Despite knowing the dates for training camp several months in advance, I still ended up packing the night before. Not to mention shopping the weekend before and ordering a bunch of stuff last minute online and then going back in to reorder it in expedited two-day shipping because lo and behold it wasn’t going to come in time.
Monday night, July 9th, I sat in my living room with my backpack finally fully packed. I had been training for the fitness hike for months. Working my way up in weight. Still, the most I had carried was 25 pounds. Which is a lot for me considering I only weigh 100. But now my pack weighed 34 pounds. I was a ball of nerves and anticipation. I had no idea what to expect from training camp and now it was more real than ever. I decided I had to do one last mock fitness hike, so I could know that I could do it with the extra almost 10 pounds. I set off down my sidewalk with my huge backpack and my ukulele in tow. I walked the path through my neighborhood and into the park. I think the ukulele added an extra layer to the shock of random people seeing what probably looked like a very elaborate run away plan by a twelve-year-old. One kid even turned around on his bike to gawk. I barely made it a half mile before I had to stop. I paused my time and started pulling things out of my backpack. I started shoving things in my day pack to balance out the weight. All the while, people were passing giving me increasingly concerned and judgmental looks. I have to admit, it was pretty hilarious. I stopped twice more to add more weight to my day pack and therefore less weight on my shoulders, and by the time I was coming home, the sun had set and my mom was out looking for me. I then spent the next hour re-packing my backpack getting rid of anything I possibly could. All in all, not the smoothest packing situation, but everything still came together, and for that, I am very grateful.
Tuesday, July 10th, I woke up at 3:20 am and headed for the airport. I was surprisingly wide awake. Once again, I was a ball of nerves and energy. I had never flown by myself before and due to long lines at security, I ended up cutting it pretty close. Still, I was thrilled in many ways to be traveling on my own. I met my squad (well part of it) for the first time in the Atlanta airport. I was shy and socially awkward and we were all tired. Yet I soon felt comfortable that I could name the fourteen people sitting around me. However, when we got to camp in Gainesville Georgia I was in for a shock. While I knew in theory we had about forty people on our squad, I had no idea just how many people that is. Forty people is A LOT of people. These were the people I would spend nine months traveling with. Nine months of ministry together. I needed to like and know these people. Everyone was already so nice, but I worried I wouldn’t fit in. It was already so hard to talk to people and I was overwhelmed. Also, I was so so hot because Georgia humid heat is nothing like Colorado heat. And the only water bottle I had was the disposable one I bought at the airport, which worked fine until I left it at dinner my second night and it was thrown away. I bought my first Nalgene water bottle the next day though so it all worked out, and my travel cup saved me in the meantime. “Americans they can never go without their water bottles. It’s like they think they are going to die of thirst if they don’t have a water bottle for even one second.” (Training Camp Speaker).
So we set up our tents that first night and we took them all down the next morning. Wednesday morning at breakfast they gave us chopsticks and told us not to lose them because we weren’t going to get another pair and we would need them all day. Breakfast was rice and eggs, and it was surprisingly good, except it was a struggle to get more than a few kernels of rice into my mouth at once, which resulted in me not having enough time to finish. Wednesday was our first day together, and we spent a lot of time getting to know our squadmates and also our teams of around eight people. It was really nice to have eight people to focus on rather than all forty. Though at first, I worried what everyone thought of me. I worried that I would be left out. That I wasn’t an important part of the team. That I was just there. And so on. But then we were sitting inside the lodge on the floor as a whole squad and we were reading from Ephesians chapter four. And verse two stuck out to me. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” And it reminded me that it didn’t matter what my teammates or squadmates thought of me, it was my job to love them no matter what. Jesus gently whispered to my heart and reminded me of what was important. The majority of my insecurities were washed away in that instant. Suddenly, it didn’t matter what they thought of me, and that made all the difference. I quickly came to realize how much I genuinely loved the people around me. I was also holding everyone around me to an incredibly high standard without realizing it. Yeah, the people on my squad aren’t perfect, but you’d think that’s a pretty obvious fact.
