Estimated reading time: 30-45 minutes.

Introduction

I don’t even know where to start. Training camp was incredible and insane at the same time. Each day had its own challenges and victories, but God was there through it all. There’s so much to talk about that I don’t know what to say. I’ve been praying about it and I feel God telling me, “Write your journal entries.” So, that’s what I’m going to do. Every night, I journaled about the events that happened that day. It was my first time ever actually consistently journaling, and I’m glad I did. Some days I forgot to journal, so I’ll fill those days in from memory. Here goes!

Day 1 (July 6th, 2017)

Today was the day that we got to the airport. I arrived around noon-ish and was greeted by my squadmates that had already arrived. It was quite a weird experience, beings that I’d never met these people before. We’ve had a group chat on Facebook for a while, so we’ve talked a lot and gotten to know each other on there. But this was the first time we had all met in person. It was weird because the only thing we knew about each other when it came to looks was our pictures on Facebook. Some people (I mean, pretty much everyone) looked way different in person than in person, so that was a fun experience. 

For lunch, we had Popeye’s inside the airport. I’d never had Popeye’s before and it was weird to me… Maybe it was the fact that it was airport food, but it still wasn’t the most appetizing meal I’d ever had. I still ate it though because, well, fried chicken. Can’t turn that down.

At 3pm, we got onto the shuttlebus that took us to camp. It was definitely more than I expected. In my mind, I thought we were going to be living almost completely on our own with whatever we packed in our backpack. So I basically packed an entire survival kit in my backpack…which I pretty much didn’t use at all. I mean, I expected that we’d have to cook our own food and poop in holes in the ground. Thank the Lord for porta-potties and a camp kitchen staff. Two of the most important but basic necessities were covered. 

We had introduction and all sorts of other things like that tonight. We set up camp later in the early evening and my biggest fear was confirmed: having to pack up my tent. Not only that, but according to Mason, my squad leader, we’re going to have to pack up our tents daily. This is a huge fear of mine because I, for one, am a horrendous packer. My father helped me pack everything into my backpack last night and he’s amazing at packing. I was banking on the idea that we wouldn’t have to pack up until the last day. Yeah that didn’t work. Yay. I guess we’ll figure it out tomorrow. Anyways, it’s late and I need to go to sleep because we have to get up at 7am. This will be interesting. 

Day 2 (July 7th, 2017)

This morning we got together with our teams (our teams are groups of 6-8 people within our squad, and our squad is the whole group together) and I’m pretty stoked about my team. I currently have Joel Larson (joellarson.theworldrace.org), Connor Quick (connorquick.theworldrace.org), Abby Elgard (abbyelgard.theworldrace.org), Brooklyn Helmuth (brooklynhelmuth.theworldrace.org), and Jenna Kirby (jennakirby.theworldrace.org) on my team. Our leaders, Emily and Mason Alpert, have been really good about asking deep questions and provoking thoughts in our team during morning devotional and during small groups after preaching (which is called a “session” and lasts anywhere from 1-2 hours). And we’ve gone through in our discussions, we’ve talked about our personality types and such. I’m really excited because everyone else is introverted and I’m extroverted so I’ve kind of naturally developed into a leadership role within our team, which I love because I thrive in that kind of environment. Oh, and I’m also the squad medic, so I’m responsible for 38 other people if they get injured. Yay. But it’s another leadership role and I’m praying that God causes growth because of it.

Something that’s been on my mind lately, although I don’t want to admit it, is my future wife. There are a lot of things I can say here. I’ll start with the fact that I could be looking at my future wife right now. Who? Well of course I don’t know. I have no frickin clue. But it’s very possible that God put her on this trip. A couple of side notes though. One, my initial goal when coming on this Race was to focus on God, not girls, even though the girl:guy ratio is 30:9 (or roughly 3:1). So many women here it’s not even funny. But anyways, back to the second note. It’s against the rules to date on the Race anyways, so that’s helpful. I totally understand and support that rule because we’re supposed to be focused on God throughout this trip and we shouldn’t have distractions. However, there are stories of 5-6 couples of World Racers dating and getting married each year, so… Who knows? As I’ve stated earlier, I don’t have plans on anything happening. I’ve said that time and time again to everyone that I’ve talked to about it. God is my focal point, not girls. It’s His decision, not mine. I mean, if my future wife is on this trip, praise Jesus Hallelujah. If not, oh well. At least I get to serve the Lord. 

