A lot of people have asked how training camp went since I returned home, but I haven’t really figured out a way to describe it besides saying it was one of the best weeks of my life. Here’s my attempt at summarizing the week that changed my life.
Sleeping arrangements – Every night, we were given a new sleeping arrangement. Sleeping in a tent doesn’t exactly sound all that great, right? Well that was a luxury for this week. We were put completely out of our comfort zone. Our second day of training camp, half of us “lost our luggage”, and had to borrow everything from a partner. Yeah, I’m talking sleeping bag, tent, towel, deodorant, toothbrush… you name it. On the third night, our squad of 40 people was given four large tents. Mine managed to squeeze eleven girls into one! The fourth evening we went to a campsite and slept on the ground under a tarp. My squad made the most of this experience by doing our own worship session by a fire. And finally the most difficult sleeping arrangement, to me, was the night we spent in a school bus! If one person woke up… EVERYONE did. And we found out really quickly who the snorers were. All of these situations were to better prepare us for life on the race.
Food – Every day we “traveled to a different country” and got to experience their food. It was mostly rice products, which was a bit of a struggle for me because I’m basically a carnivore, but I’d better get used to it now! Our day in Africa, the girls all served the guys at the table before we could eat… on the ground. One night for dinner, AIM staff enacted a market place where we were given a certain amount of money to feed the entire squad. There was loud music, beggars, gypsies, police, and about 150 people stuffed in this market all trying to get dinner. It was quite the experience and everything I would imagine a real market to be like. All of these were a nice little taste of each culture!
Sessions – We attended many sessions throughout the week of training camp where we went through intimacy with God, dealing with lies, grief, healing, forgiveness, and experiencing the Holy Spirit.
People – My squad and I went into the week with open minds and hearts. I have never seen a group of people so ready to love on complete strangers, which is exactly what we were at first. But as the week went on, we learned about each others’ struggles, joys, pasts, dreams, insecurities, and most importantly… We experienced each others’ hearts. It was a week of complete vulnerability. But through that vulnerability, we gained strength as a squad. On one of the last days of camp, we were given the team we will be doing life with for the next year. If you want to check out the five beautiful women that I am so blessed to grow closer to God with, here are their blogs:
Experience – One of the things that I had to work through during training camp was insecurity. All throughout my life, I have continually been beaten and broken down by men to the point I’ve lost myself in the process. I’ve always felt that if I’m not loved by a man, then how could I possibly be worthy of love from my Heavenly Father? Throughout my time at training camp, we went through these lies. For me, the biggest lie that I had to face is that God doesn’t love me and could never use me. Well, let me tell you, I was wrong. The Lord reassured me that He will always love me and can use all of us! THAT is the truth. It is something I may always have to remind myself, but my Father in Heaven loves me to no bounds. So much that He sent His only son to die on the cross for my sins. To me, that is the greatest love story of all time, and I am living in it. You can too.
I have officially met my second deadline and am 50% funded!! Here are my final two deadlines:
December 1, 2014 (3 months on the field): $11,000 due
March 1, 2015 (6 months on the field): $16,255 due
If you feel led to donate, please click the “Support Me!” link above. Also, consider donating to Ada Kessler and Lindsey Heller, two of my teammates who are still working to reach our upcoming deadline on August 22.
Much love! 🙂
