Putting the experiences of this past week into words has been extremely difficult for me. This afternoon I received the following text message from my fearless team leader Cameron Force…"Just Write! Don't worry about it coming out perfectly. Don't worry about what people will think. Just write. Ask Papa to help you write and just write." So here I am… writing.
One snapshot of Training Camp that automatically came to mind was a group task in which we were told to "build". That was the direction, "build". At first I think we took the task literally and began to place our backpacks on top of one another. We didn't really ask questions, we all just sort of looked at each other until our assigned leader Greg mentioned something about being able to use what was inside our packs. Without hesitation everyone dumped the contents out of their bags.
We had piles of clothes, toiletries, and Bibles galore. An idea of a market place was throw out. We all followed suit, no questions asked… we just "went with it." About three minutes into the exercise, more instructions were given, and every couple minutes after we were told to adjust our project. Looking around I saw other teams using their bodies and creating cheers and chants (totally my thing 😉 but for some reason the creativity just flowed from our group. Effortlessly we worked together and created the following…
Our story begins on the right in the middle of the photo. Handing over of our identity (represented by the driver's licenses) we begin this journey together (follow upward counterclockwise) we are seeking the Lord through His word (the stack of Bibles). In order to grow we must be plugged into Jesus and charging daily (power cord). Then we can shine His light (head lamps and lanterns) and love others by living a life on mission (the red World Race shirt mission statement) by; feeding the hungry (water bottles and granola bars), clothing the naked (pile o' clothes), and healing the sick (toiletries and first aid supplies).
As we continue our serving through World Race we are changed and have new identities in Christ (more driver's licenses and beautiful flowers) which we share with others through pictures (camera) and blog stories in hopes that they too will want to experience a new identity… and so continues the changing of the world one story at a time. At the center is a Bible opened to the following scripture, Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." The glasses represent our focus on the one who paid it all Jesus!
Build team left to right: Davis, amie, Dani, Megan, Kristen, and Greg 🙂
