Wow. The 10 days of training camp were packed with incredible things – worship, laughs, tears, new friendships, teachings, food, dancing, information, challenges, and SOOOO many hugs. Where do I even start? This blog is probably going to be long because a lot just happened!
Here we go!!!
Topics Covered:
Travel
Worship
Living Conditions
Community
Field Scenarios
Food
Deeper stuff
Fitness
Route
A Day in the City
Squad Wars
New Eyes on Scripture
Feel free to skip to any section you’d like.
Travel
This was the first time I had ever flown by myself. I was at the airport and the weather was iffy. The flight I was on ended up being delayed like 3 times due to weather and our plane ended up in Shreveport instead of Dallas. While in the airport, I found Landry, a squad mate! Thank goodness. Answered prayer. I am not alone. We ate chick-fil-a before finally getting on the plane. We got to the Atlanta airport and found out there were seven of us who had delayed flights from Dallas. We were driven to Gainesville, GA where training camp was, got some food, and were able to join worship with the rest of our squad. By the way, Georgia is beautiful. This was my first time to go to Georgia.
Travel home was seamless.
Worship
Worship was amazing. We worshiped with four other squads; our squad consisted of 28 people. Maybe that will give you an idea of how many people were there. The racers for the most part are between the ages of 21 and 35. It was awesome to worship with that many people of that age group who are all here to spread the love of Christ. Sometimes I like to just listen and hear the roar of people worshiping the Lord. It was so special.
There was one night where our squad got to worship at our campsite. It was awesome to see how freely we sang and danced as the Holy Spirit led us song to song.
Living Conditions
Tents were our houses. Porta potties and freezing cold bucket showers made up our bathroom. I washed my hair twice while I was gone and showered maybe five times. Laundry was done in buckets. It wasn’t too bad.
The shower when I got home wasn’t as comforting as I thought it would be, but it did feel nice to be clean. My bed is also something I enjoyed coming home to.
Community
I met a whole bunch of adopted brothers and sisters I didn’t know I had.
This week was very comforting. There were so many people at training camp that reminded me of people here at home. The familiarity was crazy. I wondered why and what the purpose was. One thing I am sad to leave behind are my people here. I love them. But I found a piece of all of them in the people I was with, so it made it easier because I felt like I was still with them. It was almost like God saying what I miss in people at home will be in people wherever I go. It was ultimately confirmation this is where I am supposed to be. It was great to be surrounded by so many Christians the whole time.
Yeah. Community. We were together everyday and did just about everything together. This is just the precursor to the next eleven months. We all have the same mission and are bound by love through the same Spirit. I love my squad (M squad, Expedition) and my team!
Our squad of 28 is split into teams. I ended up on an all-girls team! Our team name is Team Shalom, which means peace and wholeness. This is my team: Emily, Austin, Val, Beth, and Taylor. I love them!
We also have coaches: Jen and AJ
Our lovely advisor: Laura
Squad leaders: Eric and Solomon
E4 (Ephesians 4) leaders: Tim and Karen They are amazing!!!
And we have Jeremy… He’s awesome, but I don’t really know what his job is. And there is also Danny, Chris, Lindsay, and Fran.
This year is going to be filled with raw community. I got a cold while we were gone, and my team took good care of me. They prayed for me, Beth gave me stuff to make my throat feel better, Val gave me some Emergen-C, and Brenna and Gina Marie gave me head massages. Our team is filled with so much love. This will be a year of taking care of each other and loving each other.
These are my people.
Field Scenarios
Haha. Fun!
So the second day we were at camp, they split our squad into two groups. The scenario was that the airport lost half of our packs. Real quick we had to learn to rely on each other and help each other. This might have been a curve ball, but our squad handled it so well. Within moments, arrangements were made. I was one who lost their pack, but Gina Marie let me sleep with her. She just so happened to have two sleeping mats. Yay. But she was so kind to give her sleeping bag to Tyler, who slept in a hammock, so we just froze all night. It wasn’t too bad though. We got our packs back the next day. Heck yes! Finally got to shower and change clothes and brush my teeth. While my pack was gone, Landry did give me some toothpaste, so I could brush my teeth with my finger. It wasn’t even weird.