Alright. Saved the best for last. My two boys, Justus Hyde (justushyde.theworldrace.org) and Joel Larson. We all literally just met yesterday but we’re already super close. They’re my two best friends here. I don’t know what I’d do without them. I’m so excited to spend a year with them. Joel is the tall, wise one. Justus is the short, muscular, comical one. He and I have the most lit handshake ever now. And it literally contains the word “L-I-T” in it. We spell it out in American Sign Language (ASL). 

In all honesty, today’s been crazy. Cold bucket showers, serving each other Asian food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, relaxing in our tents and talking about God, these are all the awesome things I’ve been able to do with these two. This is going to be an incredible year. 

Oh and apparently we’re only going to have to pack up our tents three times the entire week, so that’s a positive. 

One last thing that’s on my mind. Tonight, during session, Dion (a preacher from South Africa) asked if anyone had questions as to why they were here. Training camp and the World Race. With our heads bowed and eyes closed, I raised my hand. Because honestly, I have no clue why I’m here. I don’t know what God’s purpose is for me to be here. I’m praying that God would show me His reason and purpose. Because right now, I don’t know.

At the end of my journal entires, I’m going to try to write a short poem to describe that day. 

Untitled (For Now)

I had once just arrived at a camp

And the weather was really quite damp

But the reason I’m here

Is still not very clear

Until God hits my life with His stamp

Day 3 (July 8th, 2017)

Okay, so today was NUTS! Quick walkthrough… Woke up, did devotionals, and for breakfast we ate a loaf of French bread with jelly, 16 hard boiled eggs, and 4 oranges (for 8 people at each table). Today was Africa day and we had to eat with our fingers (side note: everyday for our meals, we had food based off of a specific region of the world and we would have to eat our meals based off of their customs). Breakfast was hardly enough food but we went for it and ate everything. After breakfast, we had a session from a guy named Bob Mutt. Bob, I apologize if you see this, but nobody stayed awake… It was bad.. I took notes but it was not a memorable sermon. It was titled “How to Make Good Decisions on the World Race.” So it was helpful, but a lot of people were dozing off.. Anyways, lunch wasn’t the greatest either. But, we survived. It was lentils, mashed potatoes with rice biscuits inside, and leafy green vegetables. Definitely not my favorite meal, but we got through it. We had to eat it. It was practice for when we actually go on the Race. 

After lunch, we had another session but this time it was from a guy named Jeremy. He was absolutely hilarious. Loved that guy. He talked about Ministry Mindset, which is how we can participate in the advancement of God’s kingdom around us. 

Moving on, we also had an activity about Children’s Ministries today. I really loved that because we had to work through different scenarios with kids as a team and we killed it. I was pretty much the leader in most scenarios, but Joel, Connor, Jenna, Abby, and Brooklyn all came together and pitched in some amazing pieces. I love all of them to death. I might be the leader but they’re the foundation. I’d be nothing without them. They’re incredible. 

We had free time from about 4:30-6:00pm. In an unexpected turn of events, a large group of us decided to play “Honey, I Love You.” Hands down, best game ever. We had so much fun laughing together as a squad. Goodness I loved it. We all did. Oh, and we played “Pterodactyl” too. That got some laughs. Amazing squad bonding time altogether. 

Dinner. Dinner dinner dinner. It was amazing. Possibly the best meal so far. It was chicken with rice and flavored with sweet peppers. So good. It actually got to the point where I got so excited that I screamed “THANK YOU JESUS!” and everyone started applauding. Then, regretting my utter mistake of forgetting to recognize the kitchen staff, I followed up with a scream of “AND THANK YOU SERVE TEAM!” Again, everyone applauded. It was fun. Then we as a table managed to clean our entire plate of food in five minutes. We demolished that plate. But it gets better. We actually started going to other tables and begging for food because we were so hungry and wanted more of that delicious food. 

Dinner was good, to say the least. 

Our final session of the day was with Mason, our own squad leader. He talked about preaching on the World Race and how to do it. Oh, and he also looked like a punky version of Eminem in high school. 

We actually got to write a sermon after that session, too. God spoke to me and told me to write a sermon about the things of this world being worthless in comparison to the priceless gift of Jesus Christ, which is salvation. It was an incredibly fun message to write and I can’t wait to preach it when we go overseas. 

At the end of the night, something powerful happened. We as a squad got together and prayed for each other, guys prayed for the girls and the girls prayed for the guys. Because tomorrow he guys are going on a “manhike” up a mountain and sitting at the top to talk about guy stuff while the girls stay here to talk about women’s ministry. We prayed that God would use us all in His ways and when us guys were praying for the girls, one of our female squadmates started crying, which in turn led to me dropping a few tears too. It was truly an emotional prayer and God was there the entire time. God is so good. 