As the day wore on, I came out of my anxious introvert bubble and began to adjust to what was going on around me. By dinner, I was shoveling rice into my mouth with my chopsticks. In just a few days, it felt like a lifetime had gone by. I felt so different. The things I worried about turned out to be not such an issue after all. Namely, I was happy to eat even the food I didn’t like, and despite being incredibly afraid of spiders and bugs, I found peace with having all the bugs around. The second night, I saw a pretty big hairy spider and I just kinda looked at it like oh that’s a spider and I’m not even scared. I mean it probably helped that it was dead, but I didn’t know that at first. Also, I’ve never particularly enjoyed showers, but that cold bucket shower in the Georgia heat was the best shower I have ever had. And the fitness hike? Despite having a cold, I finished my 2.2-mile walk/run in 31 minutes instead of the required 38. And all I ended up carrying was 25 pounds, but I think 1/4 my body weight is plenty.
Training camp introduced me to a beautiful, quieter, go-with-the-flow kind of life, and I loved it. I was ecstatic and relieved to find that I trusted all the World Race staff immensely. Beyond trusting them as an organization, the leaders going with us and the ones staying behind were immediately part of our squad family. We listened to a lot of speakers at training camp, and it was great because they taught us how to bridge cultural differences. They told us to listen, learn about, and to respect the different cultures we would be going to. Essentially, they told us not to try and shove the gospel down other people’s throats but to build relationships and live in love treating people how Jesus would have. They told us to see the people no one else bothers to see. They told us to listen actively, ask questions, and work through language barriers. And they taught us how to share our beliefs in a way that’s easy to understand. It was so awesome to hear them teach on all these things, not only because I got so much out of it, but also because I found that my way of approaching this missionary trip and Christianity, in general, is also their way of approaching it. I became so excited as the reality hit me. I’m really doing this! I get to go and learn about other cultures and talk to people of other religions. I get to share who Jesus is and who I am because of Him. And I get to make friendships with people in Thailand, Malaysia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador! We get to serve the people there and hopefully make a lasting impact in the places we go because there’s no question about it, those places are going to make a lasting impact on us.
I also loved that everyone around me, despite our different backgrounds and denominations, could come together and unite in worship. United in the same goal, to travel and share the hope we had each found in Jesus. During worship, everyone put their heart into it. We were all singing so loud, that you couldn’t hear the band that was trying to lead us in worship. It was amazing. And it was so cool to hear everyone’s different perspective on how God was shaping and changing each one of us.
We were being prepared to leave for nine months. Not just in practicalities but in heart and mind and spirit. Those forty people already feel more like family than strangers. We now look forward to a twenty-one-hour flight to Thailand from Atlanta in just five short weeks.
Meet my Squad (The 40 people traveling with me) and my Team (The eight people I get to do almost everything with).
This is my Lovely Team. They couldn’t be better: (Left to right) Courtney, Braiden, Sydney, Maeci, Cammy, me, Claire, and Emma (Being held).
Quotes from Speakers at TC
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“Oh also, share your darn peanut butter! I see you, you’re all a bunch of peanut butter hoarders!”
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“When we start distancing ourselves from the people God loves as much as us – we have a problem.”
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“God will get undignified running after you. Yes, he did that 2000 years ago when he hung his son naked on the cross.”
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“God will outrun judgment.”
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“If God is only as big as your mind, you’ve got a problem.”
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“When you have an opportunity to evangelize, be intentional to ask questions. Don’t push an agenda.”
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“Be un-offendable.”
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“Believe the best in people.”
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“Live as Jesus lived – talk to the untouchables.”
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“Take up a posture of learning. Learning about the cultures you are in and learning about yourself.”
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“You are not supposed to live for the approval of God, you are supposed to live FROM the approval of God.”
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“When you give up all things for Christ, you are not left with nothing.”
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“Highlighting differences brings debate while highlighting similarities brings discovery and relationship.”
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“The saying ‘God says it, I believe it, that settles it.’ is not true. It should be ‘God says it. That settles it.’”