There was another sleeping scenario where we got to the host home and the sleeping quarters were tight. We had to fit 25 people in two 10-person tents with our big packs and day packs.
Airport night. There was only one night when we did not sleep in a tent. It was airport night. We had our day pack, sleeping mat, and sleeping bag. We slept in a cold room with the lights on and with a stereo that played airport noises. Apparently, this is not an uncommon scenario at all; however, on our route we will not be flying too much, so we will likely be sleeping on buses or trains. Airport nights make good game nights.
Food
Each day at camp represented a different culture. Some days we ate with a fork. Some days we ate with chopsticks. Some days we ate with our hands. Some days there were dress codes. Some of the food days include: Asian day (where you cannot serve yourself food), Latin America day (my fav), Eastern European day (delicious), Africa day, India day, travel day (full of snacks and PBJ sandwiches), adventure day, and finally America day!
On adventure day we ate crickets. It was fun and like memory lane to Bali for me. The worst thing I ate all week was a preserved duck egg. It was not pleasant. The egg was black, but I had to try it. America day was the last day, and we had biscuits and gravy, chicken, mac and cheese, and burgers.
One night we had a mock international market. It was so cool and so much fun to see the different cultures represented. There was a monk that was a pocket picker, beggars, police, American tourists, and people selling good food.
Deeper Stuff
The two lists. While I was gone I made two lists. One was how I see myself. It included determined, broken, full of flaws, self-conscious, like a caterpillar waiting to come out of the cocoon, not good enough, weak, wanting to live a good life. The other list was how God sees me. I sat quietly for a moment and then wrote whatever came to mind. I got brave, beautiful, capable, daughter, usable. My first thought was, “I’m not brave.” But I stopped myself before I fed my mind any more negativity or lies. Making these lists made me think about where I find my identity. Is it what other people think about me or how I view myself, or is it who Christ says I am? I am searching for my identity. I know it is somewhere in Christ.
One of the first nights at camp, Brenna came and prayed over me. She asked God to heal me in ways I didn’t even know I needed to be healed. After her prayer, I started to see areas in my life where I did need healing, and the healing started to come. It is still coming. Carla also prayed a very powerful prayer over me. It was like she intimately knew me, but it wasn’t her. It was the Holy Spirit inside her who does intimately know me.
Around day three or four, my throat started to get sore, and I lost my voice one day. It kind of frustrated me. I asked God to heal my throat, so I could sing and praise Him, but He just said no, be quiet. So that night I didn’t open my mouth once to sing. Instead I just listened and took in the words. It turned out to be one of the sweetest moments I’ve had in worship.
Fitness
There was a fitness requirement at training camp (Hike 3.3 miles in 50 minutes with our pack). We knew about it in advance. I started training for it. I did good for a while. Then I just let myself go. I could not get motivated. It became crunch time. I started trying to train extra hard. I ended up just giving up. I was really discouraged. Time was up. I started praying that God would give me strength because I knew I couldn’t do it on my own, and I was nervous about not meeting the time. We did the hike a few days into camp, and I would not have made it without the encouragement of my squad. There were people stationed at different checkpoints along the course.
There were some steep hills where we were. My legs were on fire. About halfway through, my water bottle was empty. Partly because I drank it, and partly because I poured some of it on my head. I left my water bottle with Lindsay because there was no point in me carrying it anymore. I only had one more lap left, and I was about to do it without any water. My mouth became dry and I was thirsty. I started praying, “Lord let me always thirst for you like I thirst for this water. If I have water, it is a gift from you.” I kept repeating this in my head. I came back around to where Lindsay was standing, and she handed me a full bottle of water. “The Lord is so good.” I started to tear up and started to walk a little faster, a little more determined to finish on time.
