WHOA!
Training camp was simultaneously so crazy and exhausting and beautiful! I got back from TC (training camp…) about 3 weeks ago, and it’s taken me this long to even attempt to process all that I experienced and learned while I was there.
So I’ll share my experience the best I know how to put into words!
Pre-training camp, I’d felt some nervousness for sure about meeting my team and about discovering all the details about what my squad, ministry, and logistics would look like. I mean, I’ve been thinking about the World Race a lot at home, but having to take care of my normal responsibilities made the race seem so abstract and far off.
Fast forward to my arrival at TC, and man, it got REAL. After surviving a wave of nausea as I pulled into the Adventures in Missions campus, excitement took over as I grabbed all my stuff for the next 10 days and headed to register and meet my squad!
Speaking of my squad, we are S SQUAD! We are comprised of 58 humans from literally everywhere all over the US and Canada!
I mean, just look at these beautiful people!
Sure, we struggled knowing each others’ names, and it was a challenge to try and deeply get to know each person over 10 days, but I can truly say the Lord has knit our hearts together as family for this mission! There is a unity and a depth to this squad that I never imagined possible. I am incredibly thankful for each person and the uniqueness of perspective and background and gifts they each bring to the table. These brothers and sisters of mine look a whole lot like Jesus, and I can’t wait to share this hope that we have found in Him wherever we go this next year!!
Training camp was filled with SO many things. Really, all the things… We had teaching sessions, team building exercises, training sessions, and insanely beautiful worship times. There was some crazy food (Guys, I ate a CRICKET for breakfast one morning!!), early AM squad workouts, and simulated scenarios to prepare us for what could happen on the field. I won’t give away too many details to keep the mystery for future racers, but one of those included sharing EVERYTHING with another squad member for a night in 40 degree weather.. No one really slept a wink with all the shivering, but each one of us sure got close to our tent-mate that night! We’ll call it bonding for survival’s sake.. Haha. Those 10 days we were all exhausted and yet so filled by the Holy Spirit and aware of the Lord’s presence in a way I have never experienced before.
One thing the Lord highlighted very clearly for me at TC was that He is speaking. While we had some free time one morning, I was hearing the Lord tell me to read Psalm 50. As I was reading, these verses stood out to me powerfully:
“The Mighty One, God the LORD speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” -Psalm 50:1-2
Also,
“Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.” -Psalm 50:7
I think the Lord wanted to highlight His majesty in these verses and also make clear that He Himself bridges the gap between our sinfulness and His holiness. Not only through sending Jesus as the perfect sacrifice for our sins to satisfy the wrath of God and ensure an eternal way for us to be made clean and provide the opportunity to be in relationship with Him, but even when the promise of a Messiah was just that—a promise—in the time that this psalm was written, He reached to us by speaking. And how beautiful is it that Jesus, the true and only way we get access to the Father, is called the Word made flesh? He is the personification of the promises of God. In these scriptures, now and always, He initiates conversation and wants to show us things and teach us. He is our God, and we are His people.
Amazingly enough, later that very night the teaching session was about listening to the Lord and being led by Him as we go out in these communities and love the people there. To ask ourselves: What is the Lord saying to us while we are here in this specific community? What does He want to say to these people here not just through Scripture but also just in the moment as we are serving and building relationships with them? Jesus Himself says in John 10:
“To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him for they know his voice” -John 10:3-4
“I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay my life down for the sheep.” -John 10:14-15
And: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” -John 10: 27-30
Here Jesus also talks about sheep that aren’t of this fold of sheep yet, who aren’t ones that know him or know his voice. He says of them that he must bring them in also. That is his heart and his vision. As His sheep who hear Him and are led out by Him as He goes before us, this is our vision too. This is why my squad is going into the nations! Something that was reiterated so consistently by the staff at TC is that this is not simply a mission trip! We are going to build relationships with individuals all over the world who may or may not be part of the flock in Jesus’ care yet, and we are going to share with them the invitation to be brought in! We go to share the Gospel and invest in ministries the Lord has established in these places and be discipled by them as well.
