I’ve been trying to write this blog for a while but never could get all my thoughts to come out right on the page. This one will just be a brief overview of most of what’s happened and may be all over the place so bear with me. A lot has happened in the past month and a half. I went to training camp, met my squad, got assigned my team and ministry site for South Africa, got a route change and have awesome fundraising news!
At the beginning of June, I went to Gainesville, Georgia for World Race Training Camp at AIM headquarters. 11 days of bucket showers, porta potty’s, sleeping in tents with it raining 8 of the nights can sound miserable but honestly, I would go back and do it all over again in a heartbeat. Training camp included field scenarios, team building exercises, fitness tests, and awesome worship and teaching sessions. Those sessions covered a wide range of topics such as Living on Mission, Listening to the Holy Spirit, Ministry Partnership, Pain and Forgiveness, Contextualizing the Gospel in other Cultures, Our Role in the Great Commission and many more.
X-Squad
X-Squad (the larger group I get to serve with pictured below) is made of some truly amazing people from all around the country, different walks of life, and reasons for doing the race. The group became close quickly as the Holy Spirit was working in many members hearts all week. Many shared their stories and testimonies that were so powerful telling of what the Lord had done, was doing and what He was revealing to them throughout camp. Watching the squad come together throughout the week and truly become a family was amazing to watch and I feel so blessed to be a part of it. There is such a fire in everyone to grow, go share the Gospel and each person brings different gifts to the table to make the Body of Christ!
Team Wildfire:
Halfway through training camp we were assigned our smaller teams. This is the group that I will be getting to do ministry with each day for the beginning months of the race. Below is team Wildfire! There is such a passion in each one of my teammates to not only share the Gospel and bring others to know Christ but also be there for one another, build each other up and push each other more towards Christ. I cannot wait to do life with these people and see what the Lord does through and in us. Each one of them has an awesome story of how the Lord brought them to this point and I encourage you to go read or subscribe to their blogs as well! We all see the world differently so reading about what’s happening on the field from another perspective of the team could be interesting. Also, Ben will be vlogging on the race so you’d get the chance to actually see what’s happening.
(From L to R: Me, Averie, Ben, Tenaya, Alicia)
Most of the time, X-Squad will all travel to each country together. Once we arrive, we will break into ours teams and the teams will be sent out to different part of the country we are in to different ministry sites. Some months we may be with another team, a few other teams or possibly the entire squad. It will just depend on what the host we are working with needs for that month. For South Africa we’ll be in Pretoria working with BEAM Africa Network!
Route Change:
We found out at training camp that we were no longer going to be serving in Bolivia. Instead we will be serving in Chile. We also added another country to the list. There’s a week on the race called PVT (Parent Vision Trip) where we can invite our parents to come out and do ministry with us. We found out ours is going to be in Ecuador before we go to Peru making a total of 12 countries in 11 months!
Fundraising Update:
I AM FULLY FUNDED!!!
When I committed to the race fundraising was my biggest fear and for my parents one of their biggest concerns just because it had never been something I enjoyed doing. Growing up I would avoid them as much as possible for sports, clubs, choirs or whatever else I was involved in. This was so much different because halfway through it became something I didn’t mind doing and kind of enjoyed. The process brought on so many great conversations and relationships that without I am not sure I would have experienced, and I hope the relationships it brought continue to grow throughout the race and well after it’s over. I seriously cannot thank you all enough for partnering with me. This trip wouldn’t be possible for me if I didn’t have such a great support system.
So much happened at training camp that there isn’t any way I could put it all into just one blog. I’m working on another one that tells more about what I was personally experiencing and what the Lord was doing in my heart throughout camp and plan to have it up within the next two weeks before I launch for the race.
Thank you again to everyone who has supported me thus far and thanks for reading!
God Bless!
-Adam
