Awake My Soul: The Training Camp Experience

Training camp. Wow. Where do I even begin? It was one of the most challenging, overwhelming, crazy, incredible weeks of my life. Going into the week, I had heard countless times to leave behind any expectations I might have of what it would be like. But of course I still had expectations. I expected it to be a difficult and exciting time of learning and growth and getting to know the members of my squad. And it was definitely all of those things but it was also so much more. God really showed up in a powerful way. I will attempt to sum up what happened at training camp as best as I possibly can, so here is a list of just a few things I learned: 

 

1. God isn’t intimidated by my comfort zone.

We heard some great teaching throughout the week on many topics. Some of it, aka the Holy Spirit stuff, was slightly out of my comfort zone. And by slightly out of my comfort zone, I mean I was really freaked out and kind of wanted to run and hide in my tent for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I know the Holy Spirit is a crucial part of the Christian life. We as Christians all have the Spirit of God living inside of us, communicating with us, leading us to repentance, guiding us. But the idea of being filled with the Spirit and receiving certain gifts, such as speaking in tongues, prophetic visions, etc. is not something I have ever really encountered. I think it was somewhere around the point when someone spoke a prophetic word over me that I began to have an internal panic attack. Up until this point, I had been pretty confident in my faith and how I connect best with God. For me, faith is more intellectual as opposed to emotional or feeling based. Now I’m not saying that I never feel God’s presence, but generally I just connect with Him more on an intellectual level. So when I saw people being filled with the Spirit, it freaked me out a little, and that is honestly something I’m still trying to understand better and be more open to. So after the Holy Spirit night at training camp, I began to have doubts. At one point I thought to myself, “what am I even doing here??” However, I knew these doubts were not from God. As the week continued He began to confirm what I already knew: that the World Race is indeed part of His plan for my life. I had some great conversations with a few of my squad mates who were feeling the same way I was, and that was incredibly encouraging. I prayed for Him to reveal Himself to me in a more tangible way. One of our last nights at camp, we had an awesome time of worship and I truly felt God’s presence during that time. For the first time all week, I felt nothing but peace and assurance that I was exactly where I was meant to be. In that moment every doubt and worry were completely gone. It was such a comfort realizing that God is so much bigger than my comfort zone. I can’t wait to see how He will continue to stretch me during the next year.

2. If you’re hungry enough, you’ll eat it.

Sometimes I tend to be a little picky about food. I’m that person who won’t eat red meat unless it’s organic, grass-fed, etc. I get really stressed when there is a lack of fruits and vegetables available. I try to stay away from highly processed foods, etc., etc. I think it’s safe to say my food concerns temporarily disappeared at training camp because they were feeding us on four dollars per day. In case you were wondering, four dollars doesn’t get you a whole lot of food. So by the end of the week when my stomach was about ready to eat itself, I gladly ate a hamburger and pop tarts with minimal resistance. And it was wonderful.

 

3. You can live with way less stuff than you think you can.

Carrying all of your belongings on a hike through the woods in the rain makes you seriously reconsider your decision to bring about 54% of the stuff you packed.

 

4. Never assume packing cubes are waterproof.

I’m not really sure why I thought none of my stuff would get wet in the torrential downpour that happened the second day of camp, especially since I didn’t have a rain cover for my pack. I guess I thought, “Oh, all my clothes are in packing cubes, so of course they won’t get wet!” How terribly mistaken I was. All my socks and underwear were soaked for days. Not something I would like to experience again. Lesson learned: invest in a rain cover.

 

5. You will reach a point where you just don’t care anymore.