Hey ya’ll, it’s me again. Don’t mind all the grammar mishaps that you might find (:
I’ve had a month to process training camp and boy was it eye opening. First off, thank you everyone who has supported me with my missions it truly has been a blessing to see the servant hearts coming together to support one another. Please continue to pray for this missions trip and my team.
So let’s talk training camp!
I’ll start with things I learned during camp:
- bugs become your friend, even big scary spiders hovering over you in the dark
- cold……extremely cold bucket showers was so lights…camera…action! Seriously though they were refreshing
- I have a new understanding of what clean means…smell, dirtiness, bugs, sweat, blood, same pairs of clothes, 8 people eating with un-washed hands out of the same platter, shower every 3 days….doesn’t faze me anymore, I actually started to enjoy it
- getting to know 48 other squad mates became the goal
- don’t buy a cheap tent that breaks you’ll end up sleeping on the porch for some nights to realize porch sleeping is the best thing EVER!
- everyone cheers when the cleaning truck came for the porta-potties once every 5 days…..there was like 300 people at training camp, it was pretty funny
- being competitive for squad wars…was a REAL thing
- realizing I was always the last one at the table eating all the scraps even from other squads food platters…I chuckled every time
- getting to personally share stories with other girls that felt like you’ve known for 5+ years, which really was only 10 days
- flash floods are not ideal for tents & airport nights is not ideal for rest, but huddling against the wall with shirts as blankets with other teammates makes me look back and laugh at it now
- hammocks are fun butterfly cocoons for humans
- headlamps are the coolest invention EVER….point…blank!
Okay now for the thick awesome presence of the Living God!
Victories over darkness:
- bonfire worship nights, interactively and genuinely praising the Lord
- team bonding and encouraging one another with God’s heart for each other
- authentic compassion and love
- knowing the Lord’s voice
- leaving behind control and depending on God
- When I wanted to unplug that was the time to plug into Jesus because He will bring us to places we would have never experienced
- having the opportunity to serve God in this way
- following Jesus in character and action
- life led by Holy Spirit
- stewardship of my life
- My identity in Christ: loved, a child of God, daughter, worthy, saint…
- sin is no longer my focus but grace is my focus
- loved and accepted by teammates and passionately building each other up in encouragement and prayer
- all the small prayer requests among the big prayer requests answered
- great unity among the squad mates
- believers carry influence
- knowledge does not equal a genuine understanding of the gospel and God’s grace….relationship
One of the experiences from God wrote out in detail:
During one of the worship nights, a woman came and found me out of the 300 people there. She said God has given me a vision for you please pray over it and ask God if it is meant for you. She then began to unfold the vision. A beautiful sky with a red kite soaring high then storm clouds came and covered the kite completely, then mentioned that God is there no matter what comes through life. After she left I sat there and was like…What? Fast forward a couple of days and frequently praying over the vision and how it relates to my life. Then it hit me, Thank you lord for revealing your heart for me. No matter what may get in the way or mistake I make that God will be there, He will move through the hard dark clouds and take them away so that I may have a clear vision and sight of Christ (the red kite) that I may continue my walk of holiness in the Lord and know that nothing I do will change God’s sovereign plan in my life and others around me. He already knows the mistakes I will make before they happen and I just know that he has already planned for them and to account those mistakes and he picks me back up to keep aligned and in step with His spirit so that I thrive to be more like Christ and to want to see His glory in everything I do no matter what falls I may have. I should take it all as a learning experience and continue to progress my faith in maturity with the Lord through all walks of life, big or small. God you are so good. Thank you for making this realization known to me I can’t describe the presence I felt in my heart when this thought settled into my mind. Thank you for allowing me to discern when you are speaking to me even when it’s in a crowed loud room you still speak to us, the question is are we listening and attentive to your voice. I love you Lord.
To conclude up training camp, I found my team for the next months to come. So we have a squad of 48 people but we are divided up into small groups of 7 or 8 to spend each country with. I am literally so joyful for my precious team that God hand selected and each one with their different talents and ways to serve one another. I’m so thankful for their hearts for you God. Check me out on my side bar to the left. Ben, Mason, Drew, Anna, Bee and Jessica. You’ll for sure be hearing more about this amazing group in the next blogs to come. I can’t wait to spend life with them and serve along side ministries together to partner with God to help bring His kingdom here on Earth as it is in Heaven.
