From the beginning to the end training camp was….by far the most challenging yet best week of my life thus far!
First, I didn’t know packing a 65L back pack would take countless hours of stuffing and re-stuffing and the end resulting in not knowing what you actually stuffed in the pack.
Second, upon arriving at training camp in Gainesville, Georgia (where it was 100 degrees) I was completly oblivious to what the next 10 days would have in store for me and my squad mates.
We were challenged physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Our days consisted of 7 A.M workouts, bucket showers, eating food with our hands, and getting poured into by mentors who gave there whole hearts in order for us to grow in closer communion with Christ.
It was here that walls I wasn’t even sure existed got broken down and things I had been holding on to got left at His feet. It was here that all the lies I had believed, all the past hurt, the rejection, fear, and negative things that consumed me got thrown as far as the east is from the west.
“If you want people to be free, you have to free yourself.”
I learned that community is key in having kingdom impact. Its cool how people you have only known for 10 days can quickly become family. These people spoke life into me and loved me even when I was stinky and dirty. We laughed, cried, worshipped, and danced in the rain together. We fell even more in love with Jesus…together.
“Community has the ability to change are lives like nothing else. It allows us to be refined. We get to awaken life for one another.” (Ephesians 4:11-13 & Acts 2)
(My team that I will do life with and spread the gospel with for the next 11 months!)
Training camp taught me about forgiveness in others and in myself. It taught me to rid my heart of all the chains that bind me to a life full of sin. I found freedom in knowing that I hold no more bitterness from my past and I am relying fully on radical trust in knowing that He will carry me through.
Identity: Having confidence in who I am in Christ. I’m royalty. A daughter of the King. I am worthy, redeemed, and called to a life of abandonment and full of complete and total surrender. (Matthew 8:21-22)
Here is to saying YES in serving in 11 different countries and giving all we have spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Here is to striving for something bigger than ourselves with aunthenticity and vulnerability.
