First of all, my mind has been completely and utterly blown away by the greatness and glory of God. He showed up in so many ways, on so many levels, to everyone. He met with each of the 250+ of us in the way that each person needed, and in ways that we may have never expected.
I want to take a minute to say that I am SO THANKFUL to every single member of the AIM staff, all of the alumni, our trainers, and of course our AMAZING squad leaders, Kelly, Tiffany and Josh. I am so thankful to all of them for their transparency and willingness to take a week of their lives just to prepare, spend time with, pray for and pour into all of us. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.
Training camp, wow. How do I put this past week into words? I feel as though my thoughts are so scattered; so much has happened. But I think if I were to describe this time of preparation in 3 terms, they would be Heartbreaking, Empowering, and Unifying.
HEARTBREAKING:
Normally when we say we are heartbroken, it is a sad or a miserable state. A relationship ended; someone has hurt someone terribly, a tragedy has occurred, etc. But I don’t define the word solely as this. In this case, training camp has been heartbreaking because He is BREAKING OUR HEARTS.
He has changed my heart in a way that is now permanent. One thing that does is the same though is that heart break is never easy, and it always is somewhat painful.
Clay isn’t molded unless it is reworked and its shape is changed, and it can be an ugly process. But the outcome is pure beauty.
Our willingness to surrender to the potter’s hand, as difficult as the process might be, is beautiful.
This week has been a week of heart break for me.
Daddy in His loving and gentle way exposed some lies that I allowed cling onto me, and He broke them off of me. When part of you is gone, even if it never was meant to be there in the first place, it is a strange feeling. But it is so freeing. He broke lies off of me that I have believed about myself for SO LONG. Lies like, “No one notices you or pays attention to you.” “You will never amount to much.” “You’ll never be as strong or vibrant for the Lord as THEY are, you’re not outspoken, and you aren’t loud enough.” And the list goes on (I don’t need to discuss them any more).
The bottom line is, I let them linger in my heart for so many years, when for so long my Jesus was telling me to just let go and let Him take them away.
Praise be to my Daddy in Heaven for exposing these false truths, raking them out, and replacing them with the TRUTH. He made me the way I am, and with Him I can do all things, because that’s just it- it’s not me doing anything, it’s Him, by His strength.
And that is enough.
(PHoto Cred: the talented Cassie Wilson!)
EMPOWERING:
This term almost stands for itself…who empowers us? WHY THE HOLY SPIRIT OF COURSE! And WHEW did He blow through that camp and make Himself known last week! He filled me up once again and I can almost hear Him whispering like He does in my ear, “Bri, I’m sending you to the nations. I’M SENDING YOU. I’ve CHOSEN, YOU. I’ve handpicked you to show them my love, to walk as my righteous daughter, to love them as I have loved you.” And that blows my mind on its own. I feel so honored and privileged to go on His behalf, to be His ambassador to the nations along with an incredible group of 61 people, specifically with my team of 7 others (who by the way are listed on the sidebar of my blog now! GO SUBSCRIBE TO THEIR BLOGS TOO!!!).
He has called us to go, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us to do. And the best part? He said He’d be with us, even to the very end of the age! (Matthew 28:19-20). He has also empowered each of His to go heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons (Matt. 10:8), and He also has told us we will do even greater things than He did when He was on the earth (John 14:12). THAT’s crazy! Do you know how crazy and radical some of the things were Jesus did while He was here? C.R.A.Z.Y. to everyone around Him. He shook up and turned an entire culture around and all of their ideals were questioned, many turned to Him, many hated Him (some killed Him). But He did it anyways.
WE are called to shake up our world friends! And yes, here I am going around the planet to 11 countries in 11 months doing crazy things for Jesus, but this is for you too! I encourage you to get close with Him and spend some time asking Him, “Jesus, what do I need to change in my life, so that I am more available and more alert to what Your Spirit may want to do every day in the lives of people around me?” Y’all, all of these commands He told us to do that I just talked about above, they aren’t just for people who are going on mission trips, this is how we were designed to live; to carry and demonstrate His love every single day to every person we come in contact with.
(Photo Cred: once again, the talented Cassie Wilson!)
UNIFYING:
One last thing that we learned this week was what it means to be unified.
As a squad, we faced many challenges and “uncomfortable” situations.
We supported each other.
One night we slept in a 40 seater kids’ school bus with 60 people and 120 packs. It was uncomfortable, it wasn’t a bowl full of cherries, but it showed us how to bond together and rely on the Lord to help us make the most of the situation and keep our attitudes in check when things got stressful.
We kept building each other up.
Another night we had to band together and camp out by a lake, in a swampland, and cook our food, prepare a fire and a place to sleep. And with the great leadership of our interim squad leaders, we successfully did all of those things and had an amazing time doing it. Swamp, daddy long legs and all, we did it. It was incredible.
We relied on each other and worked together.
When as had dish duty, what did we do? We made an assembly line and bellowed out Disney songs at the top of our lungs and had fun while doing it.
We truly are family, and we will only continue to get closer together as we go.
I truly could not have asked for a better group of people to embark on this journey together, nor a better team!
We truly are wobbling, bus/swamp-sleeping, Disney-jamming, BOLD, Holy Spirit empowered, unified, messengers of Jesus’ love.
I LOVE YOU N-SQUAD! SEE YOU IN 1O WEEKS!
(photo cred: Cassie Wilson)
(and end blog post that breaks almost every blog rule in the book!)