Leadership

There once was a boy named Zac

His life was once really whack

But God made him a man

To follow His plan

As a leader his life is on track

Day 4 (July 9th, 2017)

Starting with the start of the day… I got up at 6:30am, went through the stress of packing up my tent, realized it wasn’t horrible (God answers prayer), and went off to devotionals. Today our devotionals was just us as a team, we didn’t have any leaders. Normally we had Mason and Emily leading our devotionals as a team, but today it was just us. We talked about our sermons that we wrote and what God was telling us. For breakfast we had a granola bar, Honey Nut Cheerios, and an apple. Then we went on the manhike. 

Oh. My. Gosh. Best hike of my life. I got to finally work out my legs and I felt incredible. When we got to the top, the view was beautiful. This was where God really spoke to me in that moment. I looked down and saw a car on a road and it looked like a little speck. i looked at it and thought “We’re so small that we fit inside little specks like those, yet God still loves us. That’s crazy.” It was a huge slap in the face to me and it was incredible.

Also at the top, we had a group discussion with all nine dudes in our squad. We had time to just open up about our lives and personal struggles. Some of us cried and it was amazing. It was so emotional and I was glad that us guys could bond together and be open like a family. God was really moving. 

We ate lunch at the the top of the mountain and it wasn’t really much… It was one piece of peta bread with two thin slices of salami and three slices of cheese. How we survived on such little food, I have no clue. But we pulled it off and made our way back down to the bottom afterwards.

When we got back to training camp, we did team building exercises. We had to stick tape to the top of a pole together, lower a hula hoop to the ground all at the same time with only our index fingers, stand on a balance beam and rearrange ourselves in order by first name, and select 10 people from a list of 29 people who would populate a new planet that was found by NASA. It was all an adventure. We learned that as a unit we need to communicate and use each other more. Also, we learned that we’re all leaders in different areas and we need to learn how to use each other’s strengths for different situations. We’re growing as a family. 

For dinner we had sloppy joe’s and green beans. It was probably the most American meal we’ve had since we got here. We were so thankful. But there was definitely not enough food. We’ve been starving today. But we’re surviving on the Lord’s Spirit. He’s the one bringing us through it. I mean, the sloppy joe’s actually tasted really good so that’s a plus.

Colby (colbyfield.theworldrace.org) asked me to throw this in here: During our squad time, we had to talk to someone and pray for them. To be honest, I forgot what he needed prayer for. But according to him, it was a “soul moment.” 

Colby, I’m sorry for forgetting. We’re family now. We forget stuff sometimes. 

Family

There once was a lil’ fam’ly

Who fought like lil’ Stan Lee’s

Their bond was brought close

This was not just a hoax

And the whole group was filled up with glee

Day 5 (July 10th, 2017)

There were a lot of emotional things that happened this day. This is one of those days where I forgot to journal so I’m going to try and write what I can from memory. 

In the morning, we had the heartbreaking news of two of our squadmates leaving. One of them left because she had just gotten engaged and she wanted to focus on that before committing to a World Race for nine months. She started crying when she announced the news and we were all sad for her, but we knew it was the best for her. The other squadmate left because of other personal reasons. It really hurt because she was someone that a lot of us were really close with. But we knew that God had a plan. So those were the two kickers for that day. 

I don’t remember what we ate that day, but I remember the other emotionally moving moment of the day. We had a session from Bill Swan, the director of the World Race, about our identity. Who we are in the world, and who we are in the Lord. He got really deep about who we try to be when we act certain ways around people to gain their approval. He showed us that God loves us for who we are on the inside, not who we try to be on the outside. That was really powerful to me as someone who’s admittedly grown up as an actor. I’ve always tried to be a people-pleaser and it’s been unhealthy for me sometimes. But Bill with teaching us about God’s love for us regardless of our acting, I was really struck deep. 

Afterwards, in our small groups with our teams, we were asked three questions. 

1. What are the things that you’ve done to earn the I’ve and affirmation of other people?

2. What are the things in your past/present that you try to hide from people?

3. Name 1-2 truths of scripture that you want to hold onto and apply to your life. 

Our team spent a lot of time focusing on the first two questions. There were a lot of things that people needed to get out, especially myself. Like I said, I’ve grown up as an actor. There were a lot of things I needed to unload. I actually started crying a lot and some of my teammates did too. It was really emotional but it was necessary. God was moving through all of it. I’ve never been someone who cries but if you would’ve seen me that day, you would’ve thought that crying was my natural hobby. I cried an incredible amount. I don’t know how else to describe it. Emotions were flowing. It was good. 

