I’M BACK! & I AM ALIVE & WELL (& pooped)!
I spent last week Saturday to Saturday at the Adventures In Missions headquarters in Gainesville, GA training for my year to come! I went into training camp with a whirlwind of emotion & and am coming out of training camp with a whirlwind of emotion. The difference is that on this side of training camp, I have seen and felt God in new ways, I have 45 new brothers & sisters whom my heart overflows with love thinking about, & I am a WHOLE new level of tired (in the best way!)
People keep asking me how my week was & I’ve been answering with a shoulder shrug & a mediocre “good”. PLEASE let me clarify to those of you that have experienced my half-hearted “good” first hand. The thing is, the emotions and thoughts I have about training camp can’t be summed up into any kind of words, and certainly not one word. I could tell you about camp for three hours & I could share with you the endless WEIRD conversations I had with my new family over the interesting meals we ate. I could gush about the wisdom Dr. Ron Walborn (Dean of Alliance Theological Seminary) shared with 250 racers & myself & I can talk for even longer about how God spoke to me. But I don’t think that would begin to scratch the surface of training camp. WR staffers like to describe training camp as a week of drinking out of a fire hose, in that you have endless wisdom & stories & activities thrown at you and you drink up what you can when you can, but it is impossible to drink in the fullness of the experience in the short week in Gainesville. My experiences and thoughts from training are something I will continue to process for weeks and probably months to come. My half-hearted good is a half-hearted attempt to sum up a week of my life that really just can’t be explained without you reliving the entirety of last week along side me.
What I can say is that I am forever changed, evermore equipped, and overflowing with anticipation of launch in one short month.
What I can say is my heart has never felt so fully loved and accepted by God & community until I met my sweet squad. Their desire to serve others reminds me of the selflessness that Jesus poured out upon us, & that is a truly beautiful thing.
What I can say is I have never been so filthy & smelly as I was the first few days of training when my pack was “lost” by AIM staffers & I wore the same clothes for 56 hours.
What I can say is that I have never felt more CLEAN than after the bucket shower & clean clothes I was gifted with after those first, smelly 56 hours.
What I can say is that I have never seen a group of 250 young adults so hungry for God & ready for whatever He throws our way.
What I can say is that I had never had a egg & noodle breakfast bake until last week & I am praying that that was the first & last time. (literally, just eggs and noodles baked in a cake pan)
What I can say is that I experienced a week of firsts, like sleeping under the stars, hearing the voice of God, purchasing a 4xl Atlanta basketball jumpsuit, “sleeping” on a bus of 40 some people, & waking up next to scorpions. As in REALLY, a scorpion under my pillow. (Most of you will be in disbelief when I tell you my reaction was a calm “UHM there is a scorpion in my tent.” And then proceeded to kill it. BAM! PEAGEANT QUEEN GONE SCORPION EXTERMINATOR.)
All bugs & stinkiness & exhaustion aside, World Race Training Camp didn’t change me forever. But the God who showed up day after day in Gainesville, Georgia surely did. The neatest thing is that I have a pretty good feeling that I have only seen a glimpse of the work he has to do in me & through me on my journey to come. We serve an alive & active God, ecstatic to use us if we simply whisper, “sure God. Where you go, I’ll go.”
Here are a few glimpses into my week via my friend Canon 🙂
5 am departure picture insisted on by dad.
WR invades ATL airport. You can bet it wasn’t too hard to fing my squad mates!
Flattering snap shot thanks to a sweet teammate. Took a few serious naps on this little wicker bench.
My squad leaders, Janet Marie (JM) & Clay! Already a huge blessing to the squad and me!
A day in town with my team. Lets just say this was the most incredible ice cream cone I’ve ever had. We headed straight for ice cream, went thrifting and ended up with HUGE Atlanta jerseys, & had great conversation at a local pizza joint!
Introducing, Team Renown! This will be my little family when I leave the states. We will live together, do ministry together, grow together, and explore together!
Last night of TC consisted of SQUAD WARS. Can you guess what color my squad was? 🙂
Squad wars consisted of me bathing (hair included) in chocolate sauce & cheerios. I will say the rest of the night I received compliments on how “sweet” I smelled!
Until next time 🙂
