If I could use one word to describe training camp, it would be awesome. And that barely scratches the surface! Each day started with praise and worship (which was amazing!) followed by exercises that not only challenged us as a squad, but also as individuals. Each night we slept in different situations that we might experience while out on the mission field. I learned that while our situations were crumy, there were people out there who had it much worse. At least we had a roof over our heads! On our first official day at training camp, my squad was taken to a field where there were 2 tarps laid out on the field. We were given the choice to put our backpacks on the tarp on the left or the tarp on the right. I decided to put mine on the right. Bad idea!! All of the back packs on the right were "lost" by the airline. Our backpacks were covered up with the other tarp so they wouldn't get wet over night. The only things we could take out of our backpacks were medications, if we needed them, and our water bottles so we wouldn't get dehydrated. We, then, started coming up with ideas of the sleeping arrangements. I would say that as a squad we did really well! I learned that, while it stunk to lose my stuff, it was a good exercise because you never know what's going to happen while out on the field.
Training camp gave me a deeper and more broader perspective of what it will be like on the world race. It bascially made me do a 360! Whatever I thought was going to happen on the world race, was replaced by the reality of what will happen. I heard stories from former world racers that made my jaw drop! They told us about things they witnessed and just how amazing God is!
And of course there were the fun times. There were over 200 world racers at training camp! We were divided into squads based on who went out into the field first. I was on the W squad, followed by X and Y. Towards the end of the week, we had squad wars. On the first round, each squad had to come up with a cheer. After all the cheers had been presented to the judges, the W squad won! The second, and final round, consisted of different games. And after all was said and done, the W squad came out on top, winning the squad wars!!
The last 2 days, each squad was divided up into teams of 6 or 7, with each team having a team leader. There are 6 people, total, on my team: Steven, Glenn, Emily, Sam and Jamie, with Steven being the team leader. I am absolutely thrilled to work with the people on my team. I know that God will use us to bring others to Christ and glorify His name!
