Remember day 3 ended with us "sleeping" on a bus…read the previous post for some background.
Day 4: Exhausted and in disbelief as morning came, the old Emily would have complained and gotten "sick" from no sleep. But I didn't want that to be the case. I was depending on God to get me through he day. Shockingly I was wide awake during the talks and my goal for the day was to show myself that God gives us energy when we are at the end of our rope. This day was a battle of the mind for me and I was awake for 40 hours before sleeping again. The afternoon consisted of men's and women's time. The women did an exercise of "crossing the border". It was Stressful and hectic….not looking forward to those days over the next year. The men went to a mountain and climbed it and carried each other up it. The men described it as the hardest thing they ever done in their life. It just shows that when we are on empty and think we can't do any more, God steps in and surprises us!! Totally awesome. Day 4 rounded out with some much needed squad time. It was the first time where we were able to come together as an entire squad. We did introductions, worship, prayer, and had some quality time. We camped out and cooked over the fire. Loved it!!!! I was so happy to sleep in my own tent. I loved falling asleep to the sounds of bus and rain on my tent.
Day 5: Activity day! We were put into teams throughout the day and given a task: Getting the entire team on a towel and flipping it over, lowering a hula hoop to the ground with one finger (harder than you think), and building something from our things to symbolize a word. After each activity we talked on a staff leader about what went well, what didn't go well, and who we could work well with. I'll recap the last activity since it was the most meaningful…our team was given the word "build". Our task was to use the things in our daypacks to represent that word. Will was our leader for this activity and his first thought was to build a throne. We used our backpacks to create a chair and put a bible on top. Our next word was "improve". Kyle then had the idea to build an alter. We made the center higher and put something we were giving to God on top. Most people in my group out their phone to symbolize giving up their family, friends, or relationship to God. I didn't have a phone so I put my journal. This symbolized that I was giving up my life. The third word was "change". Immediately I said, "well God is the one who changes us". So we prayed for one anther about what we had given up to God and how we want to be changed. The last word was "end well". We ended by singing a worship song. It was an amazing experience. I love that it was real and genuine. Instead of being silly and building a pyramid or goofing off we were able to cherish the moment. At the end of the activity we just sat in a circle and rested. Everyone had such peace. When talking to the staff leader we all just said this could be our team for the next year. We worked well together and it just clicked. We all walked away from the final activity crossing our figures. Could that be our final team?