I didn’t write a poem for this day either, so, that’s sad 🙁 

Day 6 (July 11th, 2017)

Start of the day: Got up at 6am after finally falling asleep at 2am. I went to the (cold bucket) shower this morning and listened to gospel music the entire time. It was about a half an hour. God was really speaking to me. I felt His presence there the entire time. It was nice that the showers were empty because I was singing along with the music. I pretty much listened to it all morning until our devotionals at 7:30. It was an incredible way to start the day. 

For food today, our region was India. So for breakfast we had peta bread, oranges, lentils, and chai tea (thank you Jesus).

Moving on to later that morning… We had a prayer circle in our teams to see what God was telling us about a specific person. We would bow our heads, close our eyes, and our leaders would go around and tap someone on the shoulder as the “person” that God was telling us about. We wouldn’t know who the person was until the very end. But we would sit in a little bit of silence and ask God what he wanted us to say about that specific person, and with our eyes still closed we would just popcorn-style say what God brought to our minds. Anyways, a lot of people heard God speak to them (including myself) and people got to go up and share. It was so powerful. We did it three times, so it was for three different people in our team.

During one of the prayer sessions, I saw God paint a symbol in my mind. I saw each brush stroke as He drew it. And in all honesty, I thought it was just my own mind and I ignored it. Didn’t mention it to anyone. Now we’re going to put a pin in that thought for a moment and talk about lunch. 

Lunch was incredible. I think the theme of the food throughout the week was, “Let’s make awful food at first and then make it better as the week progresses.”  Because honestly that’s how it felt. Today’s lunch was chicken covered with curry and good golly miss molly it was amazing. We kicked our plate clean. Literally. Multiple tongues touched that plate and nobody minded. It was worth it. 

After lunch was when God REALLY showed Himself to me directly. We had a session titled “Pathways to God” which was about the 7 main ways we can talk to God and feel His presence. They are as follows:

1. Aesthetic Pathway – Seeing and feeling God through art, beauty, order, appearance, etc.
2. Experiential Pathway – Feeling God’s presence “in the moment.” Intimacy and experience. Worship in music.
3. Activist Pathway – Experiencing God’s presence through service and social justice, such as evangelizing to world leaders and sharing the Gospel with a large audience. 
4. Contemplative Pathway – Focusing on the still, small voice. Solitude and meditation on God’s Word. 
5. Student Pathway – Knowing God = Studying the Word. Worshipping the Lord through systematic theology.
6. Relational Pathway – Feeling God’s presence through a community of believers. Group Bible studies, prayer groups, etc.
7. Naturalist Pathway – Finding God outside of building. Experiencing Him in nature. Rivers, forests, mountains, etc.

I personally grew up in the Student Pathway where preaching was the main way to feel God’s presence, but today that was a little bit different. We did little 20-30 minute workshops about each Pathway after our session. And God blew my mind.

 

Dude. 

God’s hilarious. 

And I love it.

 

Pull the pin out of the symbol I talked about earlier. That was where God struck me…again. I will remember it for the rest of my life. That symbol that God gave me earlier, the one I ignored and pass off as pointless, God had me paint it. 

For one of the workshops, the Aesthetic Pathway workshop, we had to paint. Let me tell you, I have never been so excited to touch art supplies in my life. If you’ve ever known me, you should know that I am an absolute mess when it comes to artistic ability. I’ve seen dogs who can paw-paint a tree better than I can draw a stick figure. I am really that bad. But today wasn’t about being artistically gifted. It was about realizing what God showed me and getting slapped upside the head with the feeling of “Oh, that symbol wasn’t pointless. God was serious about that.” Like I said, I was incredibly excited and immediately went to work with the four paint colors that I needed. 

 

I’m telling you, this was a sign from God. I had no idea whatsoever that we were doing anything artsy today. God did. He knew. Oh He definitely knew. And He knew exactly what to tell me. 

