Hi friends!
I got home from World Race Training Camp last Saturday and I have sat down to write this blog trying to describe the experience easily half a dozen times at least. I wanted to write something that was clever or exceptionally meaningful to continue to share with YOU, my magnificent supporters (and maybe future supporters or racers), how the Lord is preparing my team and I for launch in 5 and a half weeks. But it felt like anything I wrote didn’t adequately reflect or capture what needed to be shared. So bear with me as I do my best to explain such a crazy and wonderful experience.
Training Camp was a bit like a boot camp for battling spiritual warfare and How to Be an Effective Missionary 101 and it was HARD. To be honest, it was much more difficult than I anticipated it would be. Not necessarily based on individual challenges, scenarios or seminars but, the combination of each with lack of sleep, spiritual stretching, emotional digging, physical pushing, constant hot/ stickiness (cold bucket showers for the win), and my personal bout of fighting sickness. By the end of Training Camp, I was emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted. For all my friends who have worked at a summer camp, it was kind of like staff orientation, but WAY HARDER.
Throughout camp, we were given many tools via preaching/seminars on a variety of topics ranging from forgiveness to logistics to preaching. We were called into a place of fully receiving the freedom and wholeness we have in Christ, that we may be people that Christ can use to free other people. Many people stepped into freedom and light and out of areas of shame, lack of forgiveness and addiction. A variety of racers, including myself, were encouraged and affirmed in our identities in Christ from our Father. Praise God! I have considered myself to be open to how the Holy Spirit can move in power but, I was awakened to the walls of the box I hadn’t realized I had put God in while at camp and was challenged to seek the Lord in new ways.
Our squad was physically stretched as we were expected to exercise together almost every morning at 7 am. We also had to pass a fitness test by walking/ hiking 3 miles in less than 50 minutes with our full packs on our backs. Almost every night we were given scenarios to test our ability to adapt to difficult sleeping situations that could possibly happen over the course of the 11-month trip. For example, one scenario was that we had a 12-hour layover in China during the day. So, for our one night we slept indoors, they set up the worship center to look like an airport complete with folding chairs in groups that are “bolted to the floor. They also kept the lights on and blasted extremely loud fake airport sounds over the sound system all night. In another scenario, “the airport lost” half of our squads bags so we had to adjust to the situation and pair up for the night. Most of our nights were spent in our tents or in hammocks.
There were many things that occurred at Training Camp that impacted me, I’m still processing through and God is using to strengthen me and stretch me. However, I believe the one thing that impacted me the most at camp was meeting and interacting with my squad. At one point during Training Camp, it was spoken over our squad that we are warriors and after what I witnessed and experienced over those 10 days, I can confidently say that this is true as I watched that play out in many beautiful ways. Specifically, our squad is one to fight for each other through prayer, immediately and without hesitation. There were many occasions in which someone in our squad, myself included, expressed a need for prayer, and either the entire squad or a few would stop in that moment and lift those in need up in prayer. Additionally, our squad fights to be a squad of honor and integrity. This is only the beginning of seeing how community will play out on the Race and I am excited to see how the Lord is going to work through each of the amazing souls on my squad!
It’s true. Training Camp kicked my butt, however, God is so good and I am grateful for the hard but crazy purposeful and intentional time of training we had in Georgia.
Here is some World Race lingo and people you will want to know!
Meet My Squad!
We are 4th generation J-Squad and our squad color is blue. Here are some terms and people you may want to know…
RACERS: There are 56 of us! That’s ME!
3 SQUAD LEADERS: Tera, Molly Fae and Andrew (They will lead us for 5 months and then leaders will be raised up from within our squad to take their place)
1 SQUAD MENTOR: Teresa
4 SQUAD COACHES: Roger/ Rozy and Kerry/ Toni
*Want to get to know my squad mates better and read their blogs to hear about what the Lord is doing through their ministry? Click on the “Meet My Squad” Button on the left sidebar <<<——–
Meet My Team!
We are Team Shalom. But, you can call us Shalomies. (Pronounced like “homies”)
Why did you guys pick that name? The morning of team formations ended in a place that left many on our team feeling unsure and unsettled about our possible teams but trusting what the Lord had. Later that afternoon when our individual names were first called as being part of our team, none of us really grasped who was on our team because we were focusing on hearing our own names. As soon as the seven of us began walking toward each other, an overwhelming sense of peace fell on each of us. Tera, one of our squad leaders, came over to us and without us saying anything, she immediately declared over us that she believed we were a group of peace and then prayed that truth over us. During dinner, we felt as a team that Shalom, meaning peace in Hebrew, was the name that best described our heartbeat and what we want to bring with us into ministry!
*Check out the “Meet My Team” button on the left sidebar to read these pretty lady’s blogs and find out more information about them!
**Want to be an intentional prayer partner for my team? You can “Adopt My Team” on the left sidebar.
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What Now?
I leave for launch on August 4th. We will spend a few days in Atlanta and then will launch to our first country: LESOTHO!
Our first ministry partner is called Africa4Jesus in the Malea-lea Valley in Lesotho. You can find their website here: http://a4jlesotho.weebly.com/
This month, Our team gets the sweet pleasure of doing ministry with another team from our squad, Team Kintsu!
SUPPORT RAISING UPDATE:
I am currently 85% funded. That means I still need $2,489 to be fully funded. Would you consider joining my support team? If so, click on the Donate button on the left!