This is truly a training ground, of epic proportions and amazing opportunities, to put into practice what it is to live missionally so that I learn what it is to follow Jesus even in the small, daily things and walk in that for the rest of my life—to be the body of Christ and walk in tight-knit community, so rooted in and overwhelmingly floored by the love of the Father over us that we radically reveal Him simply by being present in these cities! That they would see a love in us for each other as brothers and sisters that they have never seen before and desire it. That as the Body of Christ we would be His hands and feet and heart in these communities, loving without measure and serving out of such hearts of gratitude for the ways Jesus serves us. That we would be a mouthpiece to speak hope and encouragement and life and purpose to men and women and children who have never considered themselves as SO valuable to God in that they were created in His image and created to be His image bearers in the earth, created to know Him and be His. So we go out with this vision and with the excitement and expectation that God will be speaking and calling people to relationship with Him. We ask for keen ears to hear His voice (being assured that we WILL hear since we are his sheep) and a desire to behold and serve and learn from the beautiful individuals God has already scheduled in advance for us to meet there!
As if better grasping this amazing reality that God is leading us out as His sheep and going before us to speak to us and through us wasn’t beautiful enough, I got to find out which specific sheep I’d be on a smaller team with this next year! (a cheesy segue, I know.. haha)
THIS is a picture of my beautiful team!:
And from left to right they areee:
Meg, Rachel, Klancy, Jordan, me, and Janet!
Can I even begin to express how excited I am to now know my little family?! No, I cannot. But it’s a lot of excitement! These ladies are phenomenal and so unique, and the Lord has already been showing us in so many ways that there is such a depth and strength to this team! He is sovereign in handpicking this team, and I can’t wait to build such strong friendships with them. Also, I have been asked to lead these ladies as we go out! I count this as such a privilege! Leading isn’t my usual role, as I am typically much more comfortable following, and it will certainly be a place of growth for me. Yet these ladies have expressed that they are behind me (they’re such encouragers!) and that they believe in me. I also expressed to them that I will need their input and help on this. I want to SERVE them and encourage and empower them to be bold in their unique gifts to serve each other on the team and to serve our ministries and hosts as well. We will be each others’ support and encouragers and challengers, and one of the only constant variables in this whole World Race equation (aside from Jesus)! I’m thankful for you ladies!
Our team name is: It Is Goode
(just a clarification.. the double O pronounced like in the word “you”) This is our team name because on “make a memory” night, we went out to dinner with our teams and had dessert at the director of the World Race’s house! Long story short, our team got into conversation with an older couple next door while we were waiting to go inside for dessert, and the sweet older man started taking with us and singing to us! This couple’s last name is Goode, and we took it as a symbol the Lord was using to show us that this will be our lives for the next year. Meeting interesting and beautiful people with life stories to be heard and honored and sharing our own life stories with them which are FULL of the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness. We will serve people like this and love them even if they never remember us or engage with us again. The Lord plants seeds and He completes the work He starts, brings it to fruition, and will do it to the glory of His Name whether we are there to witness that or not!
Also, we’ll need to be encouraging each other that in all things “it is goode!” When we’re exhausted and sassy and homesick and uncomfortable, we will remind ourselves that it is all for Jesus, and it is GOOD! I mean GOODE! haha.
There are SO many more things I could share about my training camp experience. And if you would like to talk to me more about it, comment below and we can exchange email addresses, and I could talk for days about what I saw the Lord doing during that time and how it is pushing me and all of us on toward Launch in January! All I know is that God is going to do BIG things on this BIG squad of so many brothers and sisters committed to following Him into this next season.
I can’t wait to share the stories with you!
Thanks for reading yet another novel, and also please consider prayerfully donating to help me me make my next financial deadline of $10,000 by December 16th!
I’m believing the Lord to provide in big ways, and you can be a part of that!
THANK YOU for your support and prayers and love!
-Abby
