Hi, friends!! I just got back from The World Race Gap Year Training Camp! I want to write allllllll about it, but I am honestly not sure where to begin. I guess I’ll start with the day I arrived! I was picked up at the Atlanta airport by Adventures in Missions along with A LOT of other racers, it was almost overwhelming how many people there were! We all hopped on a bus and drove about an hour and a half out to Gainesville, Georgia, where the AIM campus is! I met a lot of my squad and was assigned to my team! I then set up my tent, put away my pack and went to the training center! The training center is a space where we would spend hours upon hours throughout the 10 days learning all there is to know about The World Race and what’s in store for us! We had (AMAZING) worship and many, many sessions, a few of those were about success on the race, how to bless a host, detachment, having a ministry mindset, how to share our stories, listening for God, identity and community, just to name a few! That probably wasn’t even half of the topics we covered. Although it was a lot to learn, and I am still trying to process it all, every ounce of information and every lesson taught was so wonderful! I learned so much about myself, how God views me and how I should view others on the race and in everyday life. I can honestly and confidently say that Training Camp changed my life, so I can’t even imagine what 9 months on the field is going to do for me!
Let me now tell you a little bit about my team! I am on a team of 6 girls, yes, an ALL GIRLS team! At first, I was hoping for coed, but now having spent 10 days connecting with these amazing women, I couldn’t be happier with the group I was put in! Im telling you, each one of these girls brings something different and incredible to the table, and I am so excited to see what God does with us on the race! My teammates are Christy McPherson, Abi Pena, Makennah Holifield, Caitlyn Morrison and Katie Holliday, so go look them up and stalk them asap because they’re my new sista frands! Christy is a prayer warrior who speaks life into everyone she meets, Abi is a sweetly sarcastic soul who adores Jesus, Makennah is pure light and exudes Christ’s love for others, Caitlyn is such a kind gal who radiates joy in and out and Katie is beautiful, God-fearing and so eager to grow deeper in all of her relationships! They’re all so special and I CANNOT WAIT to get to know them even more! I really love them so much already. GO TEAM KINGDOM COME!
You may be wondering why Training Camp changed my life, so I’ll tell ya! There are many reasons, but most importantly, it changed me because I GOT BAPTIZED!! I finallllllly, after 4 years of walking in my faith, got baptized! To me, baptism confused me because I thought it literally meant I was being confirmed as a baptist when I consider myself to be non-denominational. Well, I am kind of embarrassed because I was way, way, waaayyyyy off. I discovered last fall that my thoughts on baptism were very wrong. Baptism to me now is simply a “yes” to Jesus. A yes to proclaiming His name confidently to the nations! The day I officially signed on and said “yes” to the World Race, was the day I said “yes” to my baptism, and I could not. be. happier. The cool part is that two of my teammates, Christy and Makennah, got to baptize me! It was oh so special.
There are soooooo many things I could write about Training Camp, but it would probably take me weeks to tell it all! I’ll just share a few things. Well, I grew a new love for art. Art is a universal language, whether its sketching, watercolor or sculpting! My favorite though, is watercolor. I discovered that it is a way I am able to focus, meditate and be in the presence of God. So many people in this world are illiterate, but when you use art to communicate, you are able to tell your story and express your feelings. I think of it as a way to break language barriers and its so beautiful. Not that Im any good, I just like it so much! I learned that I experience God best through nature, aesthetics and experiences (like through music)! Its so fun connecting with and hearing Him. Something else that was incredibly challenging but weirdly wonderful was… the HIKE. Man oh man is the hike HARD. So hard, my team (along with many others) had to do it twice in order to meet the time requirement! 2.2 miles uphill and on rough paths in 38 minutes. Actually, this wasn’t a hike at all, it was a freaking run!! A RUN. In order to meet the time you literally had to run the entire thing. So, the second time we did it (at 6:30am, might I add), I decided I wanted to run the entire thing for my team so that we could get a little leeway and finish with time to spare! I set a personal goal to finish under 35 minutes. With motivation from my squad and the help from my friend Maggie, who ran the whole thing with me when she did NOT have to (I am so grateful for that), I finished it in 29 minutes and got to run across the finish line with each one of my teammates. WE DID IT! WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!! It was so rewarding for us all and I am beyond proud of my team. Another great memory was SQUAD WARS!! For squad wars we played a lot of games against the other squads that included relays, dodgeball and more! The last thing we did was our team dance! A self-choreographed, self-sung (there was no music), full out dance battle. It. was. epic!! And guess what? M SQUAD WON THE DANCE AND THE ENTIRE SQUAD WARS! Green squad really is the dream squad. It was a blast!
Overall, Training Camp was filled with big belly laughs, many tears, bucket showers, eating food with my hands, spontaneous worship, a lot of cheers, new perspectives, so much growth, intimacy with God, more friends, dance parties, rain, flooded tents, sweat, bugs, bugs, bugs and way too much fun! It was the most difficult, most rewarding, most impactful and enjoyable 10 days I’ve had in awhile. As tough as it was during, I now look back and love the time I had there. I feel so ready to go on the World Race for 9 months! I am so at peace with my decision and can’t wait to see what this next season of life holds for me! Swaziland, Lesotho, India, Nepal, Nicaragua and Guatemala, I am so excited to see you soon!
As always, thank you so much for reading. Thank you for loving, supporting and praying for me along this crazy journey! If you’d like, you can go ahead and click the orange “DONATE” button to help contribute towards my mission! I am ALMOST halfway to being fully funded! My new goal is to have $10,000 by August 25th, so only about $3,000 left to raise to reach that goal! Anything helps. I am so grateful!
-Elisabeth (Lissie) Butler
PS. selling Go Rings and T-shirts was a HUGE success, together that helped me raise about $600! Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who bought those from me!!
PSS. (?) I made a Training Camp video, feel free to check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hSSFoVsFFk
PSSS. (??) attached are some photos from TC, enjoy the beauty that are my new friends and the Georgia skies!
