I will be posting on my blog on a daily basis over training camp.
My first day was a good introduction to training camp. I arrived at the Atlanta airport at 10, after waking up at 2:50 am, and met my route people. We chilled at the airport until 3. Soon after 3 we loaded up the vans, and drove about 1 1/2 hours to the location of camp. We ate, checked in, and set up our tents. It was around 6 when we finished that and then we headed to worship and an introduction to the week. The night was very hyped up and the worship time was refreshing. We finished at around 8:30, and then had free time. I really am looking forward to getting to know all of the people in my squad more! It actually turned out that my whole squad is guys… I’m really excited to see how God moves this camp and the friendships that will be built! Finally it is sooo hot for sleeping-I’m dripping in sweat, but I can’t wait for tomorrow! Day 1
Today I woke up at 6:45 and finished packing up my tent a little after 7:00. All 50 people in my route had to pack up their tents in order to prepare us for how to pack up quickly when we are on the actual race. We then headed over to our squad time before breakfast… Today was Asia day. So for all of the meals it was Asian food. After that we had made more squad time together and also had a dance off between the 6 teams on our route. We ended up winning due to the great choreography and Elijah-who could brake dance incredibly well! After that we had lunch which was some Asian noodle that I don’t know the name of. But it was good. After we had Bible message for about 1 1/2 hours and then we had to choose from our bags the stuff in the scenario that we had a layover in an airport for 12 hours. From then, we couldn’t have access to our bags. We then had free time for 2 hours and then we had dinner. It was fried rice and chicken, and it was really good! After, we had an amazing worship time… For the past 2 nights the worship has been crazy amazing. You can feel God’s presence in the hour or so that we sing and it is so cool. The message was after. It was mainly about denying yourself and picking up your cross daily. I really enjoyed tonight’s session of praise and the Word. We finished and then we had a few hours to hang out together. Now we are in the airport scenario that I talked about earlier and we are then sleeping on the ground. There is around 100 people in the room we are in and it is crazy that everyone fit! But, I’m so excited! The guys in my squad are awesome, and getting to know them over the past day has been fantastic! But in all that was my day! I’m not dripping in sweat though tonight because there are fans in the room. Talk to you guys tomorrow! Day 2
Today was good, it was Latin America day! So the food represented that part of the world. The day had pretty much the same schedule that it had from yesterday. I don’t want to repeat myself that much, but the day was about the culture of different countries and learning about some of the major religions in the world today. Finally, tonight has nothing that is special with sleeping, so we get to have a good sleep tonight in our tents. We don’t have to pack up our tents tomorrow morning. So that’s a plus! Day 3
Today was village day so the food wasn’t based off of a culture. The highlights of the day were: We got to eat with our hands for lunch. It was lentils greens and some kind of thick grounded rice-I believe. We had no utensils to use, so it was family style for the 8 people sitting at our table. We had a team building exercise with our squad, which was pretty awesome. I enjoyed doing that a lot. It rained really hard in the afternoon so where our tents were got pretty filled with rain. (We are in somewhat of a valley that has a small creek in the middle of it.) Now I’m just trying to get to bed a little earlier, because the guys have a morning hike in the morning tomorrow. Day 4
We got up in the morning for the hike, and it was a little cloudy. But it was perfect for the hike. The hike was 5 miles total up a mountain (not like the mountains of Colorado:)), and or the second part of the team we had to carry two of the biggest guys on the team and one person was blindfolded. This was our team activity of the day. Even though it was really tough, it was an awesome experience. We came back and had to put on longer pants because it was Africa day. As the culture is in Africa, the people have to cover their shoulders and their ankles. It was a blessing to have some clouds for the day so it wasn’t too hot. It was also our exercise day, so for the first time ever I did some yoga, it was kinda good. (I chose this because it required the least amount of movement.) 🙂 Now after some devotionals with all of the guys at training camp (about 50 guys), we are just talking and chilling on the porch. We have a community tent that all of the guys (7 of us) are sleeping in for the night. Day 5
Today was South America day. After breakfast, we had a morning worship and message, which has started the topic of having intimacy with God. It was good to worship both in the morning and at night, but at the same time I was a bit tired. This was because the whole day was pretty filled with different topics on how to be intimate with God and how to look for it. Also we just finished half of the time that we are here at training camp and it is crazy how few days we have been here. I am learning a lot of things and building many friendships! Day 6
