So I’m actually sitting in air conditioning right now. After 10 days in Georgia humidity that’s not a fact to take for granted. Since I’ve returned I’ve gotten a lot of questions about training camp. How was the food? What did you do? Where did you sleep? And what was your favorite?
Well the food was, well, how should I say it? Umm, interesting. Each day at training camp was a new culture. For example we had Asia day, Africa day, India day, and so on and so forth. Eating bland rice for breakfast isn’t exactly normal for me but food is food. Over the course of the 10 days I had gizzard, cricket, goat, and honestly some meals that I have no idea what i ate.
The majority of our time in Gainesville was spent in session. I think I took more notes in 10 days than I did all of second semester. You make the call if that speaks about senioritis or the information dump at training camp. Sessions ranged from how to write a sermon, to what children’s ministry looks like, to how to communicate with parents. Each session offered practical wisdom and biblical truths for all of the racers.
So at training camp I heard a rumor of this thing called sleep. For the majority of the time we slept in tents. I loved sleeping outside. Personally the sound of cicadas puts me right to sleep. Each night laying down on my sleeping pad felt like a luxury. We had three scheduled “sleeping scenarios” over the time we were there. The first was community tents. If you know anything about camping you know that you take the printed number of people in a tent and divide by two. In this case we had 14 men in a 10 person tent. That night was rather cozy. Our second training exercise was the airline “lost” half our luggage so we shared tents for a night. Our final place was a “layover” so we spent the night indoors with the lights on and loud noises over the sound system.
My favorite thing about training camp was the community I was fortunate enough to live in. I’m so excited to do life with the other racers on Gap P. We were able to create a family connected through Christ. I’m ready to go spend time with this mobile church of believers. Ultimately Gap P is a church traveling to the ends of the earth to bring the kingdom.
More to come on training camp and the things the Lord has been teaching me. I have less than $3,000 till I am fully funded. This is a HUGE praise, please continue to pray that I would finish fundraising strong.
Blessings,
David Smith
