Wow, so much has happened. So much that I decided to write about my teammates later and dive right into what happened after training camp.
This is how it all went down. Part one:
In the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport I sat overwhelmed with thoughts racing in and out of my brain after training camp. I had a couple hours before my flight and I got to sit ALONE for the first time in 10 days. So, I sat down and started writing or more like God spoke and I wrote. That is when I wrote my “I Surrender” blog. This blog was so much more than a blog it was an opportunity to share with everyone around me what happened at training camp. It was a tool to witness to people without being pushy or making them feel uncomfortable because it was just my personal experience. So, I started reading it, to everyone!
I read it to my parents, my brothers, three of my close friends, my aunt and that wasn’t enough for me in the 24 hours I was home. In fact my dad was the one who came up with it. After he heard all of my stories and the passion that was flowing through me, he told me I needed to share this with our church. The only problem is there wasn’t enough time during our announcements to share my WHOLE blog so my dad being totally reasonable told me I needed to pick a part to read aloud. I struggled all night trying to piece together something that would capture everything.
The next morning I kept going back and forth. Finally, right before there service I pulled my dad aside and started explaining how I really felt I needed to share the whole thing. He kept saying it’s to long and I kept saying I need to share all of it. Then, it hit him and I watched God speak to him and I watched my dad come to peace with this idea. He looked at me and simply said, “okay”. I’ll never forget that because its so easy to get caught up in the American culture of time and how much we can miss out on if we don’t stop and say “okay” once and awhile. Thank you Dad for believing in me in that moment because you allowed me to witness to our whole church and share my experience at the same time.
God had given me this perfect tool of blogging but It was my choice to use it. I challenge you to look in your tool box today and see what God has given you to witness to others. Maybe you’re a really good teacher or an excellent listener… whatever it may be, use it, be a light for the kingdom! Because the reward is everlasting to the people around you. I think we can sacrifice some of our precious time for God.
I will never forget those mere minutes as I spoke to the congregation. The Power I felt. It was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I felt the Holy spirit so clearly and I was able to share it with the rest of the people in that room. At one point I think I was yelling…
But the coolest part of it all was right after I shared I ran outside where my friends were waiting for me as we embarked the trek to Hawaii (We were driving straight to Canada, cheaper flights to Hawaii for our senior trip!!!). I was so excited and I couldn’t contain it. I ran to them and started yelling about how amazing that service was and how I could feel the Holy Spirit at that very moment. As I climbed into the backseat my super supportive friends were getting just as excited as me and wanted to hear the blog post. So, I read it to them. When I finished it was silent. Everyone was speechless and finally one of friends said “I have goose bumps”. It was such a cool moment to be apart of because all I did was write my blog post but Gods words spoke to them in numerous ways!
As soon as we landed back in Canada after Hawaii, my friend Grace and I drove straight to my church’s summer camp, Rendezvous, in Sun Lakes, WA. At this point I had done back to back to back trips… You could say I had a busy summer but I learned how to rely on God’s strength instead of mine. Rendezvous was only four days but wow, God can do such great things in four days. While I was there I wrote when I could.
What an incredible trip already. I have seen God at work in all my brothers and sisters around me.
Jacob Ancell is our speaker. What a godly man he is. I remember back when I was just entering the youth group Jacob was starting to become a strong believer in Christ. He would walk into church with a peaceful presence and his bible was falling apart from the pure endless study of it. He was such a role model for me as a young girl and sitting here, about the same age as him, In the same stage of maturity, I hope too to be a role model, an example to the people around me.
Last night Jacob talked about how followers of Christ are set apart. He related that idea to Russel Wilson who is the quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. If one were to even glance into this mans life they would see how set apart he is from the rest of the world. How he must sacrifice what other people his age are doing so he can get enough sleep every night to be in the training center by 6am. He has incredible discipline and work ethic. In return for all of his hard work he is named in the top TEN quarterbacks in the whole NFL. Whoah.
You see, we, followers of Christ are very similar to people like Russel Wilson. We must give up the worldly things that everyone around us clings onto. We must give up everything around us everyday and take up our cross for our God. Our God the Creator. Our God the forgiver. Our God the just. We must have discipline to stay in line with what God has in store for us instead of what we have in store for ourselves. And that can be really hard but with the power of God on our sides we can do ALL things through Christ Jesus (Philippines 4:13).
After getting home from my training camp I definitely felt set apart from everyone around me. Not because I was better in anyway but because God had changed me, he had showed me what it means to be a follower of Christ.
A few days later…
Wow, where do I even begin. Tonight was so powerful. To start off with I was sitting somewhere where I could move around and really worship God. I had space to jump around and swing my arms around. I had space to shout his name and not hit the person next to me. We sang “No Longer Slaves” tonight and I felt like my heart was going to burst outside of my chest. I was so lost in worship and I didn’t care if I looked weird to everyone else because what this rendezvous has taught me is, to be a follower of Christ we are automatically set apart from God. I felt so alive tonight. I felt the Holy Spirit racing through my body.
