Hello friends and family!! I think this is how I’m going to start all my blogs because I dont know how else and its simple. I’m going to be honest, before I came on the race I told myself that I would blog at least twice a week because as some yall might now I love journaling and this would be perfect for me but then I realized that my thoughts will be out in the public. yikes. I’ve always written to myself so this will be different but I’m all up for it now. I’m excited to share my journey with the Lord by blogging. so here it goes! this is going to be a long one 🙂
August 28 – 31 (training camp)
Training camp was totally not what I was expecting it to be. It was both good and bad to be honest. Before heading out I wasnt nervous at all and that’s a first for me, I am someone who gets nervous for the smallest things but heading to the race wasnt one of them and that’s because I knew I had the Lord by my side. The first day was really good, I had my mom with me so I didnt really feel lonely (thank you mami for coming with me) then after she left it started to hit me that I’m with a bunch of strangers. but after all the parents left we did praise and worship and omgee that is something I needed for the longest time. It’s been a while since I’ve been with a group and did worship together. I was reminded again why the Lord brought me to the world race. Not gonna lie I definitely shed a tear. That was the first night. The next day we woke up had team time (something we do everyday) our first team time we all greeted each other and met our team leaders (who I loveee). then we had breakfast (side note, every day we had food from a different culture) our first day was African so it was very interesting. we had to est with our hands but not like finger foods it was beans and other things like that. after breakfast we did praise and worship which again is something I absolutely love it’s when I feel Gods presence the most. Then we did lessons so we had a different person for each session, they either shared their testimony with us or we did bible study. Everyday was the same schedule but each day I learned something new and got to now my team a little more. The second day though was when I started to feel homesick and by the way that’s rare for me but hearing everyone saying that were going to be gone for a whole three months started to get to me. Also not the mention how much I really had to step out of my comfort zone, for example the bucket showers, having to talk to strangers about personal things but also the randomised things. At that point I started to feel extremely lonely because I was so shy and it was hard for me to open up to the people I’m going to be spending three months with. I started to miss my friends and family so much, I missed hearing familiar voices and inside jokes. During our free time I called everyone I knew and it was nice hearing their voices and telling them about my day. But that only made me even more homesick, until that night when everything changed. That night for our last session of the day we had Jermey speak about his story on healing and praying for people. After his talk the staff did a prayer tunnel which meant everyone would be praying for one another. I was honestly really nervous because I wasnt sure if the Lord would actually be talking to me through everyone. While I was waiting for my turn I remember thinking “nah everyone is just praying the same thing to everyone” but oh was I wrong. The Lord really used those people to tell me that I needed to fully trust in Him and to be open. One thing though that made me believe that it was actually the Lord was one of the staff members who prayed over me said he pictured a butterfly; that day during our free time while I was talking to my friends I was walking around the campus we’re staying and I saw so many butterflies at this one spot and I remember thinking how beautiful God created his creatures. That’s when the tears started to flood through and I’ve never felt Gods presence more than I did that night and everyone can agree with me on that. That night was so special for many of us. I finally felt at peace and I didn’t feel as homesick as I did that morning. The next day was the same, breakfast, worship, team time, sessions, more team time and then our final time as a whole group (everyone that was launching for the semesters) we did a dance battle which was so much fun and we all got ready for an early morning the next day; September 1st, our leave. Okay I’m now done sharing my time during training camp, I will be posting more soon and that is a promise I will try to keep !!! If you read this far thank you very much and I’m sorry for how long it is haha but I appreciate it and I hope you liked my story 🙂
