Training Camp!! 10 days of growth, tears, joy, & peace!!
A – Adventures in Missions
– “We exist to mobilize a generation of radical Christ followers, discipling and training them to establish the Kingdom of God.” (that’s me, YAY)
B – Bucket showers & Bugs & Baptism
– Bucket showers: step 1. Grab the hose
step 2. Fill the bucket
step 3. Dump the cold cold cold water on yourself
step 4. Feel AMAZING (:
– Bugs = everywhere!!
– Baptism! SO COOL! On the last full day of training camp I got to witness something AMAZING. Some of my new best friends had the opportunity to publicly commit (or recommit) their life to Jesus and get baptized! Tears were streaming down my face as I saw excitement, courage, and peace radiate from those getting baptized.
This is my teammate, Brooke, getting baptized by our leaders Bennie and Esther!
C – Community
– Community: One of the main points we focused on throughout these 10 days was how to thrive in a community because this is how we will be living for the next 9 months.
D – Dress Code
– Each day we learned about a different country. This means we ate their food and we followed their cultural dress codes. Most days, dress code was simply covered shoulders and shorts or pants that were longer than about 5 inches above the knee. Some days, like India day, dress code consisted of covering knees, ankles, and shoulders.
shoutout to Alex for totally embracing this dress code even though he didn’t have any pants.
E – Exotic food & Expectations
– Exotic Food: It was so good!! Everyday I tired something I have never eaten before, and everyday I was not disappointed. I cannot wait to get over seas and try as much food as I can!
– Expectations: “don’t put expectations on people when God didn’t.” This is a quote taken from one of the speakers who talked with us. I love it because as humans we are so quick to judge and set expectations for how people are supposed to act and what they are supposed to do. Jesus loves us for who we are, not what we do, so who are we to be placing judgement on others??
F – Field Scenarios
– !Unpopular opinion! The field scenarios were one of my favorite things about these 10 days. Every other night we would have one of these field scenarios…
#1. “The airport lost half our baggage” – for 24 hours half of our squad was unable to access anything out of their big pack. Since my stuff was “lost” I spent the night sharing a tent and sleeping bag with one of my teammates – we had a great time (:
#2. “Spend the night in an airport” – this night was hard for most people. The only gear we had was our “carry on.” We slept on the floor inside a building. They kept the bright lights on all night and had “airport noises” playing throughout the night. The biggest struggle for me was waking up in the middle of the night, seeing that the lights were on, hearing people talking (“airport noises”), thinking it was time to wake up, and then realizing it was 3am (lol).
#3. “Community Tents” – 15 girls. 1 tent. No room. Lots of bonding!
#4. “CAMP OUT!!” – this night was so much fun!! Our whole squad got to hangout at our camp site, cook some good good food over the fire, and sing some praise and worship!!
this is my squad’s campsite
G – Grace
– “for by grace we are saved.” JESUS saved US!! He gave us grace so that we can live because He died on the cross. How awesome is that!!
H – Hiking
– Day 8. 6:45am. 2.2 miles. 30 minutes. ouch. but, EVERYONE MADE IT!!
I – “I am who I am” Exodus 3:14.
J – Journal
– one of the best opportunities we had this week was to take time to process and journal. This is something we will be doing throughout our 9 months, and is one of the best ways to collect your thoughts and talk to Jesus 🙂
K – King of my heart by Stephanie Gretzinger
– “Let the King of my heart be the mountain where I run, the fountain I drink from, Oh, He is my song. ‘Cause You are good. You’re never gonna let me down. ‘Cause you are GOOD.”
L – Launch
– only 7 weeks until we head to Costa Rica!!!
M – Matthew 28:19-20
– “Therefore GO and MAKE disciples of all nations, BAPTIZING them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And TEACHING them to obey and everything I have command you. And surely I am with you ALWAYS, to the very end of the age.
N – No Longer Slaves by Bethel Music
– “I’m no longer a slave to fear I am a child of God. You split the sea so I could walk right through it. My fears were drowned in perfect love. You rescued me And I will stand and sing I AM THE CHILD OF GOD.”
O – Overwhelming
– I can easily say the scariest part of this week was getting there and literally not knowing a single person. It was a lot to take in as I tried to learn 50 kids names and remember where all of them were from (basically just Texas). However, I quickly learned that by giving it up to God, He would take away my anxiety and allow me to focus on the real reason why I was there, to grow with Him!
P – Porta-potties
– giant green death traps. jk, they’re not that bad. We kind of (KIND OF) loved them.
Q – Q Squad
– my family for the next 9 months!!!! What an amazing group of 50 individuals who are willing giving up a year of their lives to follow God’s calling and spread his love throughout the entire world!!! I love them!!!
R – Reckless Love by Cory Asbury
– “Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God. Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine. I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away. Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God”
S – Snacks
– Shoutout to the Adopt Shop for basically keeping us alive this week. By being able to purchase gatorade & cliff bars, we were able to donate to a family and help them in their adoption process. I’d say thats a win-win for everyone.
T – Teams
– Meet team Talitha Koum! Lead by our fearless leader, Bennie!
U – Unstoppable
– “with Jesus on our side, we are simple unstoppable”
V – Vacation
– during this week, my teammates and I had a lot of conversations about how some of our friends back home sometimes regard this journey as a “travel vacation to spend money & avoid going to school.” It’s hard for us to hear things like that because we know what we’re doing is for the Lord and we wish others could see it that way too. However, it made us realize that there are always going to be people out there who doubt us, but we know that as long as we have Jesus on our side, we’re going to do amazing things.
W – Worship
– 100% my favorite part of the week. Getting to spend an hour singing praises to our Lord and Savior with 300 other teenagers. SO incredible!!
– p.s. ‘K’, ’N’, ‘R’, and ‘Y’ are some of my new favorite worship songs. Check ‘em out:)
X – x-cited! YAY!
Y – YES & amen by Chris Tomlin
– Father of kindness You have poured out of grace. You brought me out of darkness. You have filled me with peace. Giver of mercy You’re my help in time of need. Lord I can’t help but sing.”
Z – Zippers
– If theres one really important thing I learned from this week… ALWAYS keep your tents zipped up! or else you’ll be cuddling with probably 70 different spiders during the night! lol
I am so thankful for having the opportunity to go to training camp this week, meet some amazing people, and grow with God in so many ways!! Thank you for your continued support and please keep up the prayers because I know God is about to do some pretty amazing things!
