The final chapter in my three part blog series on the World Race training camp…
Wednesday morning we woke up back at AIM’s headquarter’s ready to begin a busy day of back to back team builders to start the process of dividing us into teams. They were exhausting for me only because it was way more human stimulation then I’m used to. Everytime we had free time I had to go retreat to my bunk to recharge, I honestly felt kind of like a hermit. But that night was pretty crazy. After a great session we entered a time of worship where The spirit moved in awesome ways. People were speaking in tongues, giving the gift of speaking in tongues, healing, being healed and getting flat drunk off the spirit. Now for a boy who was raised in a southern baptist church, this was a little weird. But nonetheless even with the poeple who weren’t speaking in tongues, I could tell the Spirit was in the room and was touching people. I could feel the Spirit moving, just not in me. And like a little boy who felt left out in recess, I sulked. I wanted to speak in tongues, I wanted to be drunk off the spirit, and I wanted to heal someone. One of the most important lessons that God taught me was that He is very lavish with His power but He doesn’t waste it, and is purposeful behind everything He does. If I would just stop worrying about fitting in and enjoy what the Spirit is doing and be happy for the people who are having these experiences, then I’ll be someone that God can use.
The next day was a very suspenseful day because that was the faithful day that we got split into out teams. After lunch the big announce was made and the team I was apart of was with Nathan C., Terri, Stephanie, Bekah, Sammie and Amanda. In an effort to make some memories together we were aloud to leave the campus and we got a bite to eat at Chili’s! It was pretty amazing how balanced our team turned out to be and how the Lord worked it out that we there seemed to be someone who counteracted someone else.
Friday was the day when all the training started. We had session after session on cross-cultural evangelism, spiritual warfare, our gear, health and finances. But probably the most exciting training we did was on the final day. That morning we did an exercise in listening prayer. We got in our teams and prayed that God would reveal to us what He wanted us to do, or who he wanted to us to speak to in Gainesville that day. We then sat in silence for about 15 minuted listening. I got nothing, but Stephanie saw a picture of a folded up newspaper and Sammie saw a whole scene show up. She saw a woman sitting by herself in a coffee shop and an older guy pushing a shopping cart. So after getting directions to some coffee shops and supermarkets we hit the road. The first place we went was a neat little town square area in downtown Gainesville. There Sammie found her girl sitting in the coffee shop and spoke to her and Stephanie found her newspaper in the new “Daily News Diner”. They met with the owners and prayed with them. Then we went to a grocery store called Publix where Sammie found her old guy looking for pickles. It was a pretty amazing experience. Sadly though, the next day we all packed our things and reluctantly went back home. I think we were all kind of reluctant becuase of the amazing things God did in all of our lives, we were afraid we would go back home and life would go back to normal. And that is the last thing any of us wanted.
