WOW! Training camp was a blast, but a long 10 days packed with new friends, tons of learning, and new memories for the books! Camp was hosted at the Adventures in Missions headquarters in Gainesville, Georgia and is used as a tool to prepare and equip all the racers for working alongside our teammates on the field. Teams building and leadership activities were my favorites, because of the quality time spent getting to know my new squadmates. My squad “A-squad” shared our time at training camp with “Z squad”, the other squad launching on a different route this coming October. It was such a blessing not only to meet A squad but Z squad. These 10 days were full of mosquito bites, bucket showers, bonding, and tons of fellowship.
Some nights we slept outside in our tents and others we slept in the training room to simulate a host home. One night we participated simulation where half of our bags were “lost in baggage claim”, meaning we had to bunk up with another person on our squad and whoever lost their bag lost all the things in their bag for the night. This night gave me a beautiful opportunity to get to know my teammate Hannah Kraus, and it was such a blessing. Hannah is beautiful on the inside and out. Her face radiates the Lord’s love and she overflows with holy spirit, humility, and kindness. I cannot wait to serve beside her during the first few months of the race. My whole squad has been a huge blessing and it is so obvious that God handpicked each of us to be together. Ordained. Anointed. Predestined.
Most everyone knows I have a love for food and culture. During all our meals we would gather and eat food from a different culture while practising customs and a list of do’s and don’ts specific to the region of the day. There was a large focus on knowing, respecting and following cultural guidelines in order to not damage our ability to share the gospel.
Asia day we practised our chopsticks skills and struggled to grab slippery noodles, but my favorite part about Asia day was having to serve other food and not being able to serve yourself. It forced us to focus on others and their needs, it was nice to serve and be served. South America day was my favorite full of rice, beans, and plantains, all my hearts desire. Africa day was a bit of a struggle learning to eat lefthanded and without utensils, but we laughed off the awkward motions as we attempt to shovel food into our mouths lefthanded (it was a site for sure). Eastern Europe day was nice, full of bread and cheese. I mostly enjoyed the potatoes served at dinner during Eastern Europe day. India day was interesting, especially dinner which was a simulation of a foreign market full of our leaders and mentors dressed as vendors with tables of food. Plot twist most everyone did not speak English and we had to use a currency exchange for everyone in our group to buy food. There were fake theifts lurking around, checking out our belongings and my group even ran into some “tourist from L.A”. The market was full of smells, loud music and a van driving through a small area full tables, vendor and people. It was an experience for the books, no doubt.
Other than meals together, most of the camp was spent in sessions listening to different speakers, who shared the scriptures and encouraged us to push into our identity found in Christ. We had scheduled squad time where we would do team-building exercises and then debrief about what we learned, how we could have done better, and what we individually brought to the team. The whole training camp we were continually poured into by amazing speakers, squad trainers, and staff mentors. Towards the middle of camp, our squad was split into 3 different teams. My team have attributed C.A.F.E’ (coffee in Spanish) and an acronym (Courageous Adventurous Friends Evangelizing). We will be together for sure during our first 3 months of the race and each country is in South America. If you would like to meet my team you can find their blog links on my blog page under “Meet the Team”.
Training camp ended with Squad wars, a battle to the death; just kidding. Squad wars was a friendly competition between Squad A, Squad Z and the staff/CGA (a 2nd-year discipleship program for alumni racers). We battled it out playing a game called David and Goliath, which has two participants from each team, one partner had an egg attached to their head with pantyhose and the other had a pool noodle for the purpose of wacking the other team’s egg holder. The goal of the game was to bust the other team’s egg, but the partners have to stay locked arm in arm. Following we played two brutal games of dodge ball. Then we played my favorite game of Squad wars called jumping through the clouds. The game is set up with two giant bowls one is full of flower and marsh mellow, and the other is empty. To begin the game each team of 20 had to get on all 4s and prepare to be leapfrogged over by the last person in line. Once you leapfrog over all your teammates in the line you shove your face only into the flower to retrieve a single marshmallow and run to the other bowl (at the to drop off the marshmallow, and then running to tag your next teammate to begin their round. The key to jumping through the clouds is to use your nose as a shovel to dig through the flower. Lastly, we ended squad wars with a dance battle. Somehow A squad left the battle ground victorious!
The greatest victory happened after Squad Wars when friends from both A and Z squad decided to be baptized. By the time training camp was over I was so ready to leave and begin the race with my newfound family. All these opportunities have been such a divine gift and I cannot stop thinking and giving praise to My Sovereign and Good Father in Heaven. All Glory to Yahweh!
