Training camp was insane. I learned so
much and experienced so much that it felt like I was there for months. It’s hard to believe it all took place within ten days and
I am definitely still processing through everything. I wanted to blog
now though while it’s fresh in my mind so I can share it with you.
It’s pretty hard to describe training camp, one of those “you had
to be there” things but I found this video that I think sums it up
pretty well. The guy speaking is Jimmy McCarty. He runs the World
Race training camps and also sings some pretty mean Backstreet Boys that you have to see to believe.
I think ‘scared’ is a good word to sum
up my feelings heading into training camp. I knew it was going to be
totally new and different and I was a little nervous about that. So,
I pretty much asked God to help me have an open heart once every 3.4
seconds. And because God is God and awesome, He really did give that
to me. The first day we were there Michael Hindes, who is the
director of the World Race, spoke on sin and law and freedom from it.
Honestly, I spent the first few talks hoping he wouldn’t look at me
because this guy knows things! I’ve never met anyone so in tune with
the Holy Spirit. He’d be speaking and in the middle of a sentence
stop to prophecy over someone or to call them out. Anyway, because
God had given me this open heart I asked for, it didn’t freak out my
conservative beliefs…too much anyway. It was actually
really exciting to find out that God still moves like that. Honestly,
I always wondered if there wasn’t more to God than what I was
experiencing and this first day opened my eyes to the fact that God
is waaaay bigger than I ever imagined.
At the end of that first day they
asked us to come up and be prayed for if we wanted to. I would
normally NEVER go up for prayer but I really wanted to experience God
the way that Michael Hindes was talking about. So, I waited at the
front, sweating and shaking, until it was my turn to be prayed for. A
lady laid her hands on me and started praying out loud. She spoke so
much life into me that it’s hard to describe. She prayed against a
lot of the insecurities and worries that were really bothering me
before camp. She reminded me again and again that God loves me which
is something I forget way to easily and sometimes struggle to
believe. She told me that God cared about a lot of the things that on
some level I always wondered if He even noticed. I don’t even know
this lady’s name and yet God spoke through her directly to me. It was
the most real encounter with God I’d ever experienced up to that
point in my life — until the next day:
soul ties and the Holy Spirit. I am totally fascinated by pretty much
everything Michael Hindes is saying because I’ve never had something
so foreign make so much sense to me. Early in the day, he invites us
to come and receive the Holy Spirit if we feel we want to. I didn’t
feel like I was being pressured into it or would have been looked
down on if I’d stayed in my seat but God was totally rocking me and I
knew I wanted to experience Him like that. Again, it was totally out
of character for me, so I sort of stood near the back and hoped no
one would notice me for a little while. As I was standing there, I
was asking the Holy Spirit to please just come over and over again.
And man, He came. I felt so much power and strength in me that it was
like my physical body didn’t even exist anymore, if that makes any
sense at all. Eventually, someone came over and prayed over me and at
that time I literally couldn’t stand anymore. All I could do was just
experience the Holy Spirit. Writing it out, this seems like it would
be scary but it wasn’t at all. I felt totally safe. Anyway, so as
this person is praying over me (and I have no idea who it was because
I was so overcome with this presence in me) my hands got really
tingly and started shaking and I heard God say “you will heal the
nations” and then immediately after that my lips started shaking
and vibrating and God said “you will speak the truth”. And then I seriously sat on the floor and cried like a baby (I’m not
ashamed) because God is so awesome and overwhelming that I didn’t know what else to
with myself.
box is a ridiculous idea because God created boxes and I am so glad I
let Him out of mine. I have tons more stories to tell about
training camp, about the amazing worship, the awesome people, my
sweet team and the things God is teaching me to name a few but I
wanted to share this beginning first.