One of our squad mates (Charles) was in a boot so he couldn’t do the hike, but he had a key role in encouraging the rest of us. I was on the last lap and I didn’t think I was going to make it. I was praying for God to give my weak body strength and suddenly it felt like someone was behind me, pushing my legs. The fitness hike was hard, but I would do it again.
There was a day where the men went and hiked 10 or 15 miles… meanwhile the girls stayed at camp. But we got our workout in too! This was a field scenario. We had to cross a border and pay our way with exercise. We raced to pack up our bags and belongings and ran to the “border” There, as a team, we had to do thousands of push ups, burpees, and squats. 10 people on the team also had to run a certain distance. It wasn’t easy, but our squad conquered! Our next task was to put up a tent, take a picture in it, take the tent down, take our bags back to the campsite and be back on the other side of campus by a certain time.
They also had exercise breakouts where we could do yoga, circuits, running/walking, or ultimate frisbee. I did circuits.
Emphasis on exercise is to take care of our bodies and honor God with our bodies. There are some things you cannot physically do if you do not take care of your body. Also, your physical self affects your spiritual self.
Route
We got more information on what we will be doing, and where we will be going! I will not be going to eleven countries, it’s actually more!
I’m in the first country right now – America.
Our team will be meeting in Atlanta in August for some additional training before heading to Spain! We will be spending around 10 days in Spain hiking the Camino before making our way to Morocco by boat. We will spend about 50 days in Morocco. Then we will head to Cyprus (or possibly Tunisia) then to Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel. We will move from the Middle East to other parts of Asia. This includes Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, crossing the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. We will have to get a Chinese visa in Mongolia before heading to Shanghai, China. Then it will be back to the states then where ever God leads next!
The countries we are visiting are in the 10/40 Window. This is a region where the Gospel is not easily assessable and where there are many people who have never heard the Gospel.
A Day in the City
This was my most favorite day in all of training camp. It was the day I learned the most, and the day I struggled the most. Karen, one of our E4 leaders, sent us into the city of Gainesville, GA with easy tasks.
First, Matthew 10:42 And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded. Our task was to take a bottle of water with us where we were going and give it to someone if we felt like that was what God was asking us to do. I think we were supposed to be going to some apartments, but our team never made it there. (Also, when we got back, not many people had given out water. It wasn’t about the water, it was about having your eyes open to see people.)
Second, Karen gave a testimony about how she got tired of listening to Christian music, and she didn’t even know what kind of music she liked. She started exploring different kinds of music and some of the lyrics caught her attention because she could easily see God in the lyrics. She brought up a verse. I think it was Psalm 150:6. Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD! She talked about how even though some of the people might not be believers, they are writing lyrics that glorify God without knowing it. God uses everyone to bring praise to Him. So our second challenge was to take one of the songs and make a music video.
Before sending us out, they stressed that we are not going on a mission trip for eleven months. No, we are doing life, and they want to set us up for running the race our whole life, not just in this next year. Our race has already started. We are in our first country right now. Matthew 28:18. It’s not “go” but “as you go”. The motto they kept repeating is “life is ministry and ministry is life.” It’s not something we are going to do, but this should be our life. We are not going on a mission trip, we are doing life in a different place for a little bit.
So we were sent out into the city. It felt like we were finally being released back into the real world where there were other people besides us. We were driving and all of a sudden Emily was like, “oh, yard sale!” So we took a detour and went to this yard sale. Val went up and started talking to one of the ladies that was outside. We found out she had just had surgery on her pancreas and kidney. We got to pray for fast healing for her and she prayed a blessing over us. She asked us to pray for her throughout the year as we were gone. Her name was Jennifer. While we were praying for her, our other teammates were on the other side of the house praying for other people. Thanks Em for having eyes to see the yard sale sign.
After the yard sale, we went to a coffee place to plan out our music video. Our song was Graveclothes by Birdtalker. We spent most of the afternoon at the coffee shop making our video. It came time for dinner, so we made our way to a beautiful Mellow Mushroom. The Music Video had consumed our attention (lesson learned). After dinner, our team split. Three of us (Beth, Emily, and I) went to Publix, and I’m not sure where the other three went.
At Publix, Emily wanted some snacks and Beth said she might get something. I was just along for the ride. Weeee.
We walked in and immediately I noticed a woman sitting in a chair with ice on her arm. A store employee was standing by her. We walked passed her. And again. And finally, I asked Emily what she thought was wrong with the woman. Emily caught on quick that I had noticed this person and wanted to reach out to her. Emily, being the leader she is, pushes me out of my comfort zone and tells me to go talk to her. Beth came with me and Emily stayed behind.
When Beth and I came around the corner, I noticed there were two other ladies standing with her. I walked right into their circle and asked what was going on. They looked so confused and asked if I was a nurse. Nope. Just wanted to know if we could pray for you. So Beth prayed for healing over this woman’s arm. After she prayed I asked if her arm felt better. She said it did, it was just numb from the ice. She thanked us as did the people who were with her. We found out they were family.
Beth and I went to find Emily to celebrate. We made a round in the store and the three ladies and store worker were nowhere in sight. They just disappeared. Like God put those people in our path for a brief second to show us something.
We checked out and got to help another lady load cases of cokes into her vehicle.
We were just going along with our life… trying to not be disappointed that we had just spent most of our day with our heads in the music video and then this happened.
Life is ministry and ministry is life!
Squad Wars
We finished up training camp with squad wars.
In the morning, our squad met and each of us gave our “YES”. Our yes to go together. Everyone hugged everyone… seriously. So many hugs and so many people who have a yes in their spirit to embark on this journey around the world to tell people about Jesus.
We played several games, competing against the other four squads, and each squad made a chant. We tied for last place in the squad wars. Who cares? GO M SQUAD!
Afterwards we had a time of baptisms where people could choose to get baptized. One of my teammates, Austin, decided to get baptized.
We followed this fun-filled day with brownies and ice-cream! This was our last night of training camp!
New Eyes on Scripture
1 Chronicles 22:19 Now seek the LORD your God with all your heart and soul. Build the sanctuary of the LORD God so that you can bring the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant and the holy vessels of God into the Temple built to honor the LORD’s name.
I’ve been reading through the old testament and this verse really stuck out to me. I could feel God wanting me to get a deeper meaning of this verse so I stopped and pondered it for a moment.
Now seek God with all your heart and soul.
Okay. I’m seeking. What all does seeking do? Seek and you will find. Seeking builds your relationship with God.
Build the sanctuary of God…
That’s a safe place. I want to be a safe place.
So you can bring the Ark of the Lord’s covenant…
This held God’s law which is now written on our hearts.
and the Holy vessels of God…
like an instrument or weapon for God to use.
Into the Temple built to honor the LORD’s name.
That’s me. My body is a temple for the Holy Spirit.
This verse in Chronicles now has new meaning to me. Seek God and come into a relationship with Him. His law is written on your heart which is a weapon against the enemy. My body is a temple in which these things dwell, and I was built to honor the Lord.
The best advice we got about going home from training camp was this. Don’t wish away seasons of your life. Be present where you are. In the next 6 weeks, don’t wish you were on the race. You will miss all that God has for you before you go. If you wish you were on the Race while you are at home, at the end of the Race, you will wish you were at home. Be present and make the most of each season of your life.
The last thing I remember at training camp was Eric giving me a hug and saying, “God has given you strength.”
So… I have 6 WEEKS until Launch!
I have raised approximately $8,500 out of $18,700. Donate here.
Pray that my squad mates and I will draw closer to God in the 6 weeks leading up to Launch.
After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. Revelation 7:9