Last night I had the greatest night sleep, and surprisingly I was sleeping in my eno (hammock). I figured it would be easier to pack up my stuff in the morning be sleeping in it than in my tent. It was amazing. It was India day today. This meant that our meals had curry in it, and our clothing had to cover our shoulders and ankles. So this was our second day we had to wear long pants. God blessed us again with some pretty nice clouds and rain in the afternoon. We finished up the smaller sessions on what ways we can listen to God, and the same as yesterday we had two worship services. For the new “scenario” of the race, half of our bags were taken by the staff, to replicate if our bags got lost when flying. I had my bag taken. I was prepared because I had put my eno in my backpack. The only problem is it rained hard, and it got pretty soaked. I know it is little thing but for those of you that read this tonight, could you pray that I have a restful night sleeping tonight. I also forgot some shorts for tomorrow. Hopefully I can borrow some from one of the guys that didn’t have their bags “stolen”, that fit me. But another great day! Day 7
Today was village day. This was more of the PB&J kind of foods. Sleeping was kinda good. The soaked eno wasn’t a problem and God held back the rain. But on the other hand, I didn’t think of how cold it would get. It probably dropped to the 60’s but, after sweating the whole day and forgetting to bring along my sleeping bag it was cold. But, in the morning I actually felt really refreshed and ready to start my day. Thank you for your prayers. The highlights of the day were; With village day there was a marketplace that we got our dinner at. This was a scenario where we got fake money and used it to barter for our dinner. The staff did an incredible job putting in many different perspectives of a market place. There were beggars, people trying to rip us off, pick pocketers, people who wanted us to buy the food that they had, music, and with the many people in the small space. That was a cool experience, but we didn’t really work getting to certain foods fast enough so we ended up with a lot of Chicken curry. I don’t do spicy foods that well, but there was plenty of food so I ate what I could. It was a pretty nice day. I’m just starting to get a little exhausted with the busy schedule, but God has moved in incredible ways! Also the fitness hike is tomorrow morning So if you could be praying that my squad sticks together and we all finish in the time frame. The distance is 2.2 miles in 38 minutes with our travel packs on (about 35-45 pounds). Day 8
The hike was awesome today. Everyone finished before the time limit, and we really came together as a team with encouragement and staying together. Thank you for your prayers. I finished at around 23 minutes with a few of the guys and one of the girls. After we finished we headed up the route to cheer on out other teammates who were about to finish. We finished around 9:50 so it was pretty warm for the hike. In all it was awesome! We had another session from 1-3ish and then we had the rest of the day to hangout with our team. For dinner we had to cook our food over a campfire which was pretty cool. I did that with about 6 other squad mates. It was actually pretty fun to get the food together for everyone. Lunch was amazing! It was steak, sausage, and partially roasted vegetables! It was by far the best food of all of camp! In all I have learned so much at camp and can’t wait for launch in September. Tomorrow it just squad wars games. Our squad is 1 of 6 here at training camp, so the games are going to be pretty fun! Day 9
Today was a nice day! The food was back to American style of food and it was welcomed by everyone at training camp. We had our last few sessions on things for our launch in September and then we had free time for about an hour. Lunch was hamburgers and hot dogs, and then we had the Squad Wars games! These were; dodge ball, balloon pop, and another fun game that consisted of trying to break an egg on the top of a persons head with pool noodles. It was pretty crazy! After, there were baptisms for the people that wanted to get baptized for several different reasons But it was to be a picture of their turn around that they made during camp for Jesus! Finally we had our last worship service, an it was so epic! I loved every minute of it. My bros are awesome that are in my team! It is so awesome how we will be together for the next 9 months! I can’t wait! Day 10
Today we headed out from camp. We packed up in the morning, cleaned up, and headed out in the vans. We reached the airport and then after not successfully getting on a flight (I’m flying standby) I went to another terminal to chill with several other friends on my squad. Now I’m just chilling before my next flight I’m trying to get on with Caleb, one of the guys on my team. It was on awesome training camp! Thank you so much for your prayers and your support by reading my blog! Day 11