As I was painting, I still had no idea what that symbol meant. Then at one point it hit me like a truck. It’s about the Colors Song. It was a song that I learned as a really, really young child. The lyrics go like this:

 

Red is the color of the blood that He shed

Brown is for the crown of thorns they laid upon His head

Blue is for royalty, which in Him dwells

Yellow is for the Christian who’s afraid to tell

 

Analyzing the symbol a little bit… The red circle represents the blood that Christ shed for us on the cross. Then there’s the purple. It’s supposed to be brown but I felt God telling me that it needed to be purple. Anyways, that represents the crown of thorns they laid upon His head before his death. The blue stripe inside the red circle is the royalty of His Kingdom, which in Him (His blood) dwells. Finally, the yellow circle is the Christian who’s afraid to tell people about Christ. Also, realizing that the yellow circle is all the way on the outside, it shows that Christ (red, blue, and purple[brown]) dwells within us. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” That’s just incredible to me. This symbol wasn’t a figment of my imagination. God was actually speaking to me and that blows my mind. He’s insane and I love it. 

Worship tonight was incredible. But first, for dinner we literally had a 5-pound bowl of rice and beans. It was okay, good enough for a legitimate meal. But dinner wasn’t the main point, God wasn’t done with the day yet. Worship…worship was so powerful. I don’t know how else to explain it. God was in the room. I wanted to worship so much more. I’ve never felt that before. I’ve never been much of a singer when it comes to worship. But I just wanted to keep going. God was everywhere. And I felt Him. I have no idea how but I was just so happy. Joyful. Still am. 

Dion, the preacher from South Africa, preached again tonight and it honestly felt like revival. Everyone was going crazy. God really spoke through him and to us. We all felt God’s presence. I want to keep this feeling going forever. I was actually shouting “Amen!” and “Preach!” and things of that nature throughout the entire sermon because of how God was just touching my heart. It was incredible. I’m speechless.

Afterwards we had more worship and people were praying and were prayed for. So much of God was in the room. Finally, there’s one more way that God decided to cap off this day for me. 

Before the first worship, before Dion’s message, we were told to go pray with and for someone who wasn’t in our squad. So, I walked around the room and naturally everyone had already made pairs. I walked back towards the center and this one girl from another squad was just standing there alone. I asked her if she wanted to pray together and she said yes. We asked each other what we needed prayer for and she said she wanted to feel God’s presence tonight. I agreed with her and said I wanted the same thing, even though I’d been feeling it all day anyways. So we prayed and ended up just sitting next to each other on the floor right there during Dion’s preaching. I had never met this girl before, didn’t know her name, I just knew that she needed someone to pray with, so we prayed together. 

This is where God decided to cap off the day. 

Fast forward to the post-session worship. A lot of people were feeling God and a lot of people were shedding tears. This girl was one of those people. I still knew nothing about her but I asked God in that moment, “Lord, if there’s anything you want to tell me about this girl, let it be known.” 

God answers prayer.

God showed me an image of a meteor coming down to Earth, on fire (for God), and leaving an impact on whatever it strikes. I immediately thought, “God, you’re kidding right? I have no idea who this girl is and you seriously want me to tell her what you just told me?” And then I said to myself, “Well, you asked for it.” So I went for it. After the second worship, after closing, I looked at this girl. Tears and all were on her face. I said to her, “Look, I know you don’t know me, and I have no clue who you are, but this is what God told me.” And I went on to explain the situation. 

It’s times like these where I laugh because I think God has a sense of humor and He’s messing with me sometimes. It’s a good thing.

This girl’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. She proceeded to tell me about her salvation story. She told me that when she got saved, she went outside and asked God what He wanted her to do with her life. She immediately saw a shooting star. 

That’s crazy man. 

She’s had this memory for her entire life and then God comes up and shows me this to tell her. Come on now, that’s crazy. In a good way, of course. 

Today I learned that God works in the weirdest and most unpredictable ways. Even when I have doubts, He still proves me otherwise. 

One last thing before I go to bed. Today I realized that today wouldn’t have happened without yesterday. Letting go of all the anger, pain, sadness, struggle. Letting all of that out and letting God fill my heart with His grace and His love. It’s been amazing. The only way to let God in is to open up the rest of the space for Him to fill it. 

God’s Insane

In the times of struggle and hurt

It seems like all’s in the dirt

But through all the pain

God’s still insane

And His love is as sweet as dessert

Day 7 (July 12th, 2017)

Today was probably the most calm and relaxed day we’ve had all week. Our food theme today was “Travel Day” so we literally ate sandwiches and snacks all day. Not very enticing. We had a lot of sessions today too. None of them really stuck out to anyone in our squad. Today was honestly just a really mellow day. We got hardly any sleep last night and everyone was nodding off during the sessions. There were actually a couple people in my squad that had passed out cold and it was kind of hilarious. It kept us awake, ironically enough. Later in the day, after one of our sessions, we had a study time where we were supposed to meditate on what God had been telling us that day and how we were feeling. 

I kid you not, everyone took a nap. 

