These two weeks have been absolutely surreal and unbelievable. Training camp blew my socks off. I’m still not 100% that its not a dream. The people, the worship, the love, the power of god, the community, and much much more. I got to go to training camp a day early since I signed up for the story tellers workshop (which by the way was very insightful). As we started setting up our tents within the first hour of being there people already seemed to be like family. People we sharing things others had forgotten like tent poles and clothes just whatever they needed. Then I had my first encounter with a Georgia MONSOON. Rain was dumping down on us. Everyone panicked but instead of trying to save their own clothes and tent everyone started grouping up and putting peoples tents together in groups of about 5. It totally defied human nature which is to try and make it alone but instead pool together to help one another. Instead of complaining people were laughing as we all struggled to get our stuff up in time. Now that I look back on it I realize how normally devastating that would be to have all your stuff soaked but it just bound us together right from the very start.
Training camp itself was amazing. I absolutely adore my whole entire squad. The first night of worship was straight electrifying. You could feel gods presence moving throughout the entire building and your became completely lost in worship that when it was over you almost felt naked because you felt so far from anything around you on earth.
We also had amazing prayer time and one activity in which we did that had me completely speechless. The activity involved us to gather in our teams made up of 6. Our squad leaders would pick one person while we were praying and we would speak out to our group whatever god would share to us about this one person(keep in mind while doing this you did not know who they picked). God gave me a image of a man sculpting something from wood in the image of god. Well a guy named Jonny in our group makes things from wood and also furniture from wood in his spare time. But thats not all. Towards the end they let people share over the microphone if god had anything to tell people not in their squad. Now at this i grew hesitant. I felt we needed to pray much longer until god would reveal something of that importance to us. I was wrong. A guy from another god stepped on the mic and said this, ” God has been having me pray for this man for months on end. He is struggling to take a deep breath like there is a hole in his lungs and he feels god hasn’t helped him with it. I wanted him to know to keep praying and I would like to pray with him because god has revealed this to me.” I was utterly speechless. Every time I’ve doubted god in the long run he’s shown me he’s there but this one raised the hairs on my neck. I stood up fist in the air to show it was me and ran over to give him a hug as he prayed with me. See I have been struggling to get a deep breath for 6 months due to extreme anxiety I’ve dealt with the majority of my life. Later that night this girl walks up to me and gives me a “giving key” that says breathe on it. The purpose of them is to give them to people you feel who need them at certain times of there life and boy it couldn’t have come sooner. She told me that when the time comes and opportunity arises I pass it on when I and god see fit. At that moment I realized how empty my internal cup was and how god just overflows it when you let him.
Although it wasn’t all a walk in the park. A week of bucket showers, eating great food but with your hands all day at times, and living out of your backpack. Its funny because I was so nervous about being uncomfortable. But thats one thing thats inevitable in life and you should embrace it. I’ve already grown so much from it coming back with a fresh perspective actually missing not having my phone. No secure place to stay EVERY single night. Having to rely on god to get me through all the time was so nice. Never would I have thought I would be saying I would rather go back to a lifestyle like that after experiencing it. But I find myself craving it. And counting the seconds down till launch.
As for my team and squad I know god is a 100% responsible for how they were picked because the odds of 45 people coming from across the country to serve alongside you with each and every single one of them completing the piece of a puzzle perfectly is beyond me. In ten days I feel I have had enough memories to fill up a school year. So much joy and laughter, and it feels so good to know each of them accept me and another for who they are in times of hardship, laughter, and also when we all just act straight up weird at times. I knew all this time of not fitting in and feeling like the odd man out would lead to somewhere great. But boy nothing like this. This is better then any dream I could have ever had. Better then anything I could have wished for. God has truly blessed me and I can’t wait for 9 months and the blessings to come. Can’t stop pinching myself because I feel like I’m dreaming. Much love for all of you
