Before leaving Boise to go to Gainesville, Georgia I was so so scared for training camp because it meant that I was ACTUALLY going on the world race and I was ACTUALLY going to be gone for 9 months. But Jesus is so good and gave me the greatest peace once I actually got there. When I arrived at the airport to meet some of my squad it was the weirdest feeling ever to see these faces that I have only seen on the internet and these were the people I was going to spend a year with and become bffs, so weird. Once we got to camp we were given our teams (I am in a squad of like 50 but then split into teams of 8) right away and I was so excited to have those instant friends.
On the daily, training camp was different but I will give you the general gist of what it was like. We would sleep in tents or ENOs and would have to pack everything up in our camp site most days. We would have a different cultural theme each day, like for example India day you have to cover your ankles and shoulders and eat a lot of curry. Some nights we would have sleeping scenarios, like sleeping with 20 people in a 6 person tent, sleeping in a bright loud room to be an “airport” or half of the squads bags “lost in travel”. We would have sessions throughout the day about a wide range of things, but with the main topics of community, intimacy with Jesus and missional living. To be honest some sessions I could barley keep my eyes open but some sessions were so good that I struggled to write it all down. Jesus worked and moved in my life and my squad mates lives in amazing ways!
One life changing experience for me was: I had been praying to have God’s heart lately because that is all encompassing: love, mercy, grace, justice etc. So Monday morning during worship Jesus was just speaking so clearly to me about so many things, stuff like, how His heart is like a kaleidoscope. It is always the same beads but it will looks different every time. Also how even if I just had a sliver of God’s heart it would be so much greater then mine! But then my trainer, Morgan, later told me that God had put the song Pieces on her heart, “You don’t give your heart in pieces” (Jesus is giving me his whole heart not just a sliver). This was amazing to hear but I had a hard time fully believing that I could have all of God’s complete heart. Then went through a casual day of sessions but I was thinking about this the whole time. That night during worship God did amazing things in my life. He broke down walls that I had built up and truly it was so good! Then the message was incredible. It was all about forgiveness. In all the squads there is so much hurt and so many broken families, so this message hit really hard. At the end of the message Deon (the speaker) had leaders and himself spread out around the room to represent Moms, Dads, Siblings, etc. There was a crazy movement of healing in that room. So many people were bringing up the hard things in their lives and then those burdens were being released. For me this night was a little different. I have had an amazing family and growing up and so the forgiveness message wasn’t hitting me like it was hitting others. However, Jesus was breaking my heart for all my friends. I started tearing up, which is basically a miracle for me. So I was praising God for giving me His heart. The night continued and I was praying for others and it just was such a cool time. Then they were ending in a song, my favorite song: Open Space. So I was just singing my heart out so thankful for what God had already done in my day. I looked up at Deon and thought to myself how much he loves his daughter (he already had cried multiple times about her) and then I though how much my dad loved me and I was just thinking about this face he makes when he looks in the rearview mirror in the car when he looks at me in the backseat. It is the sweetest face of love. Right then I was overwhelmed with the Fathers love and I broke down in tears because I got the fullness of God’s heart! It was the best feeling ever!!!!! I was just so in awe of Him and could not stop crying and praising! God gave me his heart and this is one of my most favorite moments in my whole life! After this I was so giddy! I wanted to tell everyone what had happened! God is so so so GOOD!!!!!
Camp was so great but each day felt like years but by the end I didn’t want to leave my people! The last night of training camp made it so hard to leave. We had squad wars, a battle of games against the other five squads. There was a dance battle, dodgeball, ballon popping and literal craziness. It was so much fun (we got third btw)! But then after all the madness there were baptisms in a kiddie pool! Some of my closest pals got baptized and it was just so beyond cool to see God work! After that we had one last amazing time of worship. As I was worshiping I looked at my squad and was filled with joy and love! I am so excited to travel the world with these amazing people!
{funding update}
God is so faithful and I am beyond grateful for all that as been donated! I am 74% funded! I am still in need of $4,063. But thank you so very much to everyone who has donated so far!
my squad
my team
left to right: Hannah, Cindy, Hannah, Emma, Me, Caroline, Sara, Jaci