My squadmates Justus and Brooklyn went to their own spots to actually go and meditate while I went down to the bottom of the hill to do the same. When I came back in time for discussion, I saw bodies everywhere. Just bodies that looked like World War 3 had just happened. Everyone was passed out cold on the brick ground. It was honestly so funny that we had to take pictures. I mean it really looked perfectly hilarious.

When we actually did discussion time, we didn’t really talk about much. Everyone had been sleeping, so nobody had anything to bring to the table. Our leaders were okay with that and worked through it with us, but yeah there wasn’t really anything that happened today. It was just…mellow. 

Mellow Yellow

The color of a Christian is yellow

You can really ask any of us fellows

I have nothing to write

But it’ll be alright

Because today was really quite mellow

Day 8 (July 13th 2017)

Today (along with the next two days) was another day that I forgot to journal, and I don’t have many notes in my notebook about the day. All I have is notes from a session about who we are as missionaries, how we are to journey, and how far we are to go. It was a session from Bob Mutt, the preacher from Day 3 that people slept through…and the result was the same this time. 

Bob, I’m sincerely sorry. But I took notes and appreciate what you brought to us!

I also have reminders written down that I need to apply for my Indian visa, so I think that was the day we did a workshop based on that.

However, one really, really “fun” event did happen that day. 

We had a minor monsoon happen. So much rain. So so much rain. And it gets better. 

So, backtrack to last night. We had another scenario where we had to have all of our stuff packed up. Tents, hammocks, backpacks, everything. We had a tarp at our campsite where everything went. All of our belongings were put on this tarp and covered by another tarp on top. This was to prevent any weather from coming in. In other words, it was supposed to protect our stuff. 

It didn’t. 

We hadn’t had time to set up our tents again from the night before. Everything was still in our packs. Around 6pm or so, some storm clouds started rolling in. Some of the people from our squad ran to the campsite to make sure that the tarp was covering everything. It was. Everything seemed safe and sound. Well, there was a little more rain than expected. And by a little, I mean a lot. I’m talking like somewhere from 3-6 inches of rainfall. So much rain. It was so bad that they wouldn’t let people sleep in their tents. They made everyone sleep inside. That’s how much rain there was. Now, let’s not forget about everything we had outside on the tarps… 

Long story short, everything got soaked. All of our packs, drenched. Tons of water got inside the tarps. Everything we had was wet. We had to share resources as a squad, some people had to wear wet clothes, some people just wore the same clothes and took Febreze showers everyday, yeah. It was bad. But we survived as a squad. We found ways to make it work. Some people got frustrated, including myself, but in the end we all agreed that it was just a challenge we had to get through. We’ll have challenges on the Race too. They just come in different forms. 

So yeah.

Training Camp Was Really Quite Damp!

Fun experience!

Day 9 (July 14th, 2017)

Today we had a session from Jeremy about giving feedback. Feedback is telling a teammate or squadmate when you feel like they did something great or something that you think they need to work on. Feedback is “speaking the truth in love,” according to Ephesians 4:15 and 4:25. This is where Paul is writing to the Ephesians and tells them to speak the truth to one another and to do it in love. This is especially helpful on the Race because we’re going to be living with each other for the next nine months. We should probably learn how to tell each other how we’re feeling. But Jeremy taught us that there is a specific way to provide and receive feedback. When it comes to providing feedback, he used the illustration of throwing a bowling ball, a tennis ball, and a ping pong ball at the person’s back. These three balls represent how you deliver feedback. We shouldn’t deliver it like a ping pong ball, where it’s so soft that the person doesn’t really feel it or care about it, but we also shouldn’t deliver it like a bowling ball, where it’s so hard that the person becomes crippled and hurt. The tennis ball is the happy medium. If you toss a tennis ball at someone’s back, they know it’s there and it’s thick enough to leave a little bit of a lasting effect. That’s what feedback should be like. It should be straightforward, concise, and meaningful. There are reasons as to why both positive (encouraging) and negative (constructive) feedback should be like a tennis ball. For encouraging feedback, it should be a tennis ball because, simply put, you want it to be encouraging and you want their mood to be boosted. Hence the lasting effect. But you don’t want it to be a ping pong ball because then it seems like it’s pointless, and you don’t want a bowling ball of encouraging feedback because you don’t want them to feel “on a high horse,” or in other words, you don’t want them to be so happy that they’re better than everyone else. For constructive feedback, you don’t want to be a ping pong ball because you don’t want them to brush off the issue like it’s no big deal, and you don’t want to throw a bowling ball at them because that starts conflict. Throwing a tennis ball shows them that the feedback was direct, clear, they weren’t deeply harmed by it, but at the same time they know what they need to work on.

