Hello all, and welcome back to my blog!
A couple weeks ago, I boarded a plane to Atlanta, GA without a clue about what I was getting myself into.
This next part is to give you a nice idea of how I felt the first few days of training camp:
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This is awkward
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Oh, but people are nice
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Nobody likes me
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Wait, this person might!
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Why am I here?
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Why don’t I know these people yet?
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I miss home
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I love these people
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This is hard, but this is good
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Everything smells terrible
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Bucket showers aren’t so bad
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Why is it so hot?
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God is teaching me so much
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Why does nothing fit in my bag?
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These knock off chocos are so comfortable
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Why does the temperature change so dramatically at night?
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I love this skirt for India day
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Port-a-potties are of the devil
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South America has nice food!
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My squad is amazing
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I love my team
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A LICE EPIDEMIC?!?! GET ME OUT!!
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My leaders are so wonderful
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God has been so good to me
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Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s bad
This is just a small hint of the roller coaster training camp was.
Next, let me give you a rundown of what World Race training camp is:
This is 10 days where all people taking a gap year trip with the world race meet in GA. We get to meet our squads, and throughout the week are prepared spiritually, culturally, and a little bit physically for our trip.
Every day had a different country theme. For example, we had Africa day, Europe day, East Asia day, India day, Travel day, etc… For each day, we would eat food common to that region and wear appropriate dress. For India, that meant no ankles or shoulders showing and our heads were covered while we ate. In India they eat without utensils, which got interesting while we ate rice and chicken for dinner. We were basically going against everything our mothers ever taught us about table manners.
During the day we listened to speakers who had done the world race before and were now on staff. We heard anything from having a ministry mindset, to the gospel, to interacting with trafficked women, to hearing from God, and much more. After most of these sessions, we would break away into our teams and debrief what we learned, or there would be an activity to go along with what we had heard.
Every few nights, we would be put through different scenarios. One was they took away half of the luggage on our squad, so we had to pick a partner and the person who had their luggage had to share what they had with someone who had lost theirs. That one was really fun, but I also was the person with my luggage, so I guess I didn’t have to sacrifice too much. Another one was airport night, we got to sleep inside with AC, (yay!). The only catch was they kept the lights on all night and played super annoying “airport noises” BUT luckily, the stereo somehow turned off right as I went to sleep, and I had a sleep mask, so it worked out great! The last one was community living. We had to sleep in big 10 person tents with 9 other girls and all our stuff. We were right up close with each other, but I slept great! It was basically one big slumber party, except everyone went to sleep because we were exhausted.
A few days before training camp ended, we all had our big hike. We had to hike 2.2 miles on a course with lots of hills in 38 minutes as a team. Out of all the teams, my team got placed at the end of the day. So while some teams got to hike at 9am before the sun was really up high, my team got to hike at 2:30 in the afternoon when it was over 100 degrees. Did I mention we had to do this hike with our giant packs on? Unfortunately, our team did not make the time requirement. This meant the next morning we had to do it all again at 6:30am. Surprisingly, it was awesome doing it again. I paired up with one of my teammates, and throughout the whole hike she kept cheering me on, supporting me, and motivating me. We finished in 30 minutes! My team and I were all dead the rest of the day, maybe even week, but we did it!
After a few days at camp, I realized that I was so eager to have the end result of the trip. I had a goal and I wanted to be at the finish line. I wanted to be family with everyone on my squad already on day 2, I wanted to be a perfect missionary, I wanted to be a great speaker, I wanted to be great at giving my testimony. I wanted all these things without having to go through the pain of growing, and learning, and messing up.
Then God told me, “It’s not about your goal, it’s about mine”
How comforting that is to hear. It’s not about me and my abilities, I am not going to convert anyone, that’s not my role, it’s Gods. I am here to be a light, to show God’s love, and to be used by him. This is not about me. God will teach me and use me, but his love for me is not dependant on how “successful” I am in missions. His love is constant. Missions isn’t only about telling people who God is, it’s showing them.
God, thank you that this trip is not about me. Please use me and my squad, and help us to follow you and your goal and plan for us, even when it doesn’t look like we thought it would. Thank you for your constant love. We love you. Amen.
Just a heads up, since so much happened at training camp, I will be doing a second blog post about camp in a few days, talking more about how I was changed and effected by everything. Make sure you SUBSCRIBE so you get an e-mail whenever I post!
