It’s been a few days and I don’t feel that I’ve fully had time to process what happened last week. Training camp was only a week, but to me it felt like a month. For some, it was an incredibly transformative experience. God worked on their hearts in some profound ways. He broke down walls that had been building up for years. He spoke truth and healing into places that before were filled with lies and pain. He answered prayers. For me, training camp was not so radical. I’m not saying that God did not move in these ways (He is still doing mysterious things in me! My brokenness is being exposed more and more on the daily! Please don’t be discouraged or sad for me, I still learned so much!), training camp just wasn’t a pivotal moment for me… although at some points it was quite traumatizing!
For those of you who have been on or ever heard of Walkabout (a week-long trek though the Sisters Mountains in the middle of Oregon that RAs of my college are subjected to every August), this was harder. I mean yes… we ate “better” and we had access to showers (although I still only showered twice). BUT there was never any consistency in our schedules beyond waking up every morning and packing up everything . There was no daily rhythm. We averaged 4-6 hours of sleep a night and we rarely had any down time. We packed and unpacked and repacked on the daily. One night we were given raw chicken and veggies and we had to find a way to cook it over the campfire… it took 3 hours! We were placed in all sorts of scenarios that were supposed to simulate the reality of what could happen on the field. On top of it all, it was a week of intense emotion. Leading up to training, our squad had been receiving emails that 16 girls and 7 guys needed to switch squads. One by one a few people switched to other routes. However, when we got to training, 8 girls still needed to switch. The first night (we had not even be there but 4 hours) they sat our squad down and told us to spend some time praying if a switch was what the Lord had in mind for us. If 8 girls did not step up at the end of 10 minutes, they would draw names from a bucket and trust that their drawing would be spirit led (before you go thinking Adventures in Missions is evil, our squad had about 80 people on it before changes, and a healthy squad averaged 60. Other squads only had about 40-50 so a switch would benefit all. Everyone would still be launching in July, they would just be going to different counties with different people). Praise the Lord 8 girls felt led to go on another route. I admired (and was thankful) for their courage, but it was hard to see them go. Emotions only elevated from there. Jumping to the end of the week, being placed in teams was HARD. I tried to go into it with an open mind and no expectations, but I failed. When I initially got placed on my team I cried (well, I cried a lot during training camp). In all honesty, I sure my emotional reaction had nothing to do with my team and more to do with myself – my own insecurities and disappointments. These are stellar people! We are all on the same mission and we all feel called to go and serve the nations! As we began talking, I soon discovered that everyone was feeling and uneasiness about the team. In fact, just about everyone on every team had something they were feeling uneasy about. We quickly deemed those feelings silly and moved on. Our first task was to come up with a team name, so we decided to focus on finding a common word that we wanted to be known and remembered by, and that word was love (I know, it seems so simple, but it’s actually quite a complex word!). We settled on the team name, No Greater Love. It’s a name that reflects the Father’s feelings for us, one that we hope will bring truth and life to the people we will be serving. Day by day my uneasiness and anxiety about this team is slipping away. I’ve gotten to know them better, and I feel like the Lord has given me new eyes to see them with… His. This group is full of strength and hope. I am so excited to see our stories come together and spur us onwards in our ministry and service! Please pray for us- this is my family for at least the first few months! You can click on their links to the left to learn more about them!
Team: No Greater Love // Front: Brooke, Connie, Bekah // Back: Me, Matt, Pablo, Jared
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down ones life for ones friends.” John 15:13 NIV
