Monday, July 9th – Storytelling Workshop
Tuesday, July 10th – Friday, July 20th – Training Camp
Community, wow oh wow, 300 people all in sync, pursuing the same God, is utterly beautiful.
I couldn’t have picked a better squad (47 people) or team (7 other ladies) even if I tried. God distinctly orchestrated us all to be on route 3, this squad, these teams, these countries, this year, and in this season of our lives. His timing is perfect. Going into training camp, I was super worried about not only meeting my squad, but more so finding out who I was going to be on a team with. The people I would be with constantly for nine months. Yall my team is freakin amazing! I only spent ten days with them, but I feel like I’ve known them forever! Our team name is Kaleo, meaning “to call” or “to invite,” and we all agreed that throughout this journey this word is our mantra. I feel like I’ve always been independent, but I’m slowly learning what it looks like “to invite” others into my life, and depend on them. That I don’t have to always do things on my own, and in fact God never intended for me to do life alone.
If your a future world racer, GO TO THE STORYTELLING WORKSHOP!
This week I fully grasped that my story matters. That people genuinely want to hear the highs and the lows of my journey. Each night before I went to sleep, I journaled. About the crickets we ate, about the random rain showers, about the team building activities, about how the porta potties were going to get cleaned out the next morning, about the sermons we heard and songs we sang, about a new friend I met, about the adoption snack shack. These are all things that I specifically remember, ONLY because I wrote them down. Each day felt like an eternity and there was no way on day five that I could remember anything from day one. How much more by month five of the race will I not be able to remember details from month one? Write, each night or morning, even when you don’t feel like it (I’m speaking to myself!)
You decide what you make of your time.
Several times I heard this, but it really didn’t mean anything to me until I really thought about it. I realize I could have gone throughout these eleven days and could have left the exact same way. If I don’t choose to live intentionally in these nine months and aim to get everything out of it that’s possible I won’t be any different. I want to be different, better, stronger, more bold and courageous.
How do I view God?
In one of the activities we did, we were asked this question. God gave me an image of Him in a rocking chair, swaddling me as a baby. In a whisper voice He’s singing a lullaby, and He’s telling me who I am. How He sees me. He also told me to honor my earthly father for the sole fact that he’s my dad. Throughout the rest of the day I couldn’t get this out of my mind and even throughout worship whenever everyone else was singing, yelling, jumping, I sat down on the floor and rocked feeling His arms around me. He showed me how gentle He is.
GOD IS SO CRAZY COOL! One of the messages at training camp was about abiding in God and visitation rights—>habitation rights, and literally that was the exact message the Sunday I got back to my home church! HOW WILD! Then I go to yoga that Tuesday night and inner peace and joy was the theme of the entire practice, which was one of the sermons at training camp too! God orchestrates everything in our lives, a masterpiece indeed. This is what I learned from each of these messages….
When you’re abiding with God, you don’t tell God what to do, you simply say, “God what are you doing today, because I want to join.”
Intimacy comes when he lives inside of you. Deon gave us this image. You have an empty cup in one hand and a water bottle in the other. The empty cup represents your life and the water bottle represents the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit fills your cup just a little, look at how much of you is still in the rest of the cup, quite a bit. When the bottle water is poured a little bit more in the cup, then more of the Holy Spirit resides in you and the more you hear Him. Then when the water bottle water is poured to the rim of the cup, your walk changes, because you’re full of the Holy Spirit. Deon bumped (like he was having an argument) into someone with the cup, making some of the water spill out (the Holy spirit) making the cup less full (more of us). Taylor gave us a picture about knowing the voice of God. You get a phone call and you don’t recognize the number, but you answer it and say your name and then you ask, who is it? They tell you, and yall talk and then hang up. A while later, He calls again, and you kind of recognize His voice, but you’re not sure because you didn’t save His number, so you answer it and say hello this is Annika, who is this? He says the Holy Spirit. You talk and hang up. The next time He calls you recognize His voice and you don’t have to ask who it is, in fact you saved His number in your phone and He’s very familiar.
MY YES TO GOD MEANS…..
Complete surrender
Live missionaly 24/7
Loving and honoring my team, squad, leaders, and hosts
Being intentional in these 9 months, being broken, uprooted, uncomfortable and vulnerable
Listening to others stories and perspective
Sharing my story and perspective
Choosing to be unoffended
Sharing the gospel and God’s love boldly and without fear
Choosing constant peace and joy
Giving myself personal time in prayer, reading, and processing
Releasing my desires, to desire Him
Putting aside distractions
Trusting fully in Him and not going back to old ways
Having a spirit of thanksgiving on my tongue
I have less than a month left, and then I’m off to Cambodia!
Thank you for reading and please continue to pray and partner with me!