Then comes the subject of receiving feedback. Receiving feedback is tricky because it’s something that I personally struggle with as well. I mean, I don’t like to be told I’m wrong, but I’m also someone who’s hard on myself, so it’s hard for me to accept compliments when I don’t feel like they’re true about myself. Jeremy taught us the two ways to receive feedback. The first way is simply by saying “Thank you.” The second way is by “investigating reality.” Investigating reality is when you “humbly” and “softly” ask questions about the situation. When someone gives you feedback, whether it be encouraging or constructive, and you aren’t sure what they mean, you can ask questions such as, “I don’t personally understand what you mean, can you give me an example of (insert feedback here)?” Asking questions like that is helpful because the receiver can better understand the situation. When the understanding is clear on both sides, it’s up to the receiver to apply it. Then life goes on from there. 

Jeremy also taught us three things to NEVER do when it comes to feedback.

1. NEVER try to defend yourself.
2. NEVER try to justify it.
3. NEVER gossip. Don’t listen, don’t speak it, anything. Feedback needs to be between two people. Gossiping burns bridges between people. Never ever ever gossip. 

That’s pretty much the gist of what happened today. We spent the next few hours practicing feedback within our teams and it was a relaxing time after that. We also got our information about squad wars, which is tomorrow. Squad wars is competitions between all of the squads. We got a sheet of paper tonight about the competitions we’re playing tomorrow. We started planning tonight. This will be fun.

Day 10 (July 15th, 2017)

Today was squad wars. We didn’t really have any sessions other than logistical things (fundraising, blogging, etc.). Squad wars day was basically the “happy-go-crazy” day because we survived training camp. It was nice. But let me tell you all about squad wars! Most of the competitions were just for fun for us because there were two squads who were the most competitive and they were fighting for first and second place. We, along with the other 3 squads who weren’t one of the top two, were just there for the fun of the games. Here’s how each competition went…

David and Goliath

David and Goliath was a battle between a duo of the fiercest warriors from each squad. Each squad sent their best two “warriors” to fight for their squad’s honor in a ring. The setup was simple: The two warriors from each squad would have to interlock arms, one of them being David and one of them being Goliath. David was given a pool noodle as a sword and Goliath had an egg wrapped to the back of his head. The objective was also simple: Don’t get your egg smashed. While each David and Goliath were locking arms, they weren’t allowed to disconnect at any point in the competition. If they disconnected, they were disqualified. So, David had to go and smash all the other Goliaths’ eggs while also protecting his own Goliath’s egg. 

This started all-out war.

The two biggest, most muscular men from each squad entered the ring. I felt little and I’m 6’1. Thankfully I wasn’t in the competition, my two squadmates Connor and Alec (alecdubree.theworldrace.org) were our David and Goliath, respectively. As the pairs went up against each other, pool noodle swords were flying everywhere, alliances were being made (and broken), the sound of a thousand smacks from the pool noodles was resonating through the cheering crowd, chants were being screamed, oh my. It was a fun atmosphere. We didn’t win, but it was a lot of fun to watch. It felt like a real-life gladiator ring…

Except with eggs and pool noodles. Harmless, clean fun.

Speed Dodgeball

Speed dodgeball is exactly what is sounds like. Really, really fast dodgeball. The rules were as follows:

1. 20 players from each squad are allowed to participate.
2. The game time is 3 minutes maximum or until everyone from one squad is eliminated. 
3. Standard dodgeball rules. If you get hit, you’re out. If you catch the ball, the other person is out and you bring one of your teammates in.
4. You cannot hold a ball in your hand for more than three seconds.

Again, all-out war had commenced. There were all different types of balls. Volleyballs, soccer balls, softball-sized foam balls, rubber balls, everything. They really made it interesting. Balls were flying faster than bullets and they were going back and forth at blinding speeds. The tension was high, along with the energy levels. Sadly, we lost our first game. It was a pyramid-style single-elimination bracket, so we were done after our first game. It was still really fun though. That was the main goal.

Competitive Leap-Frog

Competitive leap-frog? How does that work? Well, I’ll tell you how. The game is set up with 16 players from each squad, all lining up in a leap-frog formation. There are two bowls, one at the front of the line and one at the back. The bowl in the back is full of flour, but the front bowl is also full of flour…with a twist. The front bowl has 16 marshmallows buried within the flour. The objective of the game is to leap-frog from the back to the front, retrieve a marshmallow from the flour-filled bowl using your mouth ONLY, and run back to the back bowl, dropping the marshmallow in. Once the marshmallow is dropped in, the next person goes up the line to retrieve the next marshmallow and so on. This continues until all the marshmallows are found and retrieved. To prevent asphyxiation, they brought out water coolers for people to drink from once they retrieved a marshmallow so they could wash out their mouths and throats from the flour. 

