I just got back from Training Camp. It was pretty crazy. I’ll have more on the entirety of camp at a later time. Instead I want to focus on what for me was the most powerful moment.
SPOILER ALERT For men on the January route this could possibility be an activity you guys do if your training camp is at Toccoa Falls. I have no clue if you guys know the location or not yet, but if it is I would suggest you not read this.
So on Tuesday the staff separated the men and women to do their own special activity. The guys took us to a place called Currahee Mountain. That might sound familiar to some who have seen Band of Brothers. It is the famous three miles up, three miles down mountain from training camp. For the first half it was a simple jog that really wasn’t all that bad. The trail was hardly steep and the pace wasn’t fast. They had not just fed us spaghetti either so no one was thankfully puking; although I now question the very hearty breakfast that was given.
After a while we stopped and they changed the directions on us. At all times from then on out two guys in your squad must be blind, and two must be carried. Our squad had eight guys total including our squad leader, Grayson, who at all times could not talk. We also had a strict time limit to get up the mountain, and the trail was now much, much more steep. I’m the biggest guy in my squad by a fairly large margin. Being 6’6 and over 250lbs there really wasn’t an option of me being the one that was carried. I prefer lifting weights to the more endurance heavy cardio exercise, so I volunteered to do the carrying. It was pretty brutal, especially when they would throw curveballs at us and say a new person was blind, or couldn’t talk, or even couldn’t move. It was especially brutal when I had to carry Jacob, whose method of holding on was to apply a choke hold on me!
A little history about me is that I’ve had some bad back problems. I had major stress fractures in my L4 and L5 vertebrates during my sophomore and senior year of high school. The injuries left my vertebrates not completely healed and was told I would have to always do stretches and exercises to avoid risking another injury. Whoops I knew I forgot to do something. So as we are slowly trekking up the mountain I started to notice the similar back pain to when it was fractured. I also couldn’t stand up straight without major pain, which was for me the major indicator that I was dealing with a possible stress fracture. These types of injuries are gradual and get worse, and more painful, as time goes on. I wasn’t going to quit. Prideful to a fault, I was willing to risk greater pain and injury instead of giving up. Well we made it up that mountain, and it was an amazing accomplishment for our group, but all I was thinking was I need some pain killers and an X-ray. I let the guys know about my back history and we found out that one of the mentors, Dusty, had the exact same injuries before launch and were healed by prayer and God. The guys decided to pray for healing for me.
I have a very skeptical view on signs and healing. I do believe that signs and miracles still happen in this day. However, I also feel that they must lead to people realizing that the single greatest miracle is the resurrection of Jesus, not present day miracles. I feel some are almost addicted to seeing small signs and miracles, like healing sprained ankles and migraines, when all they need to do is open the Bible. That had always been my source of signs and miracles. Well anyway the guys in my squad all put their hands on me and started praying for healing. I really appreciated whichever one of them was also giving me an awesome back rub during the time. While this was going on I really wasn’t feeling anything out of the ordinary. No holy Icy Hot was being applied, no chiropractor action from the Hands of God, no moment where all of the sudden I was healed. I felt just the same as before. After the prayer we started to head down the mountain. Going down the mountain was easy, and it took me a while to realize I felt nothing. No pain at all! I experimented with some twists and bends and still no pain what so ever. In fact it felt much better not just before the hike, but also before the night in the bus.
It wasn’t my faith that allowed for my back to be healed. I was skeptical at best that it would be healed. It was through God’s mercy and love and the faith of Grayson, Dusty, Miles, Daniel, Brad, Erik, Jacob, Ekow, Ben, and Garvey that healed my back. It reminded me of one of my favorite sections in the Bible Mark 2:3-12
3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
So thank you Jesus for the healing and thank you my brothers for your faith.
