Check out this video to meet Gap J Squad! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aR3k9lS3IE8
Training Camp. Man. Where do I start? It was the hardest 10 days of my life, yet the most fruitful. I have always struggled with friendships, so when I walked in to a campsite of 53 strangers, I was overwhelmingly terrified. I thought it was impossible to make friends with these strangers when friends in my hometown felt scarce. God proved me wrong.
I’m not going to spoil everything we did for future racers because there was such a beauty in not knowing what was going to happen, even if it was scary. I will say that I was put to the test physically, emotionally and spiritually. From a huge lack of sleep because of sleeping in a tent for 10 days to a 3 mile hike with everything I brought, I was exhausted. It took a physical toll on me and I got pretty sick towards the end of TC. I had a fever, almost passed out, and could barely move because my whole body was aching. I wanted to quit.
One evening, I joined my team for an activity where we were away from our regular campsite. They all had known that I wasn’t feeling well, and they decided to pray for me. I was healed in front of of 53 people right then. The night changed after that. Instead of horsing around, my entire squad and I prayed healing over other teammates and worshipped. Others got healed physically and spiritually. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen!
Soon after that, however, I got sick again. I didn’t understand why the Lord would heal me in front of all those people, just to make me sick again. The Lord spoke to me soon after. He said, “Torrey, you have trust issues.” Being my ignorant self, I said, “No I don’t.” Of course, I was wrong. He showed me that I have trust issues with friendships because of the hardships I’ve experienced in the past, and that I have a hard time trusting people to help me. He opened my eyes to see that the group of strangers in front of me were there to help me and love me through my best and worst, and it was okay to trust them.
I cannot thank my squad enough for everything they did for me while I was sick: whether it was missing out on activities just so I wouldn’t be alone, carrying my heavy pack, missing breakfast to help me with my tent, etc.
Training Camp was so tough, but I left with over 50 new brothers and sisters and I am so excited to do life with them this next year.
