I spent 10 days (July 10-20) at training camp where I met the people I’m going to be with for the next months 9 months. My church, my brothers and sisters, my people! I’ve never felt so close to a group of people in such a short amount of time.
Church. I’ve always known that church is more than just a building. But I don’t know that I’ve ever truly experienced it outside of the building (or understood that I was experiencing it)… Until… training camp!!! Church for us looked like spontaneous worship sessions in the rain, or under a tarp, or around a fire. It looked like sharing everything, loving deeply (even when we hardly knew each other), supporting each other, and helping each other. It looked like everyone eating with their hands off of one plate, cheering each other on as we hiked 2 miles with 40 pounds on our back, getting super excited over snacks, winning a big dance battle, and laughing hard while waiting in a hour long line just to take a bucket shower. Our church looked like telling stories & hearing each others testimonies, allowing all the sessions to help us grow, and getting outside of our comfort zones together.
My church is a body made up of 47 18-20 year olds all with a passion for furthering the kingdom. It is crazy cool to see all these people my age bringing their own gifts and talents to the table, creating our church. I already feel so blessed by this group of people and can’t wait to grow with them over this next year.
This is my squad!
A little look inside training camp:
It’s really hard to sum up what training camp was like. I don’t even know where to start! Hmmm well we only used porta-potties and bucket showers (I’m appreciating every real shower or real toilet I get to use for the rest of my life). We slept in tents- and had to take them down every morning and pack ALL of our stuff up. We ate different cultural foods at every meal (including crickets for breakfast one morning). We spent time with people! Lots of people! Pretty much around people 24/7. I’ll get into some more logistics to give you a better idea…
So, there are six different “squads” made up of 50 people each. All the squads are going to different countries but we all launch and do training camp together! All 300 of us sat through sessions together, worshiped together, and ate together.
Most of my time was spent with my own squad (my church)! We’re called Q Squad. We had the opportunity to grow closer by having debriefs after sessions, playing games, praying over our route, sharing our campsite, and many more things, but i think what ultimately brought us closer together was the field scenarios.
Our first field scenario was on the second night of camp. Half of our stuff got “stolen” so everyone had to buddy up and share everything! That one was rough for me because all of my stuff got taken! People were so willing to share though, it was great. Our next one was an airport simulation. We slept inside the training center that night where they had set it up to look just like an airport. The lights were on, loud sounds were playing, and it was freezing! Personally, I really enjoyed this scenario because it gave us a break from sleeping in our tents. Other scenarios included trying to fit the whole squad in a couple big tents together, a market where we had to bargain for our dinner, and cooking out at our campsite together! Fun stuff.
For our sessions we focused on missions, intimacy with the Holy Spirit, and community. Some of my favorite sessions were:: getting to learn about different religions and how to minister to them, doing a walk through of the whole Old Testament, and learning about spiritual pathways! We also got to have really great worship. There was no comparison or judgement in the room. Everyone was just praising with all they had! The worship was powerful and usually left me in tears of joy.
Training camp was hard and a lot of the times uncomfortable, but also so good! Now I’m just ready to get out on the field!
Update:
Super good news! I am fully funded!!! I feel so blessed by all who were willing to give and send me to my calling. It is seriously so encouraging. Your generosity and love has blown me away! I know this is where God wants me. So thank you, thank you, thank you all for making this possible!
I launch September 9th (until then I’ll just be chilling at home)!! Please play for me to be strong and courageous as I leave my family that I love so much! It’s hard! Also please pray for my squad and the countries I will be going to (Costa Rica, South Africa, Thailand, and Myanmar). That we would be able to effectively reach the people there and love on them with all we’ve got, all while loving on each other and growing in our community! Pray that we go in with no expectations and be willing to let God use us and teach us whatever He wants!
Lots of love,
AK
Here’s some more pics from training camp 🙂
