This is my fourth time sitting down to write this blog since arriving home on Saturday night. I am still processing everything that happened. I don’t even really know where to begin. People keep asking me how training camp was. I can only begin to describe it. It is one of those “you just had to be there moments”. It was amazing and hard all at the same time. I could sit here and tell you every single thing we did, but that would take a long time seeing as our days were packed from early morning to late at night. It was the most physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining thing I have done, probably in forever.
It is no secret that this is going to be a year of living in community with people. A major focus of the week was living in community with people. People who were strangers quickly became friends and turned into family. I will be getting my alone time in in the next five weeks, because after that, I will have eleven months of none. Every activity that we were tasked with had us working together and relying on each other to accomplish fully. I was humbled by the fact that I do not have to do everything on my own and also by how gracious everyone on my squad is to help each other out. I must say that community is one of the things that I was looking forward to being in for the race and after this week, I am even more excited. Yes, it will be hard at times. But I also got a picture of how beautiful it can be. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was placed on this squad for a reason and that each person would be willing to fight for me and push me to be more like Jesus. That and if I ever lose my car keys in the lake, they will be right there with me praying and searching the bottom of the lake for them. Now that is true love.
To say that the week was fun, is probably a partial lie. We had fun moments filled with laughter. But the words that I use to describe it would be hard, but so worth it. The first few days were focused on our personal relationships with Jesus, our views of Him and the chains that hold us back. I found some of the most intimate times that I have ever had with the Lord. I found freedom in being vulnerable and by beginning the grieving process of past hurts in my life. And it hurt. But no good thing comes easy, right? I could feel God beginning to do heart surgery on me and bringing me into a freedom that can only come from Him. I realized that my identity has been rooted not in him, but in the things of this world and therefore, I have many insecurities that need to be dealt with. With that, He also revealed to me my deeper struggle with my self-worth or lack thereof and how much I have felt like I have to earn God’s love. Thank you Jesus, for people who are willing to proclaim truth over me and who are willing to love me right where I am. I am looking forward to exploring and living out my freedom in Christ so much more over the next few months.
My heart is seriously so full of the joy of the Lord right now. I love it.
This just in…I will officially be arriving in Atlanta on June 29th for further training and my squad will be leaving on July 3rd for the Dominican Republic.
Stay tuned for more lessons that I learned this past week as I begin to process everything that God is doing in my heart and for more on what is to come in the next year.
I invite you to continue to follow me on this crazy adventure that I call my life. Follow my new family…D-Squad or as we like to call ourselves…”Dauntless”.
***If you want to get to know each of them better, go to the left hand side of my blog and click the link that says “Meet My Squad” and it will take you to a list of their blogs.
And lastly…meet my team. While we will travel as a squad to each country, most months, we will separate and do ministry in teams. This is team “En Fuego” meaning “On Fire”. We will be starting this journey together. Below the photo is a link to each of their blogs. Feel free to check them out. Please be praying for us as we are preparing to leave in a month.
Darron Chamlee, Lexi Williams, Stephen Shelley, Katie Ruther, Becca Mussatti
