Here’s a quick reminder that I am still doing a GoRings fundraiser! They have a lot of incredible, handmade jewelry and they are created by a former World Racer. Go to gorings.com and select “Emma Williams” at checkout for a percent of the profits to go towards my Race!
This is not your standard Christian summer camp. This is hardcore spiritual, physical, emotional preparation for a year and ultimately a life wholly devoted to God. This is difficult lies being confronted and joyous truths being lifted up. This is coming into a covenant with people you just met for the sake of the Gospel.
I wasn’t prepared for this. I expected growth during the Race. I expected hard things to happen on the field. I expected emotional highs and lows and tears and dancing – but I didn’t expect all these things to start well before, and during, training camp. There’s a lot of things I could tell you about training. The excitement and competition of squad wars. The struggle of bucket showers and bugs in tents. The crazy scenarios we had to handle that simulated obstacles we’ll face on the field. But those things aren’t what training camp was about for me.
I really could write on and on about everything that happened, but I’ll just leave you with these highlights:
- storytelling – we’ll start with the easiest one. I got to go to training a day early for a storytelling workshop and it was really incredible. One thing I feel I struggle with when creating photo, and especially when creating video, is keeping the vision of my story cohesive and well thought out. This workshop focused a lot on that and got me thinking more intentionally about what kind of stories I want to tell and how to craft them. I learned how sharing stories is ministry, discipleship and evangelism all in one and how powerful our testimony is (rev 12:11). Plus, later on in training, I was offered a position as a storytelling leader on my squad! I’m really excited for this role because I’ll get to encourage and foster storytelling in my team and use storytelling as a part of ministry. I remember telling my classmates in design class freshman year that I wanted to study photo so I could use it for churches, charities and non-profits around the world, so it’s really amazing to see that come to light and to see God’s confirmation as I’ll get to do exactly that!
- identity – some ugly stuff that I’ve always buried and ignored surfaced during the 12 days at training camp. I tend to think of myself as a pretty confident person, but at the beginning of training, I was unbelievably insecure. Let’s be honest, training camp is a lot. You are meeting all these people you’ve signed up to do life with for a whole year and this is when it starts to become more real… And it hit me hard. I felt a lot of pressure to be my best self and impress the people on my squad. I felt I had to make sure everyone liked me and, ironically, that mindset brings out my worst self. It brings out jealousy of other relationships that were forming. It brings out insecurity from not being included in everything. It brings out self doubt and a lack of self worth that I wasn’t even aware of. This time at training made me do a lot of self reflection. Why am I not rejoicing in other people creating bonds and building relationships? Why am I comparing myself to others when we are each completely unique? Why am I looking for other people’s approval rather than resting in God’s approval of me? Comparison is not just the thief of joy but also the thief of freedom, and God showed me the ways I was limiting myself to the standards of other people. He has so much more in store for me! To desire anyone else’s gifts or relationships is to reach for less than what God has for me. Getting thrown into community with people you’ve never met is hard – but seeing all the truth of the family of God is so sweet. We are all beautiful parts of a whole with our own beautiful roles!
- team assignments – speaking of how hard it is to get thrown into community with strangers, let’s talk about team assignments! Before training camp, I was excited to find out what team I’d be on, but I hadn’t given it much in-depth thought. It wasn’t until we started team-building exercises at camp that would help determine what our teams would look like that I started building a lot of anxiety and frustration around team assignments. What if I wasn’t with the people I wanted to be on a team with? What if I’m not performing well enough because I’m too nervous and I get put into the “wrong team”? At the end of our last team-building exercise, I cried. Why? Honestly, because I was scared. I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to bond with my team. I was scared that this wasn’t the right path for me. I was scared I would have a horrible first few months on the Race with my team. All these fears stemmed from one thing: selfishness. I was selfish in thinking that the team decisions were about me at all – I signed up to serve God! Not to have a fun time, not to hang out with friends, and not to be comfortable. In fact, comfort is probably at the bottom of the list of World Race priorities. Now, don’t get me wrong, the team I got placed with is incredible! We are all so different and stunning in various ways, and I’m beyond excited to serve on the field with them. So, here’s a brief introduction to my team:
Jessie L – Our fearless leader. Full of childlike faith and abundant love for the world God created. Pretty sure she’s a real-life fairy.
Jessie B – Fun-loving and wild-spirited. A fierce encourager and eager learner. I guess she’s still pretty cool even though she’s a Clemson fan.
Lakota – A tender-hearted daughter of our King. Full of knowledge and love for the Lord and His people. I can’t wait to learn more from her.
Marah – Our lead worshiper. Truly caring and truly pursuing the heart of our Lord. She could beat me in an arm-wrestling match any day.
Sandy – Passionate and kind. A sister who loves fully and feels deeply. Gentle and loyal but also protective of her people – I’m glad to be part of that tribe.
Me – Bucket showered hair, sore muscles and a heart bursting with joy and gratefulness because my squad is the best squad ever, I couldn’t ask for a better team of fierce women, and our God is so big, so awesome and so mighty!!
Stay tuned for more updates as I walk through these next six weeks before launch and keep my squad and team in your prayers. In the meantime, I’m still fundraising, and if you feel led to support me financially, feel free to go to the donate button at the top of this page to sow in to the work God is already doing in us!
grace + peace
The team portraits were all taken by the lovely Ozzy – check her out!
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