Training Camp. It was everything I expected it to be, yet nothing I expected it to be.
I expected to sleep in a tent, eat weird food, become part of an amazing community and grow closer to God.
I didn’t expect to change so radically and quickly, to be confronted about my “baggage” or to have the devil fight so hard to make me keep it.
To put it lightly the week was hard. I was physically drained, my stomach was continually growling and for two days straight I felt like was going to throw up what little I had eaten. And then there was the crying…everyday.
But for every “I give up” moment there was a “God’s awesome and he provides!” moment. From the little things like sugar for my bland ugali and a night spent in a shared tent laughing and laughing to encouragement from squadmates who have become good friends and the construction of a team I never knew I wanted.
God used training camp to tie up all my loose ends and fill every hole. He reminded me to trust him because he only has my best interests at heart, while that other guy, you know, Satan, well, he’ll attack at every opportunity.
And this is where the “big bad wolf” part of the story comes in.
On the fourth night of training camp our sleeping arrangements were of the homemade variety. Late at night, as the 14 of up slept under our two sided shelter I woke up to the sound a dog barking in the distance. As the minutes passed the barking got closer and closer until it sounded as if he were right next to us. He stopped barking and then a low, menacing growl came from only feet away. It took less than I second for everyone to fly into the middle of the shelter. We sat there for a few minutes until the dog seemed to loose interest and we could hear the barking farther down the road. Because our environment now seemed safe, Natalie, Beau and I decided to walk to the bathroom. Afterwards, while we walked back we could here the barking again and I knew it was near the shelter. As we got closer I pointed my headlamp inside and once again everyone was huddled in the center, then turning my high-beam on I pointed my light to where the barking was coming from. Only 15 feet from the shelter, right inside the tree-line, a pair of eyes glowed back at me. That was it, I sprinted the last 10 feet and dove headfirst into the pile of people. Scared and ridiculously tired we decided to pray all at once. We prayed for protection, for the dog to go away, for it’s voice to be taken away. We were desperate. When the final person finished praying we stopped to listen. Nothing. Not a bark, not a growl, not even a footstep, and we didn’t hear another one that night.
We didn’t know what the dog was. It could have been a lab, a beagle or even a coyote, but we do know that it was angry. There was something inside that gave it an immense hatred and it waited, 15 feet away for a moment of weakness to find a way in. Just like Satan. Satan prowls around waiting for an opening, in times when we’re alone, lost or scared and then he feeds off of our fears and insecurities. But we don’t need to let him in. Gods power is above all. He can send an angry dog away with it’s tail between its legs or take away it voice. And in this story, when we called on him, he did just that, but he would have done it anyway.
I was severely challenged at training camp. Not with the food, I can handle that, and not with the living conditions but with my life, something that God is always willing to hold, I just needed to learn to let him.
And on a final note I would like you to meet the 57 awesome ladies and gentlemen of W squad who I will be spending my next year with. They’re all pretty much rockstars.
