Oh my gosh you guys. Training camp is finally here and as I’m writing this I’m sitting in my tent just trying to process and find the words for what has happened in just the 24 hours I’ve been here. Bear with me.
SO after an hour and a half of sleep the night before last, I (barely) made my early flight to Atlanta! I arrived at the airport where I met a good bit of my squad and we drove an hour and a half to training camp!! When we arrived, we set up camp and made our way to our Storyteller Workshop. It basically taught us about how to document our trip along the way, so watch out vlogging world, I might be making a guest appearance. And you aren’t getting one this time simply because I haven’t learned the ropes yet and what I have is too important to say.
After an overflow of information and connecting over stories, we made our way back to our tents. Remember when I said I’d never been camping before? YALL. I froze. And there was loud snoring that kept me up. Luckily, the rest of my squad didn’t come in until this afternoon; so I called in some reinforcement. Rest assured, I’m now laying comfortably with a large blanket, a soft hoodie, and a two liter of pepsi. ??
To be quite real with you all though, after last night, I had just about convinced myself that this was not for me. I felt so discouraged because I’m straight up just not an outdoorsy person as much as I’d like to be. Plus, anyone that knows me knows that I’m always cold 100% of the time. So what in the world have I gotten myself (and by extension, you,) into?
Then today happened.
I met my whole squad and they instantly felt like family. I’ve never connected with a group so fast, and this is only day one!! I had those negative thoughts in my head all day, and then we walked into our first session.
Those negative thoughts immediately disappeared, and I felt the spirit of the Lord just wrap me up. I‘ve never felt anything like it before, and I immediately broke down during worship. For at least an hour, I was standing there just crying uncontrollably, because for the first time since I joined the race, I felt that this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. I felt like I’m coming home to a new family. God met me where I was and told me exactly what I needed to hear. Am I going to give up after a couple of cold and rough nights? Or am I going to follow through and give this my all like God did for me? You guys there are people DYING at this very moment who have never heard of Jesus. And just the thought of that makes me want to launch already. The Lord will truly drive out the darkness and silence your fears, and I felt that tonight! I was reminded the sense of urgency and just what God is capable of. I heard stories of being sustained for 40 days on only water and the Holy Spirit, of demons being cast out of babies; and I just thought, this is it. This is what I will be doing in just a few short months, and I can’t believe it. It took me a while to realize this, but up until a whole two days ago I thought I had to be this perfect person and that only people who had their life together would be able to be used by God and be able to baptize people and change their lives. I’m so happy to say that this is NOT the case at all! The Lord meets us right where we are and He is just as capable to use me as he would a seasoned pastor.
Is the Lord putting something on your heart? Do you not understand anything you’re feeling? It’s not unusual. Address it and talk about it! I can’t wait to share with you all how the rest of training camp goes. If it’s anything like today, y’all are in for some great stories!
Please continue praying for me and prayerfully consider donating to help us take this amazing news to these countries. I can feel God doing incredible things, and I would love to take you on this journey with me.
