Hello everyone!
12 days ago I traveled to Atlanta, GA to meet the 35 people I will be living life with for the next 11 months. We went through a 2 day training called, Launch, where we learned more about each other, the World Race, and God’s Kingdom. Our parents got to go through a two day training and we got to worship together before heading out on our adventure. It was really sweet to have my parents be apart of this experience! After Launch we traveled to Gainesville, GA to do training camp. I don’t really think the training camp experience can be put into words, but I’m going to try!
The training camp experience was challenging, exhausting, uncomfortable, fun, healing, informative, freeing, encouraging, beautiful, and just so full of God and His love! We slept in tents most of the time, ate foods from other cultures, did different activities as a squad, worshipped, prayed, and participated in trainings to prepare us for the field. We learned about the Kingdom of God and what it looks like to live out “His Kingdom come and will be done”. We also learned more about walking by the Spirit, and allowing the Holy Spirit to have full control in our lives. I’m always just so amazed that God is so kind to put His Holy Spirit in us! He is our downpayment, friend, comforter, counselor, guider, and so much more. Goodness, He is just so awesome! One thing I have heard a lot at training is, “Ministry is life and life is ministry.” I love that! It can be so easy for me to compartmentalize ministry. I can schedule it in for two hours a day and check it off the list. Jesus didn’t do that. He didn’t check off the list. His whole life was ministry and it was out of pure love and connection with the Father. Jesus lived out the Kingdom everywhere He went. We have His Spirit in us! I want to live out the Kingdom everywhere too. Our ministry does not start when we get to an organization in another country. The ministry starts now. Our leaders explained that the World Race is more than an 11 month experience. It is meant to be a tool to help us learn to live for Jesus and bring His Kingdom to Earth for the rest of our lives. Living life with Jesus may not always seem “easy”, but it is definitely exciting! I love that He invites us to work with Him as His children everywhere we go. He can do everything Himself, but He welcomes us into His work of redemption!
I also loved learning about other cultures and how to present the Gospel in a way that makes sense to people in other cultures. One statistic that impacts me, is that there are still 3.19 billion people who do not have any access to the good news of Jesus. That is why we go and send. Jesus is worthy and the 3.19 billion people are His creation. How awesome would it be for billions of people to encounter the love of Jesus and worship Him?! (If you are reading this, and do not have a relationship with Jesus, I just want you to know that there is an amazing, loving, powerful, kind, good, perfect, holy God Who loves you. He has changed my life and He can change yours too. He came to the earth and lived a life free of mistakes and took on the punishment and shame of the whole world, so that we could be in relationship with Him. If you would like to know more about Jesus, please feel free to ask me questions! I am still learning and growing with Him, so we can learn about Him together!)
I ended training camp with getting baptized by one of my sweet squad mates, who has impacted my life these past 12 days. I got baptized when I was nine, but I didn’t really understand that I was forgiven. It has been a process, but I would say I fully surrendered my life to Jesus and trusted Him when I was around 18. If you would like to know more about my story you can go to this blog,(https://anabates.theworldrace.org/post/mourning-into-dancing). I decided to get baptized again to declare that I have surrendered everything to Jesus, I am forgiven, I am in a relationship with Him, and I am no longer a slave to fear!
We landed in Nicaragua early this morning! The country is beautiful and I can’t wait to tell you more about what God is doing in Nicaragua! Thank you so much for following along on this journey and for all of your support!!
Prayer requests:
-Pray for unity among the members in our squad.
-Pray for spiritual and physical protection.
-Pray for hope to arise more in Nicaragua.
-Pray that we would have boldness and strength to love and make Jesus known everywhere we go.
Thank you!!!!!!!!
