Tis the night before camp…

So, it’s the night before training camp…11:13 exactly as I start writing this.  Crazy!  Seems like just yesterday training camp seemed so surreal and this fictitious element of all of this, what with being so far away and all.  Now, it’s about 12 hours until I’m at the airport and almost 13 exactly until I board that plane bound for Georgia.  There’s many thoughts running through my mind right about now.  Pure joy and excitement has definitely begun to take hold of my, however, joy has trouble grasping this sick body of mine for very long.  I’ve been sick for about 4 days now or so and have really only been getting worse as the week progresses.  The doctor has said I have bronchitis and an ear infection and given me all sorts of nasal sprays and Sudafed and a steroid and such…I still think it’s probably just a cold.  It wouldn’t bother me too much if it weren’t this whole breathing thing.  Makes things like sleeping a bit more difficult!  As camp draws oh so close though, I can’t help but think how much this is going to make all of this seem real to me.  I mean, right now, the World Race is this crazy dream I have and these teammates I’ve been communicating are just people who have somehow tapped into that dream of mine, hoping to share in it.  After tomorrow, these people won’t just be names and pictures I see on a screen–they’ll be the friends and family I start to meet.  Tomorrow, I begin to form relationships with the people who will be my family for the next year of my life.  Tomorrow, it all becomes real.  This isn’t just a dream anymore.  Sure, right now it seems even more like a dream since I just popped a Sudafed and sprayed something up my nose…but this isn’t some medicated dream!  The World Race is my reality and tomorrow, I get to experience a whole new element to it!  I’m excited to meet these people, though I won’t lie, I’m kind of nervous too.  It makes me think of the first day of school, waiting to see who you’ll be friends with and who will be the “weird kid” only, I feel like none of that is going to matter and those judgements will be lifted as God takes hold of these relationships and allows them to blossom.  Sure it sounds like a utopia, but God brings people together and bonds them through love for His people and I feel like that’s what we’re all being called to do.  We’re all these crazy people willing to give a year of out lives to go love on His people so of course He’s going to foster our friendships!  Ok, now I’m starting to just babble with my being sleep-deprived and excited and all but really, that’s what I believe in my heart.  But anyway, as I draw to a close here, I’d like to toss out some prayer requests for the next 10 days of camp.