My First Destination — Training Camp
If you know me at all then you’re probably familiar with the fact that I am a poor planner. I like to make plans but I have a difficult time preparing for things with a lot of time in advance — so unlike the most of my Squad, I didn’t prepare for training camp, I waited till the morning of to find/pack all of my things and then drive 4 hrs to Gainesville, GA. (I actually forgot to tell my best friends that I was going and they thought something had happened to me
, sorry guys)
Really, at the root of my unpreparedness for training camp is that I can be a judgmental person. I have spent a lot of time in my life (more so than I care to admit) judging other people based on one interaction, or their social media, their outward appearance, etc. and it is an unhealthy habit. So to avoid doing that with the people I’ll be spending the next year with, I went in pretty blind. I didn’t stalk their blogs, or their social media, I just committed to meeting them in person and then learning who they are and their character from their actions not appearance.
I honestly was nervous because my experience with “christian friends” in churches has never been exceptional, to say the least. During High School and Junior High, I wasn’t making true friends, I had my feelings hurt a lot, I heard people talking poorly about me, and it just wasn’t an environment I thrived in. Because of that, I made a lot of preconceived notions about the people I would encounter at TC and literally prayed that God would just give me 1 person that I would get along with. Seriously you guys — for the whole 4 hour drive this is what I was praying for, I know it sounds shallow but it has been a real struggle for me.
Thank the Lord that God is good and knows exactly what we need. Because right now, sitting at home, I can genuinely say that I love every single member on my Squad — unconditionally. I formed relationships with people this week that are deeper than some I’ve had in my entire life. Did I already say God is good? Cause He is. Each and everyone of them is beautiful and is filled with the love of Christ, and God completely restored my previous experiences and blessed me 22 fold more than I had even prayed for. (You have not cause you ask not — ammiright??)
I spent the last 3 months convincing myself that even if I wasn’t able to make a singular friend, that’s alright cause I’m not going for friends, I’m going to do ministry and serve communities. But as it turns out, they’re all so wonderful, and some of them are even funny!! **this is sarcasm, not in a passive aggressive way, but because I know Carter will enjoy it**
Together we accomplished a fitness test, (shout out Daniella and Bethany!!) splitting all our things for a night because “the airport lost our luggage” (Sage=best tent sharer ever), sleeping at “the airport” due to a layover (Joanna and Missy, we should’ve packed more), community living (that lead to some big time healing), Street Evangelism, Choreographing a dance, “stealing” hot water at the airport, and so much more.
I will write some more follow up blogs about what we learned, how I grew, how I was challenged and the exceptionally fun “field scenarios” later this week as I continue to process all the crazy things that happened — but this is really just a praise report on how good God is and how He was able to completely restore my perspective on Christians, on friendship and on sisterhood.
And to everyone who is reading this, thank you so much for your support through this journey. I am genuinely looking forward to sharing it all through this platform and love all the encouragement I have already been getting from you guys. It means the world!
All my love,
Alivya
P.S. **you can bet that where I did prepare was coffee. I packed my biggest french press along with an entire bag of grounds (I think this helped with the making friends thing) and together, we survived the whole lack of sleep thing 😉 **