This game was really odd to watch, but we actually won it on a technicality. There was another squad that finished right before us, so we got second place. But at the end, they realized that the other squad somehow still had one marshmallow left. Therefore, they didn’t finish before us, making us the winners. That was a really good feeling that we all enjoyed as a squad.

Mario Kart – Human Version

Next up we have Human Mario Kart. The objective of this game was to simply eliminate your opponents without getting eliminated yourself. Here’s how the game was set up: First, blow up a balloon to the size of your head and tie it. Second, take a rubber band and tie it to your balloon. Third, place the rubber band with the balloon attached around your ankle. This balloon was your life source. If it died, you died. In other words, if it pops, you’re out. The objective of the game was to pop everyone else’s balloons with your feet. The last squad standing won. Naturally, the four squads who weren’t competing for first and second place all agreed to attack the squads who were competing for first and second place. Those alliances quickly fell apart. Traitors were revealed within squads. Trust was broken. People did not cooperate well. But there was one squad, the squad competing for first place, who played it very well. They waited in the corner and let everyone else destroy each other first. Then, when they realized that they had more people still alive in their squad than everyone else combined, they went on the attack. They interlocked arms and formed a wall, charging at the people who were left. Eventually they won. It was a good strategy. It personally taught me a lot about being patient and also working as a team, which is exactly what they did. So, kudos to them.

The Dance-Off

Here it is. The grand finale. The Dance-Off was by far the competition that everyone was looking forward to. The rules of the dance-off were:

1. You must provide your own music…without an electronic device. In other words, acappella or instruments. Everyone just did acappella though.
2. The dance must be 3-5 minutes long and the whole squad must participate. 

Our squad did a mash-up of Doxology, a parody of Party in the U.S.A (we turned it into Party in the A.I.M., which is Adventures in Missions), and a parody of Single Ladies (we turned it into Single Racers).

I can’t quite remember all of the dances from the other squads, I just remember that it was so much fun watching people have a blast and watching the creativity. It was amazing. It was a fun, go-crazy day. We all had a blast. 

After squad wars, we spent time with our squads and just had fun. Two people from our squad, Sara (sararoberts.theworldrace.org) and Abby (abbymoore.theworldrace.org) both got baptized, so that was exciting. We had ice cream and brownies afterwards.

I got sick later that night and had horrible stomach cramps. I didn’t know what it was, but it just hurt to move. It felt like a metal chain was wrapped around my lower stomach and pulled tight. It hurt. So I sat down for a while and didn’t move. Our squad leader Mason came over to me and asked me if I was feeling alright. I explained the problem and he recommended that we go and get myself some Alka-Seltzer medicine. I’d never had it before, and let me tell you something. That stuff tasted NASTY. But Mason insisted that I try it to see if I just had indigestion. Turns out, it made things worse and I actually ended up curling into a ball in pain. I don’t know what it was, but it was definitely not my friend. Mason ended up bringing me inside the office to lay me down on a couch. I laid there in pain for a while before finally falling asleep around 11:30 or so. I woke up the next morning and was okay after that, but I completely missed out on the end of the day. 

There was one good thing though.

Since my stuff was all still packed together from the monsoon night, I didn’t have to unpack and set up my tent for the final night. Everyone else had to. Since I slept inside, I didn’t have to. 

I was okay with that. 

Day 11 (July 16th, 2017)

Today was the day that everyone said their goodbyes. I woke up at 6:45, walked over to the campsite while everyone was waking up, helped people pack up their stuff (since mine was already packed), and hung out with people. Everyone across campus did a one-hour cleanup of the whole camp after breakfast, and we drove off to the airport after that. Everyone said their goodbyes, took pictures, exchanged phone numbers, all that jazz. It was a fun day. We’re all still connected on Facebook and other social media outlets. We talk to each other everyday. We even have plans to meet up again before launch. It’s going to be amazing!

Conclusion

We’re all super excited to see where God takes us for these next nine months! Thank you for sticking through and reading everything. I hope my posts aren’t always this long in the future, this was just a really long introduction post. Soon, I hope to write a blog post that introduces my team, the people I’ll be spending the most time with.

 

To God be the Glory!