I bought my one way ticket to Atlanta, GA a few days ago and now there are only 22 DAYS LEFT until launch!! WOOWWOWOW I’m so so so excited!! Training camp was about a month and a half ago and man did Jesus teach me more than I could digest! But something HUGE that has stuck with me while I have been back home for a while is just how apparent Jesus is and the fact that He LOVES sprinkling me with such a joyful heart! I have been listening to the radio in the car (I usually listen to spotify) because I don’t know how to work this bluetooth thing and over the last couple of days the song Hills and Valleys by Tauren Wells has been played over and over again. The lyrics in the song that stood out to me were “Father, you give and take away very joy and every pain through it all you will remain!”
So I am just going to tell a series of events that happened at TC just to recognize how, well, there Jesus always is.
So I woke up at 3am that morning to get on a plane to Georgia just so so pumped for what the next 10 days were going to obtain. So I tell my parents I need to be at Terminal D. So I go in, check my bags and then try and figure out where I’m supposed to go. I look down at my ticket again, andddd it says Terminal A. I was like… shoot. So I am walking around, too chicken to ask anyone for help because “I can do hard things.” So essentially I end up getting on this train thing. So I’m supposed to meet up with another squad mate because we’re on the same flight and I text him, “Soooo, I got on this train and I’m pretty sure I’m going the right way.” So I sat down on the train like trying to look at other people’s tickets to see if they had done the same thing as me. Like what? Why is that going to help me? So eventually I sit there and just kind laugh with Jesus, people looking at me oddly because I was really laughing. But all this to say, even in something that could have been very stressful, Jesus gave me peace and JOY!
And yes, I made the flight just in time for boarding to begin.
So now, just to backtrack a little bit, in the car on the way to the airport with my family, my mom said this really encouraging prayer for me and my squad in the car. Something that really stuck with me as I started meeting my squad was highlighting that Jesus would give me a really good girlfriend to have while I’m traveling. So I’m meeting everyone and EVERYONE is so so sweet and I even got to sing and play ukulele at the airport with Bree(: But by now it was 2pm and we were still waiting on the shuttles to get there to take us to Gainesville when this sweet girl with wavy hair and freckles walked up next to me. We started talking and talking and basically never stopped until we were at the camp in Georgia. The first thing we did when we got there was check-in and find out who would be on my team. So Heidi and I walk in together and I get mine first and when I looked who was on my team, Heidi’s name was on there! I looked over and shouted and wow did Jesus bring us such JOY… well at least it brought me JOY!
Day 1
Day 7
So the first day of TC was very, very loooong and I was absolutely exhausted from nonstop going and going. So I got into my tent that night just feeling my body aching and I was sitting in there sobbing, wanting my comfortable bed in a cold house with my fan blowing on my face and a full tummy from dinner, but I was feeling the repercussions of the exact opposite of that. I was missing my family and my friends… and it had only been ONE DAY. That night I wrote in my journal: “I sit here in my tent mentally and physically exhausted. My head hurts and my body aches. Jesus. I surrender myself to you. I cannot and will no longer try to do this on my own. This is hard. It’s going to be hard. But Jesus, I want to lean on you and depend on you. I want you to carry me and lead me along this challenge as we approach each day.” But the next morning, Jesus saw and heard that I was hurting and it felt like He gave me this beautiful rainbow, and it hadn’t even rained that night! It was like a sweet hug given to me, showing me that He is always here! He just knew that I love love love the nature and the wonderful earth the He created and He used that to bring me JOY!
The last story I want to talk about is an exercise we did with our team. So we all sat in a circle and closed our eyes. Our leader would go and tap one person on the back, no one would know except for that one person, and then we would listen for what the Holy Spirit was saying to us and then say it outloud. We had been talking about how the Holy Spirit speaks to all of us in different ways, whether he shows us through a word or phrase, a picture or a color. So the leader tapped me and these are the words that my teammates gave me: “Joy. Ocean with the sun setting. Guard dog. Joyful. Weapons. Eyes of people I don’t know. Lighthouse. You are the light in the lighthouse. There is a large group of uncolored people and there is one person who is the rainbow, and as this one person walks forward, a wade affect occurs and all of the people turn into rainbows.” I was what the heck Jesus. So at first I had no idea what it meant but later I had some quiet time with Him and this is what I wrote: “You are going to guard me. My heart. My body. My mind. I am never going to lose my JOY. You gave me JOY. You gave me Your JOY. You created me to be a JOYful noise. A sunshine. You will be in control. You are in control. You make me into a beautiful rainbow. You are going to use me to plant, water and sow seeds through me Jesus! Because of you! How amazed am I to be chosen by YOU! I love you Jesus.”
I MEAN SERIOUSLY,
WHAT JOY!!! (: (: (:
My Team
My Squad
