Roughly a year ago today, I finished training camp. I learned a ton and thought I was prepared for the race…
Here are just a few of the things that still took me by surprise over the year.
El Salvador-
1. To have a host warn us about the cat in the roof, that had the potential to fall through the roof on us while we slept.
2. To climb on the roof of our church to get hot glue that our hosts grandson had thrown up there.
3. To live near the border of 2 gang territories in a city where the gangs have almost total control
4. To give a sermon entirely in Spanish to a youth group of 100+ people
Guatemala-
5. To sleep through an earthquake and next to a fire breathing dragon (Volcan de Fuego)
6. To have one of my favorite ministry stories come out of illness
7. To participate in independence day festivities for almost an entire week
8. To use frisbee to connect with students that we couldn’t otherwise understand
Honduras-
9. To give piggy back rides to the kids who are really too big for piggy back rides
10. To live in a town where Compassion International sponsors kids
11. To have ukulele jam sessions and have our host learn my favorite song
12. To be welcomed in as part of the family and take long walks to the mall in the rain for fun
Nicaragua-
13. To experience the most genuine worship at a prison
14. To be part of a ministry thats goal is to be sustainable for locals
15. To learn about actual rest and Sabbath and have a home away from home for the holidays
16. To be asked through home-made picture book to be a raised up squad leader
Cote D’ivoire-
17. To cut up a pineapple with a multitool, eat french fries for Christmas Eve dinner and eat everything with ‘choco max’
18. To be our own plumbers when the sink was clogged
19. To get to prayer walk and sit under semi-trucks to evangelize to mostly muslim truckers
20. To spend Christmas caroling with local children in a rural village and preaching a message where the Holy Spirit totally showed up
Ghana-
21. To be given free reign of gym class (and to be allowed to use that time to teach dances as exercise)
22. To catch venomous snakes (that we didn’t know were venomous at the time) in toilet paper bags
23. To eat french toast made with sweetened condensed milk (sure as heck didn’t have that at training camp)
24. To be challenged to catch goats… And fail a shameful amount of times… But try, try again
Nepal-
25. To be given the opportunity to trek Everest Base Camp, bungee jump, and canyon swing all the same month
26. To be cold even in all my layers even though it was 65 degrees because our route prior to that was so hot
27. To find good steak for $6 when I didn’t think I’d eat steak for an entire year (and eat it lots of times)
28. To get to sit on the roof of our hostel and share the gospel with the Indian owners
India-
29. To get a ‘come at me bro’ from a monkey with a watermellon hat, and hear said monkeys and chickens fighting in trees during leadership calls
30. To dodge heards of goats and water buffalo’s in the ministry machine
31. To have dance parties with our new family in the village
32. To get to show my parents around a country that I still knew next to nothing about
Thailand-
33. To have complete freedom to make ministry whatever the Lord wanted
34. To get to participate in Songkran- the mega water fight for new year
35. To get to empower teammates to walk in their strengths and giftings
36. To be part of an Awakening with 3 other 11in11 squads (And to have some of them become like family too-I’m talking to you B-Squad!)
Malaysia-
37. To be constantly victimized by the demon monkeys on our island. They are little thieves… I could go on but I won’t.
38. To get to choose to go live on a remote island for the month
39. To be invited to a pre-Ramadan feast
40. To meet up with friends from the states and have them totally bless the crap out of our team!
Indonesia-
41. To get to travel from team to team with my co-leader
42. To connect with HOP’s across the country and be blessed to find the most incredible house church I’ve ever experienced
43. To live on the beach and watch surf competitions then live in hippie town for a week as ministry
44. To finish this race processing my experience in the place that arguably started it all
If you want to know where these were, ask and I will share…
45. To discover cockroaches/spiders in the toaster (after eating from it)
46. To inhale so much bus exhaust that your boogers were eternally black. (Eternal may be a bit dramatic… But for at least a few months)
47. To live among ducks, chickens, lizards, mega-lizards, monkeys, rats, countless other critters and their poop
48. To witness the amount of peeing in public I’ve seen around the world
49. To experience super crowded public transportation, transport that you have to get out and push to start and driving in any other country where no laws are obeyed. Ever.
50. To be blessed with debriefs and leadership development weekends to recoup
51. To be blessed with an incredible alumni squad leader (Alpal, I had no clue what you did or why you were with us for the first 4 months of the race, but I’m forever grateful for you!)… Our leadership team is incredible as well (s/o Jer, Keith & Karen, Bella, Courtney, Clay, Wayne)
52. To be blessed with SO many incredible AIM Bases (Guatemala, Nicaragua, India, Thailand)!!
53. To be given the opportunity to squad lead and get to pour into our community in a different way. 54. To be completely and utterly blessed by God through host’s, ministries and accommodations. 55. To be included in EVERY aspect of their lives- including weddings, dowery celebrations, birthdays, baptisms and funerals
For all the furture raceres out there, this year’s been incredible, and training camp prepares you for a lot.. But 10 days can’t really prepare you for all that 11 months has to offer! Take what you can, leave some stuff behind, and learn as you go.
