Training camp was truly one of the most fun but challenging few weeks of my life. I showed up to the World Race program realizing that I have no choice but to love and get along with my squad because they are my new family. This was a totally new concept to me. But let me tell you… I LOVE my squad. These are 50 incredible people who have already started to change my life. Yes, they are all mostly from the South, and yes I will probably come back saying y’all but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make 😉
These are 50 men and women who will travel with me each month to a new country and we will be split into groups of 7 to live in separate communities and do different types of ministry. These groups can switch throughout the year but for now these are my ladies… our group name: “Established in Love” based off the scripture Ephesians 3:14-20.
“ For this reason I kneel before the Father,from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name.I pray that out of his glorious richeshe may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”
After a week or so of team-building exercises and group activities I got picked to be a team leader and will lead these 7 women to India starting in August. As a leader I will serve my teammates to make sure we are successful. This will included empowering these women to use their gifts well, establish and maintain the culture of the program, and continue to challenge my team to pursues Gods presence. This will require a lot of bold communication, feedback, and a positive attitude to make sure we are not only striving in our ministry but also living life in a healthy way together. Please, please pray for this position as I am incredibly excited but also know it will take a lot of strength!!
To give you a little re-cap of what we covered at training camp I made a list of topics we went through in our sessions, meals we ate from the “country of the day,” and our field scenarios.
Topics: (these were sessions that were taught by the most amazing AIM staff and pastors from around the world. If you have any questions about what I learned in any of these sessions please ask! I feel like I gained a whole new perspective and basket full of overflowing knowledge)
? Shame
? Forgiveness
? Intimacy
? Community
? Mission
? Emotions: Pain & Grief
? Truth
? How to hear God’s voice
? Women of God
? Relationships
? Feedback
? Storytelling
? Salvation
? Healing
? World Religions & Evangelism
? Different types of Ministry
Meals: Everyday we were in a new part of the world so our dress code had to apply to their culture and we would eat the food and practice some of the cultural beliefs from that country. For example it is seen as unsanitary to eat with your left hand in India so we would eat out of a large community bowl with our right hand at meals
? Africa: rice, garri, lentils
? Asia: pad Thai, & chicken fried rice
? Central America: rice & chicken vegetable stew
? Eastern Europe: white bread, salami, sausages
? India: spicy lentils & chicken curry
? Adventure day: crickets, duck eggs, chicken gizzard
? Travel day: PB&J & chips
Activities: everyday we would attend sessions for a few hours and then typically have an activity or a “field scenario.” The field scenarios were challenges that reflected a real life situation on The Race.
Field scenarios:
? Airport simulation: they covered a room with chairs and blasted a repeating airport noise track the whole night. We only had our day packs with us and slept on the ground with eye masks and headsets
? Hostel/community tents: we have one big room to share at our hostel or at our host’s home so we have to share the floor space by all sleeping together
? Watch out: we decide to all stay up all night to worship, so we take turns throughout the night. We all started worship together from 11-12 and I got up again from 1:30-2:30 to do my shift to journal and sing worship in the middle of the night
? Lost baggage: Half our teams luggage was “lost” so we had to share whatever we had with us with our other teammates. This included us all sharing our tiny tents with one another.
Fitness requirement: Being able to hike 2 miles with our packs on.
Bucket showers: just a hose to fill the bucket and a little shed to wash our hair and bodies—I am getting used to a life of baby wipes and cold water 🙂
Bonfire/cookout: cooking our own meals and creating our own shelter in the woods with our squad. (This was my favorite night as well all worked together to cook, build a fire, worship, and get to really know one another) my heart was filled with the love of God and gift of my new squad and family. This is a night I will never forget…
Women’s day: working together to build a massive tent, exercise and communicate to “cross the border and catch our train successfully”
Squad wars: all the squads competed in a dance battle, human Mario kart, dodge ball and some other hilarious games to create unity and friendly competition.
Morning exercises: dancing, running and playing games together to make sure we were taking care of our bodies too 🙂
We ended the week at Seth Barnes’ house, the founder of Adventures in Missions, where we got to talk to him about our upcoming journey and pick his brain about the organization. I was blown away by how thorough our training was and how personal the program gets with each squad and racer. This blog was really a great recap for me and hopefully gave some others a basic idea of what I was doing these past two weeks. I am still processing everything I learned and hope to write about that soon. This week was emotionally exhausting and helped uncover a lot of unhealthy areas of my life that I can’t wait to work on with God. It also showed me how good and loving God is and the gifts He has given me. Training camp made me realize how hard this year is going to be and the endless possibilities to transform my life as long as I decide to put up my sails and open them wide and really allow God to guide and blow the wind in my life. I can let go of the tiller and trust that God is steering my boat in the right direction, wherever it may be.
I am starting to feel free in His love and plan for me.
