Goodness there’s just too many words and not enough space in just one blog to tell you everything that happened at training camp.
To be honest over these past two weeks of sitting down in little spurts of time to write bits and pieces of this blog, it’s been the only real time I’ve had to process the craziness that was training camp. So I apologize if this blog is a mess but honestly that kind of captures the essence of training camp.
THE red Georgia clay staining anything and everything it touches (yes, the hype is true, just ask my squads pretty light yellow shirts that are now orange), the porta potties and the alarming lack of sinks, eating with your hands, bean water (iykyk), baptisms in muddy water, bloody blisters from the fitness hike, bucket showers that never got you clean enough (no matter how good they felt), oh and putting on two week old clothes after said bucket showers.
But all of that is just the surface level stuff. The things that, if someone who didn’t know why we were there, saw them, they would probably think we’re crazy. But if they were to look a little deeper they’d see a lot of freedom, joy, love, and so much more because training camp WAS about so much more. The mess was just a bonus.
At training camp groups of strangers came together and quickly turned into families.
My squad was no exception. B squad, the quirkiest, loudest, most loving group of people I’ve ever had the honor of knowing. Breaking bread and holding hands, singing at the top of our lungs at any given moment, hugs for dayyyssssss (but not too long ok, because boundaries, yuh hear). We put the unity in community (for the most part, we’re not gonna talk about our dance rehearsal). They are so easy to love. Before training camp I never would have thought I was lacking community, because I have so many great people standing behind me and fighting for me at home, but this is different and very hard to explain how much I needed them and those ten days at training camp. Their hunger for the Lord and their thirst for His word was and is so contagious. Always seeking out wisdom and truth. I am so unbelievably ready to spend the next 9 months with my new brothers and sisters
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So with in our squad we have about 6 smaller teams that we were broken up into. These teams will be the people we’ll be doing ministry with during the race. For the first 3 months on the field we’ll have a team leader, who is an alumni racer that just finished up her own gap year trip. I have the absolute pleasure of getting to know 7 of the radest women of God I’ve ever met. Team Radiate. Their quiet (and sometimes not so quiet) strength that they bring. Their encouragement. Their hearts for the Lord and, in turn, His people. Their vulnerability. Their unity. It’s truly unmatched (I may be just a little biased). But all of these things I can say truly do radiate 😉 off of them.
A good example of all of these character traits displayed was during the fitness hike. That dreaded fitness hike. Let me tell you that 2.2 miles in 38 minutes, through the hills of Gainesville, Georgia WITH our massive packs on- is not for the faint of heart. I’m not going to lie that might of been one of the hardest parts of that week. But the way my team and everyone on our squad, came around me and anyone else who was struggling to help us through it was amazing. Constantly pouring encouragement on all of us who were struggling and sometimes physically pushing or pulling us to the finish line. You wouldn’t think that a fitness hike could teach you too much other than you’re out of shape, which it definitely did. It reminded me I can’t do everything or even anything by myself, it taught me I can truly trust my team to never leave me behind even when it gets hard and going through something hard (especially physically) and actually getting through it is so rewarding and makes you realize the body you’ve been given is more capable than we often give it credit for. There is more to all of that but there’s more of training camp to talk about so we must move on.
Everyday there was a theme of a part of the world that at least one of the squads were traveling to, like Africa day, India day, Asia day, etc. We learned about different cultures and their customs and ate so many different types of food, even crickets and a century egg.
Oh and the worship wasn’t like any I had ever experienced before. So many people straight up POURING their hearts out to the Lord, no shame, no walls, no hesitation. Sometimes you just had to sit back, & sit still for a good five minutes to just soak it all in.
There were so many things about training camp that pushed us and stretched our minds and ideas, new light shed on truth that had been there the whole time it just took something extra to see it.
Not gonna lie, there was a war raging within me all week stronger than it’s ever been before and it’s still raging within me today 2 weeks later (yes, it’s taken 2 weeks to fully write this). A very valuable thing has helped me though, knowing that when the enemy is attacking us it means that we’re doing amazing things for God’s kingdom and he hates it and will try to do everything and anything to stop it. So when the enemy is whispering his lies, I know the exact opposite is true.
So that was just a tidbit of what went down at training camp, there will be another blog to come about how it changed my personal walk with the Lord and I’m so excited to share that with yall!
Here are more pictures from the week! 🙂
Thank you for all of the support, I couldn’t have made it this far without it <3
E 🙂
