Training camp was definitely not what I was expecting, if I had any expectations. We got there on Saturday, May 21, and we were all super excited/a little apprehensive about what was to come. I honestly didn’t know what kind of expectations to have for training camp. Needless to say, though, it rocked my world. The first several days we were packed with messages and intense worship all centered around finding our identity in Christ and abandoning ourselves. We went through a process of breaking down our walls and us being real with ourselves and God. We also went through a “process,” for lack of a better term, of cutting off the things that bind us to the flesh, rather the things that Satan uses to keep us tied to the flesh and bring us down. That was the most freeing thing ever: to surrender to God the things which I was letting Satan hang over me and hold me back; I just had to let them go. The also challenged us and introduced us to so many new things as well; its been ridiculous. Challenged in the sense of new ideologies that had never crossed my mind or that I’ve never heard preached before. Things like speaking life and truth into peoples’ lives and truly allowing the Holy Spirit to move in power and healing in physical ways in our lives. I feel as though God is preparing me for something and that I am kind of fighting against it, but that I just need to trust Him. My whole perspective of God has been turned upside down and I’m beginning to see new sides of Him and who He is. I have never until this point viewed the Holy Spirit in such a manner either. The Holy Spirit we have inside of us is the same as that of the apostles and the first century disciples. Why then do we not see the same fruits as they had then? Where are the healings, the deliverance from demons, the freeing from prisons, etc.? Anyways, on top of all these new things, I’m processing are the physical training and team building exercises as well. Those have been both physically and emotionally draining, but this is all preparation for the 11 months to come. They are preparing us to be able to handle most situations that we might encounter while on the Race. So from the crazy worship and messages to talks on all sorts of topics including blogging and fundraising to all that physical aspects of this camp, we are being poured into so that we may be prepared for such a time and place as we may be able to pour out the love and life of Christ upon the nations. Anyways, they have put us through a lot so that we may be able to handle a lot and we will all come home on Sunday, May 29 as different people. We will return as people on fire for God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be able to “bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” (Isaiah 61:1)
Here are some pictures from the experience:
