Training camp – I was so nervous going into it. I was about to meet the people I will be spending an entire year with. I was excited, yet fearful. Fearful of the unknown and worried they wouldn’t like me or vice versa. However, God exceeded the expectations that I tried so hard not to have.
There were so many memorable moments throughout my time at training camp, but there is one that I feel like I really need to share.
One of the best things I learned was how to have more of a yes spirit. How to really listen to what God is wanting from me even if it might be weird or awkward to go through with it.
With that being said, here is a story of me having more of a yes spirit and how God showed me how fulfilling and beautiful it can be.
On one day of training camp, we were trained on evangelism. We were shown an illustration to share and they sent us out into the wild (by wild I mean into the suburbs of Gainesville, Georgia). Some racers were terrified and others fully embraced it and ran toward it with full force. We went into neighborhoods and knocked on doors, prayed over people, and also probably freaked some people out. It’s okay, though! Anything for the kingdom, am I right? It was cool to see how willing my team was to share the gospel to random strangers because that is what we will be partaking in for the next year!
Here is where it gets more interesting – So stick with me!
We were also each given a water bottle that we had to give to someone. Not just anyone though, we were told to be lead by the spirit and give it to someone we felt led to give it to.
SO after walking around the neighborhood for about an hour or so we decided to find a nearby park to hand out the water bottles. I was in charge of finding the park and of course I ended up accidentally leading us to a boat dock – not a park #classic. As we drove up to this boat dock my team was like “um this isn’t a park and there is no one here.” I started laughing because of what a disgrace I am. HA
There was only one woman there. She was standing on the dock, smoking a cigarette, and feeding the fish. My teammate pointed her out as we were driving away. THEN, I felt it. God told me to go talk to her. I told my team to stop the car.
So picture this – Here I am, walking up to a random woman with only a water bottle in hand, having no earthly idea what I was about to say or do to make this any less awkward than it truly was.
As I’m walking toward her, you can tell she is incredibly confused. I ended up introducing myself and telling her why I was in Georgia. At first, you could tell she didn’t really care what I had to say. She just wanted to know why in the world I was trying to spark up conversation.
I began explaining how we were given the task to give out water bottles and that I wanted to give her mine.
When I asked if she wanted it she replied “Oh girl, I don’t drink out of plastic water bottles! Those things are disgusting.” I quickly replied “coming from the woman who is smoking a cigarette”. She immediately started laughing. All awkwardness flew out the window. She then began to ask me more questions of why I was there.
As we talked for a little longer, I started to feel guilty for how long my team was sitting in the car waiting for me. I then told her I had to go, but as I was walking away she asked if I wanted to go dip my feet in the water. I said absolutely because I was pumped she wanted to hang for a little longer! I motioned to my team to give me a few more minutes. (side note: they thought I was about to go baptize her lol).
As we were walking into the water (shoes on and all. She didn’t take hers off so I didn’t want to be the high maintenance freak and take mine off) I felt God tell me to tell her the he loved her, that he was always there, and that she was a BADASS. I shyly followed through with what he told me to do.
She replied with tears in her eyes “I thought He left me”.
I then started to tear up not only from seeing her hurt, but also from being in absolute awe with how our God works. She explained to me the hurt that she had been going through in the past year. I got to talk her through some of it and just be there for her. I then had her take the water bottle that she wouldn’t drink out of and told her to pour it out into the lake. I told her that the water symbolized all the hurt, anxiety, and disappointment she had been faced with in her life.
She poured that gross infested water bottle out!
Y’all, the moral of this story is to have a YES SPIRIT. In order for us to let God move and work in our lives we have to listen. In order to listen we have to be quiet. If I would have ignored what God was telling me to do, I would have never met Liz. Liz would probably still think God had left her.
Our God doesn’t leave us. He is there! Even when we run away and when we doubt.
“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” Deuteronomy 31:8
Liz is one badass woman. God was right! He used me to show her how much He loves her. I was flattered to be apart of it. I am so happy I got to meet you, Liz. You changed me, girl.
xx,
Mace
