Because of growing up in a Norwegian Viking family, I know how to eat a lot. When you get to eat whenever you want, you don’t take the time to appreciate what you’re eating. For example, at one point I split a little “Fun Size” Twix bar between 3 of us and that was all I needed at that point, but while in normal life I could easily down 10 of those candy bars. Needless to say, God revealed how to appreciate life in a whole different way and boy did He show me up this week.
I arrived at training camp with a full belly and many preconceived ideas of what my squad would be like. Throughout the week God really challenged me and the way I look at life. Yes training camp was difficult and stretched me in just about every way possible but He revealed something amazing in every tough situation that I originally thought I couldn’t handle. Some examples:
1.) We were having an amazing worship service and it seemed like everyone was so completely immersed in the Spirit and I just stood there crying and upset that I wasn’t feeling it that night and just scared to death over the thought of leaving my family and siblings for 11 months. It was only a couple minutes later that a good friend on another squad turns to me with tears in his eyes and said “let’s go pray for our siblings.”
2.) I started off camp doubting myself and thinking that I might not be able to handle this trip next year. I was starting to believe that I might not be equipped enough for such a big mission trip. By the end of the week I was selected to be one of the team leaders and have the amazing opportunity to lead an amazing group of girls around the world next year serving God.
3.) Before camp I had made some judgments about what I thought my squad would be like, but once again I was proved wrong and now I could not be more proud to call them all my brothers and sisters.
4.) Georgia has the biggest daddy long-leg spiders that I have ever seen and I was so scared of them ALL week. On one of the last days, as we were all in a circle together, I saw one of those big guys crawling across the floor. Instead of running and screaming I walked over to it, grabbed it with my bare hand and chucked it out the window.
5.) Before I went to camp I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to sleep much during the week, and yes that proved to be the case, but I got to bond so much with my squad especially the night that we had to fit 55 of us on a school bus with all of our gear.
After this week was when I realized that ANYTHING is possible and that I need to be more trusting in God and in myself. I could not be more thankful for the people on my squad and the people he put on my team.