Tonight, Jacob talked about how we often have one foot in the upside down and one in the right side up… (relating to the classic Netflix show, Stranger Things). One with God and one with the world. How we must put both feet towards Jesus and follow him.
I eventually got outside after the session and small groups, I felt so weird. I felt like the passage had struck several cords in my body but no one around me felt the same way. I was sitting there and I didn’t know how to talk to the people around me about anything so I just sat there. Braden (a guy in my youth group) came over to me and asked if I wanted to talk, I jumped out of my seat, I was so excited. It was like he read my mind. To be honest I’m sure it was by the work of God that Braden came over in that exact moment where I was feeling I needed to share everything that was on my heart.
It has been very refreshing to have Braden to talk too because I’m so filled with the Holy Spirit sometimes that I don’t know how to express it to others who haven’t experienced the kind of presence from the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean they are less in any shape or form, it’s just comfort that I share with my fellow brother in Christ. While we were talking Braden shared that he felt God wanted him to share the Holy Spirit with the people around us because it often gets missed in our culture. As we talked more and more people started to join us. And then, all of the sudden there was a whole gathering of people around us who Braden was speaking to them. I had goose pumps the whole time because it felt straight out of the Bible as if Jesus was preaching. Jesus was preaching that night through Braden It was such a remarkable moment as all of the students at this camp got to hear how God was working in Braden. God uses our own stories to speak to others. All Braden was doing was talking about himself and his own journey but because he was listening to the Holy Spirt it spoke volumes into each and everyones lives siting there.
Rendezvous 2018 was life changing for many and so affirming to me. I was able to use the tools I had gathered at training camp.
Especially this one moment at training camp. We were in small groups sharing our take aways from the night. One of my teammates, Kay shared she was feeling sick and had a very bad headache. Luis one of my leaders, asked if she had prayed for healing she said no. He then talked with such confidence that God COULD heal her headache right there and then. It never had crossed my mind that the people around me could heal through God. That I could heal through God. It was for a simple request like a headache but still. We all put our hands on Kay and prayed for her. Five minutes later Luis asked Kay how her headache was and she said it was getting better. I was in awe. Just like that she was feeling better.
At Rendezvous I felt tremendous peace from God, talking with the same confidence as Luis. The amount of times someone would complain of an aching body part. I would turn to them with love and peace and ask, “have you prayed about it?” Nine out of ten times they hadn’t and when they did they were healed. GUYS, praying WORKS.
One story in particular that I want to share involves a younger student, Alex. It was the first night of camp and it was so HOT, to the point that the leaders made a decision to cancel the evening plans, get in the vans, and jump into the lake to cool off. As you may imagine, we were ecstatic. We were all playing around in the water and I noticed Alex, sitting all alone at a picnic bench. I heard that little voice tell me to go sit next to him, so I did.
We got to talking and he had a migraine, I asked him if he had prayed to God yet and he looked at me as if it had never occurred to him he could do that. His reaction is so similar to so many others. We’ve grown up taught to do whatever we were told in school. Shaped to have no imagination, to a certain extent. As he looked at me I saw myself looking all around at training camp. Seeing people worship God in a way that breaks that small box were all shoved into. Seeing people declaring God’s goodness by disrupting Worship and the time slotted for it. I kept looking around and seeing people break social norms to be a follower of Christ, to be set apart from everyone else, to open their minds to God even when someone doesn’t tell them too.
Later that night I asked Alex how his headache was doing and he said it was still super bad. I asked him if I could pray over him. (Note: We were in a very public place and a LOT of people were watching us, I felt my fear of man crawl into my thoughts but the Holy Spirts voice was much louder so, I listened). We prayed for his headache. When I asked him again after we said amen he told me it was completely gone. The look he gave me was complete dismay because he couldn’t believe what had just happened. Honestly, neither could I.
The next day Alex got baptized and surrendered his life to Christ. YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!
If we listen, God does incredible things.
I Challenge you to listen!
Ways YOU can Join me on my Journey:
1. Pray. I will need a multitude of prayers ranging from strength, wisdom, clarity, love, joy… The list goes on. Whatever your heart desires and feels right, pray.
2. Donating through this blog!!! When you donate through here it goes directly to World Race and my fund of 15,800 dollars.
UPDATE: ONLY 3,000 AWAY FROM MY 15,800!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!
3. Cash, Check, or Venmo. Donating to me personally is still much needed because I have to buy all my gear, supplies, vaccines, airfare and I will need money on the ground. (Venmo: Marguerite-SanMartino)
4. SPREAD THE WORD!! Tell everyone about my trip and show them my blog.
5. SUBSCRIBE! When you subscribe you will get all notifications when I post on my blog about my trip and any updates!
