^ This is my awesome squad
Let us first take a minute to laugh at the title of this post and how it is having to to with a joke and I accidentally put in instead of is. Let us embrace it instead of try to change it. Lolz.
This blog could have so many audiences.
This could be to my friends and family who I am so thankful for who read and follow along with my journey and are waiting to hear about training camp and all of the details and what it was all like.
This could be to the future world racers who are thinking about training camp, trying to figure out what the heck to do, which I feel you, just 2 weeks ago I was in your shoes. Yet in just 10 shorts days every worry and care I had about what to pack, how to pack it and what every else was going on in my head vanished.
This could be to supporters who want to give. Who I thank and I hope that through this you can see that God is so big and so freaking cool and powerful and seriously moving.
I was talking to a good friend of mine, just today, about training camp. Mind you, I just got back YESTERDAY. And I shared some stuff that I had realized and some heavy emotional stuff and blah, and she said, “Cassidy, I am so excited for your year and vulnerability and openness to change, and I am so proud of your willingness to jump into the unknown because this is just after 10 days!!”
And that is so true. Seriously. Just 10 days. And it was insane.
Now I can’t tell you all the dirty details, because some the audience here may be future racers who will attend training camp, and if that is you, just enjoy the unknown and know that you’ll get it after and you’ll laugh and be writing this same thing!
But they are dirty details; seriously, Georgia humidity (where I had my TC) is no joke. Georgia red dirt is no joke. Georgia bugs are no joke. The people that came to meet together at Adventures in Missions in Jesus’ name in Georgia are no joke.
I was lying in my hammock one night with my great friend Kelly Anne and we were talking about how GREAT AND BIG OUR GOD IS!!! And how during worship we were singing ‘Great are you Lord’ by All Sons and Daughters and the one line sings “It’s your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise.”
And it was 200 or so people in this room just lifting the name of Jesus singing this line of this song, and as I sang it, I was so in awe. And I sang it, “it’s YOUR breath in our lungs”.
And I would think to myself…… what?
THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE.
THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE’S BREATH IN MY LUNGS.
WHAT?
And I would just laugh.
Cause it was so funny to me. Our God is so big. He is so loving He is so caring. He is so cool. OUR GOD IS SO COOL. Our God is no joke.
So I was lying there with Kelly Anne in our hammocks and we were just in freaking awe of how big and cool our God is, and talking about how we amongst billions of others and others to come are breathing in HIS breath.
How to describe training camp? I’m at a loss for words.
My squad, Y squad, squad war champions!! Are amazing. The chilliest, most loving peeps ever. (Don’t ask me how we won squad wars; it’s kind of unreal, it shouldn’t have really happened) (But it did).
We had a really cool session one morning, probably my favorite session out of all of them that hit me the hardest, on healing. Time doesn’t heal, healing heals. It takes time. It isn’t the time that heals, it’s the process.
This really cool woman spoke about how we have to learn how to deal with our emotions properly, and she shared about the figurative emotional cup. We all have one. And we all know what that means.
It gets filled up, and then it spills out onto people around us, we all know how that goes. The emotional cup is no joke.
She shared her personal experience with how she deals with emotions and everything in her life and her past, and I re-realized that I am an emotional stuffer and that I minimalize things and that morning I realized the extent of that.
Sitting there that morning I related so much to what she was saying and there came my emotions spilling over the top of my cup that I have had filled for years, and there I was stuffing them down yet again. And then I realized, when I stuff down my emotions, I am stuffing down Jesus, too.
The really cool thing is she didn’t leave it there; she kind of went on to help us who needed to empty our cups and let Jesus in more.
-Discover & own your pain
-Pour it out to God
-Recognize the events
–If it’s in the light it doesn’t have power over us
-Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted”
And that’s just what I took away from it. Oh, & its ok to cry. Crying is good. Seriously own those tears. (I personally am still working on that).
There was so much more, but I can’t put it all on here, call me and ask me about it and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get together and tell you all about it!
ONE LAST THING! I want to introduce you to the team that I will be doing ministry with!
Our first stop is in Podgorica, Montenegro with these beautiful ladies to work with a local church for the month! We will be the only team on our squad going to Montenegro so please be praying for all of our funding as a team and individually as well as guidance and safety! I am currently 58% funded with $9,452 and I need $10,000 by August 21st to be able to launch in September so please consider partnering with me on this journey!
I have this hope to be fully funded before I leave so I won’t have to worry about that, and a part of me doesn’t think that is possible, but that part needs to go back and be reminded of how big our God is! remember? SO BIG. yeah. that God.
If you wanna know kinda what training camp felt like, close your eyes and listen to the youtube song that I have put under here. you feel that. that big smile. yeah. Jesus guys, Jesus.
