Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men– Matthew 4:19
Some may ask what is one word to sum up your ten days at training camp. I would have to choose the word TRANSFORMING. This word would describe how I feel now emotionally, physically and spiritually. I went into training camp thinking I had a good idea of who I was and what God was doing in my life and His plan for me, but God has a sense of humor and really knocked me on my butt and had a good laugh at those thoughts! It is amazing what God can do to you in just a short period of time and I thank God that I was given the opportunity to let that happen.
Training camp really tears you down in all aspects of your life and builds you back up in these short few days. Lets start with the camp itself and what a normal day looked like. Mornings started for me when the sun started to come up, so usually around 5-5:30. You would be surprised how good it makes you feel to see every sunrise and sunset for 10 days. Let me just say that God is such a beautiful artist! The landscape that He has given to us daily is unbelievable! On a normal day we had to tear down everything and pack up. To a normal person this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when you are already hot and exhausted from the day before the last thing you want to do is repack AGAIN! At least I know how to pack and what I need and don’t need for the race so God is good in that aspect! Then our squad would usually do a group workout at 7am. This differed everyday from hiking with our packs, to running, squats, lunges, sit ups etc. Everyday we would have about 50 minutes of quiet time before our breakfast. Now meal times here is a treat! Some days I thought I might starve and other days you literally cried tears of joy for what God has given you! At meals there were 8 people to a table. These 8 people were given one tray to split between you all. Some days this meant eating with your hands, some days this meant you got a sliver of a sandwich and prayed you had one extra protein bar left in your pack. Everyday we would sit through sessions that would prepare our minds and spirits for the race ahead. We also went through a lot of team building so that when it came time for our leaders to pray and choose our teams they would have a better idea of who worked well together and so on. Thankfully I finished our 3 mile hike we had to do in 50 minutes with 2 minutes so spare! I couldn’t have done it without the lovely ladies inspiring each other and pushing us to go on. We put Satan behind us and prayed the Lord to give us strength and get us to the finish line! Each night we usually had a scenario of things that could happen on the race. These ranged from: loosing your pack and sharing everything with a friend, bunking in a tent with packs and all with 12 of your squad mates, a night in the airport, a night in the woods with no tents or showers or bathrooms, and then a night spent in prayer and worship for 1 hour throughout the night in rotation with your squad. Needless to say it was a long and trying 10 days but God got us all through it!
So training camp for me spiritually was tough. I learned a lot about myself and I changed in so many ways. God is teaching me to be vulnerable and is teaching me to trust in my community and to learn to communicate with those around me in ways that may not be comfortable for me at all. As long as we can depend on ourselves we won’t learn to depend on God, this really hit home with me. How many times I find myself thinking I can fix this or I can get out of this and instead of turning to God and giving it to Him I have all that worry or anxiety and stress when that is not how it was intended to be. I personally went thru a lot of spiritual warfare throughout the week. God brought up a lot of things from my past that I thought I had moved on from, but again that humor of His!!! I learned to forgive, break chains, be free in Him. I am loved and I am beautiful and I am good enough. I do not have to compare myself to anyone. A beautiful verse I turned to the morning after a really hard night for me was Colossians 1:5-6 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. IN the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. In my life I had held on to so much shame and had led myself to replay these things over and over again, but I am not what happened to me I am what I choose to be and that is forgiven, and loved. I choose to be free and I choose JOY. I choose PEACE. I choose to walk in forgiveness and love because I am made out of the image of Christ. Christ dwells in me and will work through me!
God has blessed me with one of the most incredibly passionate, gentle and loving teams. I could never have hand picked a better team for myself. That just goes to show that God knows best and He has such great plans for us. Our team name is the Cubs of Judah. God is our lion and he is going to roar through us within this next year. I hope that you will keep myself as well as Dylan, Mary, Davante, Morgan, Brittany and Dantastik in your daily thoughts and prayers that God will give us strength and courage everyday. Keep us motivated to do His work. Pray that God will keep our hearts excited for Him and show us His plan and work through us and place our hands on all the people He needs to reach!!
So in the next year I am confident that God will portray through myself. I want to be the salt. I want people to crave more because they see a difference in me. I want people to want what I have and I can thank God that I can give them what I have because it is free, it comes with no price!
Ephesians 4:2-6 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope the you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God an dFather of all who is over all and through all and in all.
<3 Hana Beth
