Have you ever experienced a thing and thought “nobody will believe this”? Training camp is like that. I stepped out of the van at training camp pretty confident that I knew who I was and what God was asking of me. Let me tell you right now-I was wrong. Very very wrong. It only took 10 days for my entire perspective of God, my spiritual walk, my community, my past, and my future to change dramatically. Training camp man.
I could tell you about being terrified to meet my new community, I could tell you about taking bucket showers with poisonous spiders, you could get the story of how 25 people went from being complete strangers to family in 10 days, I could tell you about the monsoon that almost washed me away, I could tell you about the spiritual and emotional chains that God broke, or I could tell you about how God used the crazy Georgia weather to change my life. But I’m not going to…today anyway. But I will tell you about the time God used a willing vessel to heal my ankle.
If you’ve seen me much over the last couple of months you know I’ve been fighting with an angry ankle and have been wrestling to rehab my ankle in preparation for the World Race. When I came into training camp my ankle was in a good spot but I was worried about hurting it again. Part of the requirements for going on the Race is being able to pass a fitness hike-2.2 miles in 38 minutes with a full pack. I did it! I crushed that hike. But right at the end I rolled my ankle and barely made it up the last hill. Over the next day or so it continued to get worse and by the next night was so swollen I could not keep my Chaco on and ended up on crutches.
I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to crutch around a campsite and large location with hills, stairs, gravel, and the necessity to set up and tear down camp everyday, but I’m gonna be super honest, it is exhausting.
My squad was AWESOME through this whole thing. They prayed for me, carried me places (yeah…talk about sacrifice ya’ll!), made sure I had what I needed, and helped me set up and tear down camp. Rockstars.
After squad wars (another story for another time) I was crutching around outside by myself about to join the squad when a Adventures in Missions leader walked up to me and asked “Is something wrong with your ankle?” I kinda laughed and said “Yeah, I rolled it on the hike”. He was super awesome and said he totally understood about ankle pain because he had fought with an ankle injury right after returning from the Race himself. He then walked up to me and said “I also believe in the power of prayer and healing. Is it okay if I pray for you and your ankle?”. I’m obviously never going to turn down prayer, so of course said yes. He briefly prayed for healing over my ankle, smiled at me, said “It was great to meet you! Have a good trip home!” and walked away. I kinda stood there like “whaaaaa just happened”. I started to crutch away when I realized something was different, my ankle felt different.
All swelling was totally gone from my foot.
I put my foot down and gently put weight on my ankle. Nothing. NO pain. So I carefully took a few steps to test it out. It did not hurt at all. For the first time in months I was totally pain free! I’ve been walking, running, leaping, and dancing my way through the last couple of days cause MY GOD IS GOOD!! I’ve been healed physically, emotionally, and spiritually this week. Wow. Yeah that sentence is real!
In the 10 days of training camp squadmates were healed in various ways-knees, backs, ankles, heads, and shoulders.
Miracles happen. Physical healing is real. Training camp is lit.
Side note-if you’re worried about training camp and your new squad…don’t be. It’s great. Promise.
