First off, training camp was something I wasn’t prepared for and I don’t think I could have ever been prepared for it! But I wouldn’t change it for anything!
My squad and I are labeling training camp as “the best 10 ten days that we would never want to do again.” And the only reason we had fun was because we were with each other becoming a family! I love all of the people on my squad, I’ve never met so many people my age with the same passion and heart for Jesus and reaching the lost. Our squad had so much fun dancing, crying, sweating(lots and lots of sweating), rejoicing, and growing. This week brought me such joy, in getting to know my team, getting to know more about Jesus, and having complete confidence and peace that going on the world race is exactly what God wants me to do.
I’ve always felt that the world race is where God wants me to be, but through those 10 days I have felt the overwhelming peace and assurance that God has me exactly where He wants me. And that brings me so much joy to know that God doesn’t want me to go to college, or take on a full time working job, or do other things. He wants me on the world race and that’s what I’m doing. Although I don’t fully understand why God has specifically called me to the world race I find such excitement and hope that God will continue to change and shape me to be like Him, and use me in the lives of those around me.
I felt such joy in being held by God and fully resting in His hands. I was so anxious about who would be on my team, if I would be a team leader, and if I could do it. I was filled with fear and anxiety. The night before we got our teams, I couldn’t focus on the message that night or really focus on much. I was believing the lies that I wasn’t good enough, that I was too sinful, God could never use me to be a leader. But soon I realized that they were lies and they were not true. I talked to some of the girls on my team and they encouraged me so much, then I got some sleep and waited for the teams to be announced the next day. I was then invited the a meeting for the team leaders where I then prayed and talked to God about it and I had peace and knew that God wanted me to be a leader. Then they gave me a paper of the people on my team, when I read the 6 names of the girls on my team, my heart was filled with a joy that I have never felt before. I felt so silly for being so anxious when all this time God held me in His hands. He knew. Man, I am so glad that God is in control of my life and not me. God is for me and He loves me with a love I truly cannot understand, which again causes my heart to overflow with joy.
And the fact that God has known since the day I was born that I am gunna go on the world race and the people that I was gunna go. That completely blows my mind.
This blog may seem slightly ironic to you, you may be thinking something like, “weren’t you doing physical activity in the hot sun, sleeping on the ground, eating small portions, and being surrounded by strangers and you have new found joy? what?” Well it’s true these past 10 days a new kind of joy has completely engulfed my heart and I know this joy has come from God. And I can’t really fully explain it but I am so incredibly thankful.
