11 days. 11 days filled with vulnerability, lots of rain, funky foods, absolute exhaustion, lots of tears, yet some of the best 11 days I’ve ever experienced. If I broke down all of training camp it would probably turn into a novel, so here are some highlights of training camp for the World Race.
X Squad – the best squad!
Here they are. These are the people that I get to do life with for the next year. They come from states across the country, all ages from 21 to 35. We shared our stories that broke down walls in each one of us. We came together to pray for one another, cry together, and just be in awe of the Father who brought us all together as a squad for this coming year. Even in the short 11 days our group bonded instantly and quickly became family. Also, we won squad wars so basically I have the best squad ever.
Meet my team!
Throughout the next year the majority of my time won’t be spent with my entire squad unfortunately. Most of the time we will be doing ministry in smaller teams to do work with multiple ministry sites. We will have a few team changes within the year, but at training camp we were placed in our first teams!
Meet team SHINE – Sarah, Irma, Nicole, and Esther! Each one of these ladies is filled with so much joy, laughter, and so much Jesus. I am honored to be serving with them for the first part of the race!
Doors were opened and walls were broken
The Lord worked in all of our hearts. For me, there were things I thought were forgiven and in the past, but the Lord brought them out and in the open. One morning we had a Bible study about forgiveness. Something that morning made me feel uneasy about people I might not have actually forgiven. That night I prayed specifically for God to open the door. I didn’t have anything really specific, but I had this feeling that there was just something that he wanted to come out. During worship one of our coaches, Jen, came up to me with a vision she had. She pictured barn doors that slid open and there was openness that God had to offer. Not when the race starts in August, but right then and there. The message that night was all about forgiveness. One piece stuck out to me, “Not forgiving someone is saying that Jesus didn’t pay the price for the person that wronged you.”
Oof.
That night God opened the door I prayed for and I had a breakthrough. My heart feels lighter.
This is more than just traveling for a year
While a lot of the time at training camp we were having fun and getting to know one another, we spent the majority of our time digging deep into knowing God better and knowing why we are about to leave for a year. In Matthew 24:14 it says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
All nations.
This is the task left – to reach all nations. This is why a part of our race is going into the 10/40 Window, the rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. There are approximately 3.1 billion unreached people left in the world. By unreached, it’s described as someone who lives in an area of no gospel presence or even access to it. We’ll be entering countries where it’s illegal to practice Christianity.
However, we can’t go out to these nations with our westernized values and lifestyle. Going into different countries means different cultures. We focused on learning how to respect each culture we will be experiencing without bringing our Westernized ways into how we spread the gospel. For us, we live in a guilt/innocence cultural lens. We make decisions based on, “How is this going to affect me?” However, in countries we will be going to they will have other cultural lenses. For instance some have a shame/honor lens where their decisions are based on honoring their family. Wherever we go, we want to yes spread the gospel, but more so love on the people within their cultural boundaries.
Route change say what?
Originally we were supposed to go to Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina for the last three months of our journey. However, leadership decided to throw some excitement our way at training camp. Instead, we will now be going to Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. Yeah we added a country, so we’ll be going to 12 countries in 11 months. Other fun news – Ecuador is the location of our PVT (Parent Vision Trip). Parents are given the opportunity to come out for one week to serve with us in Ecuador…how stinking cool!
Lots of bugs and spiders. Lots of walks to the bathrooms, and by bathrooms I mean port-a-potty’s, which also have bugs in them. There was rain for eight days straight resulting in puddles in tents. We did a 2.2 mile hike / run through the muddy trails. I took two bucket showers in 11 days. There were crickets and pink rice to eat.
But amongst all of that, there were breakthroughs, healings, and so much Jesus. I met so many individuals who are chasing hard towards our Heavenly Father. Some insane worship was done where people didn’t care how they sounded or how crazy they worshipped. There were testimonies shared that brought me to tears. There was redemption after redemption. All in His name.
Would I choose to go through training camp again? If it means I get to experience everything training camp was, I would do it over and over again.
