July 6th-16th. What an eventful ten days. I am going to do my best to answer the questions you all asked me on Facebook. I am sure there is no way to fully capture all God did at Adventures in Missions during training camp, but hopefully this post will give you an idea.
What surprised you most?
Everything I heard about or read about training camp prior to going scared and overwhelmed me. The best piece of advice I received was to go into it with no expectations and to let God do all He wants to do. What He wants to do is unique for each person. People will have different challenges and different breakthrough moments. I was surprised because camp was nothing like the expectations I created in my head prior to camp. And that is a beautiful thing. Camp was unlike anything I could ever have asked or imagined. Who knew after ten days I could see myself forever living in a tent, taking bucket showers, eating meals with my hands, using porta-potties and scarcely seeing myself in a mirror yet feeling more beautiful and confident than I ever have? I genuinely did not want to leave on the last day. Minimal missionary lifestyle is actually quite desirable.
What was the craziest thing that happened?
One night there was an airport sleeping scenario. Roughly one hundred people slept in very small quarters with lights and airport noises on all night long. Chairs took up most of the space. The sleep was certainly not quality, but it was quite the bonding experience.
What was the schedule like each day? Were you constantly busy or did you get time to b-r-e-a-t-h-e?
Every day looked a little bit different but most days looked somewhat like this:
7AM- wake up
7:30AM- morning devotional/ prayer
8:30AM- breakfast
9AM-11:45AM- training sessions (missionary lifestyle, community, intimacy w/the Lord, ministry training, emotional and mental health, logistics etc.)
12PM- lunch
1PM-3PM- training sessions
3PM-4:30PM- team time or squad time (bonding, Q&A, problem solving)
4:30PM-6PM- free time (which usually meant more team and squad bonding)
6PM- dinner
7PM-9PM- worship and training session
9PM-10PM- debrief with teams
11PM (which really means 12-1AM whoops)- in tents to sleep
What did God reveal about HIMSELF to you?
I came to a deeper understanding of things I’ve heard before in my walk of faith but had not fully understood or embraced. He showed me He is completely trustworthy and He is available and accessible 100% of the time. He showed me the parts of my life I had yet to fully surrender to Him and that I could trust Him with those parts of my life because what He has for me is SO much better. He showed me the lies I was believing about myself and replaced those lies with truth. He showed me that a lifestyle of constant prayer, worship, discipleship and intimacy with Him is possible and that the ways of the early church do not have to be limited to the book of Acts as a part of history, but can live on today in the twenty-first century.
What did God reveal about you that you didn’t know before?
My worth. I have always struggled to fully believe I am worth loving. I have struggled to believe I am beautiful the way I am. I have struggled to understand what it means to be a cherished daughter of God. God taught me I am His daughter. I was made in His image. I am loved. I am capable of more than I ever knew possible. I am a daughter of strength and beauty which can only be found in the Lord. I have heard these things for years now, but I began to truly believe them at training camp. To all of you young women who struggle to believe these things about yourself, I pray you begin to embrace them as truth. You are cherished. You are set apart for the Lord. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are faultless before your Father. You are beautiful. You are forgiven. You are free.
How weird are your coaches?
They are weird in the best way. They are trustworthy, caring and kind. They are perfectly goofy and unashamed of who they are. They are wonderful examples of a Christ-centered marriage and of unconditional love.
What was your favorite part?
I loved watching forty five people come to Gainesville, Georgia as complete strangers and depart from camp as a close family. This transformation only took ten days. If we are this close now, I cannot begin to imagine how close we will be ten months from now. We are a fun and crazy (in the best way) group of people. Truly. I love my squad with all of my heart.
What are Squad wars?
Squad wars involves fighting with noodles to crack eggs. It involves dance offs. It involves stomping on people’s ankles. It involves inhaling flour and still sneezing it out six days later. It involves war paint… war paint everywhere. Your voice will be lost completely. Did I mention dance offs?
How bad were the bugs?
I grew up in Georgia. Georgia summers are not a joke and neither are the mosquitos that come with them. I was shocked because I came home from training camp with ONLY three mosquito bites. It was not that bad. I had a few ants move into my tent with me and there were flies on the food at almost every meal, but such is life.
How did the hike go?
I will not lie. It was brutal. I hike fairly often and it was one of the hardest hikes I have ever done, but it was also one of the most rewarding. My team and I prayed for almost thirty eight minutes during the hike and it allowed us to physically support and encourage each other. Future racers, know this: your body is capable of so much more than you think it is. You can do hard things.
I hope this gave you a look into my ten days at World Race training camp. If you have more questions, please comment them below. Please continue to pray for my squad and I over the next six weeks that we continue to grow from all we learned at training camp prior to leaving the states in September.
-CJ
