Guess what, I am on my way to Training Camp!
Actually I am sure by the time I get this posted I will be at Training Camp!
Either way this is crazy to me. The last time I flew out of Detroit it was to go visit my sister Kayla and her husband Nick in Colorado. That time was also going to be used for me to make the big announcement of me going on the World Race. I remember working on that announcement blog on the airplane and picturing myself writing more blogs in the future on airplanes, and here I am now!
It is absolutely crazy to me how fast these few months have flown by. October seemed like a lifetime away and now it is here!
Preparing for Training Camp has been a journey of its self so I wanted to use this blog to share with you all some of the bits and pieces of this preparation.
If you read my last blog you know I met my fundraising goal of $5,000, which was the “first” step of preparation. It was not the first thing I did in preparation, but I needed to reach that goal in order to go, even though I bought my plane ticket before reaching that goal! That process really stretched me. I knew God wanted me to sit back and relax in Him and know that He would come through, but that got to be more and more difficult as the deadline closed in. I actually technically missed the deadline, but that was just because I had some donations processing. And now I am onto my next goal of $10,000! I know God will come through and He is calling me to a new process of raising support which is partnering with churches! I’m not going to lie, this idea intimidates me quite a lot, but God wants to stretch me in how I view support raising and wants me to rely on the extended family of believers that is the Body of Christ.
Now for my fun weekend of packing!
It began with me going to several different stores in order to obtain all that I had left to buy before training camp. I still had random items of gear to get, just the detail items like a coffee cup, coffee, a compression sack, packing cubes and other random things. Once I had it all together and finished my laundry I began piling the clothes I thought I might want to pack and all of my gear and other random items up onto my sister’s bed.
There I was, yesterday… with a giant pile of belongings to pack into a backpack. The bag always seemed so huge, until I was about to try to get all of that to fit into it. I watched a few packing vlogs and felt like I knew the basics and would just have to channel in my inner “Adult Tetris” skills as I like to call them. I began with my compression sack, folding down everything as small as I could ahead of time. Now I grew up camping and my dad had been a boy scout so we knew how to fold things very tiny. When I was done stuffing my tent, rain fly, sleeping bag, sleeping bag liner, pillow, towels, and maybe even something else I might be forgetting into that compression sack I didn’t think I would actually get it to compress. Seriously, it was quite the ordeal. I couldn’t get the top over all of my things at first but once I did and pulled on the straps something magical happened… the sack shrunk. I was amazed at how much smaller it got!! You guys if you ever consider purchasing a compression sack, do it! I might even go get more!
Anyway, that fit as snugly as it could in the bottom on my pack and left the top part for all clothing and other things. My three packing cubes that I purchased at Walmart contained all of my clothing and fit standing up as the next part of my pack. The top layer of my bag was random items including my eating gear (a collapsible bowl and utensils) and my head lamp and my tarp for under my tent. I might still get a tent footprint since it would pack smaller but this was just a quick purchase for training camp since I would have to order the footprint. I think my shower shoes are living at the top of my pack as well but I honestly can’t remember. My tent poles and stakes are in an outside pocket of my pack and that is about it!!
My daypack contains all of my toiletries, my journal and bible, coffee mug, sunglasses, raincoat, headphones and chargers, eye mask for sleeping and ear plugs, wallet and travel papers, extra protection phone case for when it is in my tent, travel locks if I need them for training camp and currently my iPad until I get to camp and leave it in the office. I only have it with me for the storytelling workshop I am attending today!
That’s my packing list, I might make a more extensive list for when I actually leave for the World Race, but we will see!
This preparation time has made things feel very real! I cannot wait to meet all of the amazing people I will be traveling with and get placed into our teams. I have felt very at peace during this process and felt very little anxiety. It’s strange that with no anxiety I wondered why I wasn’t excited. Well, guess what God can allow you to be excited without feeling anxious! It’s a weird concept to me but for real you guys He did it! I have told people I don’t know why I don’t feel anything. I found it so strange but recently, as in today, I felt like God wanted me to realize I am incredibly excited but at peace while excited. Who knew this was a possibility!?! God is constantly showing me new ways He can take care of me in this journey and every time I am in awe. This kind of peace comes from one source alone. There is proof of it in Philippians 4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the PEACE OF GOD, THAT SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Every time someone asks for prayer for peace I find myself praying this verse over them. I never thought about praying it over myself and honestly did not do so. I believe in my heart someone else has been praying this over me and I want to thank them and let them know that this prayer has been answered and is continuing to be answered!
I also want to thank all of you! Your continued support is more of an encouragement to me than you will ever know. I may have said this before, but I find myself speechless, more often that I would have ever expected, at the team of support that has rallied behind me on this journey. Your prayers and financial gifts are more than I could have ever imagined. I really expected to have to “work” much more in this process but God wants me to sit back and let Him do it. He reminded me of this once again this morning as I sat at the airport listening to a voice message from an amazing women of God!
I can’t wait to share with you all all the amazing things God is going to do at Training Camp!
Love you all!!!
