Light The Fire In My…. Feet?!?
The World Race training camp. So many words come to mind when I think of the amazing couple of weeks that I have had out the woods of Georgia. I came to a place, where I met everyone around me for the first time, with most of my modern comforts gone, having no idea what the next week and a half would entail. What I got when I arrived was not in the least bit what I had expected.
After long hours of driving to get to the Adventures In Missions headquarters, the journey was starting to wear on me heavily. When the sign came into view, there was joy in my heart for many different reasons. All of the sudden the World Race was real. It was no longer a video I watched online, or a blog that I had read about, I was actually here. I guess I got a little bit too excited though, because in the midst of the hype I forgot to remember that I forgot something.
I jumped out of the car ready to get started with training, when I realized that I wasn’t wearing any shoes. a few of my teammates had driven up early, and the car I had originally driven in was locked… With my shoes inside…
This minor problem did not phase my accumulated feelings of excitement and joy for the journey ahead. I had a second set of shoes on my backpack and after some investigation, I collected the knowledge that my shoes had already been taken. I joyfully began to walk down to where my campsite was located. It’s not a intensely long walk, but it feels a lot longer when you are walking barefoot down a hill of asphalt and gravel. I made it to my campsite and was informed that I misunderstood what they had meant by “my stuff had already been taken”. It turns out that my bags were where I had started. Still, I would not let my circumstances control my attitude and joyfully began to ascend my way back to where I had started.
On the way back up to the Lodge, the first main building that you encounter at camp, I began to realize that my feet were not feeling as well as I thought. By the time I made it back and found my bags, I couldn’t stand. There was incredible stinging pain on the bottom of feet, and I could feel blisters starting to cover my balls and heels. I humbled my way down to where the first aid room was, and sat down in a nice comfy couch. By this time, I was feeling the full force of pain in my feet.
I was met with kindness and understanding by the staff here, and after waiting for a little while, was told that I had developed second degree burns over the bottoms of my feet.This was my first hour of training camp. There are a few lessons I was able to pick up from the experience, and some even bigger issues in my heart that were exposed through this.
My first lesson was that your circumstances should not be what is in control of your mood. If I had chosen, I could’ve traveled down a dark road while sitting on that couch. Second degree burns do not feel so great, especially when you are a knucklehead and walk on them when you know they are hurt. Instead of moaning and groaning, My first thought was “What is God trying to teach me through this?” Thinking this took all of the attention off of a situation that can change literally any second, and directed towards my God who does not change. Not only does He not change, but He also is the God of peace. Yeah, I was feeling the physical pain that was exploding in my feet, but in my spirit, I was feeling the Holy Peace that only comes from the Holy Spirit.
My second lesson, was the amazing love of my squad. All I have to say is WOW. From the moment they found out I had injured my feet, I had 50 people praying over my feet. Whether it was carrying my chair to meals, or helping me up a steep hill, or just giving me an encouraging word, my squad showed me what it means to be a part of a body of believers. I was very worried of ridicule when I first found out about how badly I hurt my feet, because that is what I was accustomed to from people around me. There was not one word of ridicule spoken to me, the only voices that spoke came from a position of love, and encouragement.
Now we move on to a harder subject, the issue that was in my heart that God ironed out through this experience. In no way do I think that God is responsible for what happened, but I do believe with the correct perspective, hH uses every situation for the benefit of my spirit, and His kingdom
Sometimes, I have a big issue with pride. It pollutes my thoughts and even my actions. while I was waiting to go to the doctors, I kept up a tough face to try and act like I wasn’t in pain. What I was really doing was suppressing emotions that could’ve be healthily expressed and heard by people that are far beyond my current position in faith. I missed positive feedback because I was too prideful to say I was hurting. God had a plan for me, and it washed away any pride that I was carrying in my heart.
I was connected with one of the serve team, a team of volunteers who had previously gone on the world race and were currently helping make training camp run smoothly, and she was more than a great help to me. She was very kind and very helpful with my burns. The day after I was burned, I went to her to get my feet re-wrapped. Now, I have never had my feet washed by a person really before this. She joyfully washed my feet, and as she did, I could feel the pride in my heart being washed away as well. It was such a small thing, but it made a huge difference in my heart.
You may be tired of reading by now, but don’t stop here, because this is where it gets really good. When I had visited the doctor, I was told it would take at least a week for me to be able to walk comfortably again. The next day I hobbled around training camp on crutches and strong painkillers. Before one of our squad bonding activities, my squad decided to hold my feet and do a symphony of prayer over them (a symphony of prayer is when everyone prays out loud at the same time). I sat there with any ounce of pride I had left being washed away while 50 people I just met the day before held my burned feet and prayed over them. At the end of their prayer, I felt my feet, and they were still the same. I went to bed that night and checked them again. When I checked them this time, my blisters looked even a little bigger. On my left foot There was a blister that extended all the way across the ball of my foot, and down into the arch. On the right foot, I had four different blisters that were just all over my foot. I took some more painkillers, and tried to fall asleep.
I woke up the next morning to quite a surprise. My burns were gone. All of the pain that I had been feeling was completely gone. The blisters on my feet were gone. The only evidence of the burns, was some dead skin that had not yet been punctured. My feet had been healed. I was given a week till I would be able to even walk comfortably again, but after four days, I hiked 18 miles of the Appalachian trail. The power of prayer is truly an amazing thing, I is the movement of God’s hand in our lives. My feet were supernaturally healed over night, and I was not the only one who experienced this. I know of at least four other supernatural healings that took place at the World Race training camp, two of them specifically dealing with problems that had been present since birth.
The God we worship today is the same God that was worshiped in biblical times, to believe that a sickness or a situation cannot be healed by him is simply diminishing the power of the God who created existence. When you are faced with circumstances, don’t diminish the size of God in your head, your circumstances are not what control you. Instead, seek him first, and embrace the incredible nature of an unexplainably amazing God.
I have more awesome stories that I will be telling over a series of blogs about training camp, but this is going to have to be the end of this one. Thank you for reading this, and I would more than love it if you would comment your thoughts.
God is good, always, and always, God is good.
