All I can really think is WOW. Mentally and physically, I am exhausted. But spiritually, I am rejuvenated. In my 4 years fully following the Lord and being immersed in ministry, I have never experienced anything quite like that. I feel as though I just experienced a term of bible college, 3 back-to-back weekend retreats, an episode of survivor, and exercise boot camp all mashed up into 11 days. Constantly covered in sweat and red Georgia dirt, and surrounded by people who loved God and loved me well, needless to say it was incredible.
Okay, so maybe I didn’t research well, or maybe I missed something but all of the blogs I read about training camp warned me of specific scenarios I would be put through, like a foreign market place, or spending the night in a loud airport (which was actually the best night of sleep I got the whole 11 days), or getting your whole pack taken from you for a day (which also happened to me). Yes, these things happened, and yes they were challenging. But let me tell you some of the other things I experienced at Training Camp:
- While watching the Solar Eclipse I was attacked by fire ants, which as you can imagine was a huge distraction
- I fell out of my hammock from a rather tall height and was trapped inside the mosquito net for what felt like eternity but was actually about 5 seconds
- I showered more times than I thought I would but not nearly enough times as I should have out of a bucket full of cold water, although in the Georgia humidity you couldn’t really tell it was cold
- I ate wet food on a communal plate placed at the center of the table, so hungry I didn’t care that we were all savagely grabbing with our fingers and stuffing our faces. We ate until our fingers were pruned
- I taught my squad of 49 how to do the “Z-phunk” Line dance, a Corvallis favorite, and they loved it and I felt like I was home
- My teammate Meg and I shared words from the Lord through google translate with a young man who didn’t speak English and his smile brightened my day
- I worshiped the Lord in complete FREEDOM
What they don’t tell you about training camp is that you will be placed into a culture where you will be challenged and encouraged to live in full surrender and abandonment of anything holding you back. If there is anything keeping you from experiencing God’s presence and peace, SHUT IT DOWN. Then, you can live an abundant life, you can experience true living water, you can deal with your emotions in a healthy way, you can experience intimacy with God, you can start to believe the truth that God says about you, and you can run with endurance the race God has set before you (Hebrews 12:1). You can finally set aside shame, learn about who you are in Christ, learn how to forgive so that you may live in freedom, learn to let go of fear through love-because perfect love cast out fear. Then you can use Gods power, which is for us and abides inside us even on our worst days. This is the truth, and this is what they did tell me at training camp. I’m more ready than ever to be the hands and feet of Jesus for 11 months traveling the world, and then for the rest of my life.
There’s no shadow you won’t light up
Mountain you won’t climb up
Coming after me
No wall you won’t kick down
Lie you won’t tear down
Coming after me
