Did I ever tell you about the time I hiked through a city in the Swiss Alps during a lightning storm? No? Well, that’s the gist of the story. For some reason it’s a story that I don’t like for others to read, I must share it and paint the picture with words. More often then not, while telling this story, someone usually asks me if I have a picture of this incredible event that unfolded before my bewildered eyes. The answer is no. As my hands went to grab my camera, I stopped and realized that some things cannot be captured by a camera. Some things you just have to be there to experience.
These sentiments extend to the past two weeks of my life. I took off on a jet plane a few weeks ago to go meet my squad, which whom I will be spending the next 11 months of my life with. While I had no expectations on what the week of training would look like, I still managed to come home amazed. The week began with something unexpected: back-to-back-to-back seminars and classes that emphasized healing and spiritual growth. It was continually emphasized that as we allow God to enter our lives and bring healing to us the healing then overflows into the lives of others as we go to the nations. I was surprised to find that I had so much hurt and grief I have swept under carpets and back room closets of my life and never really dealt with. God brought healing to these things. In fact, in prayer at training, I felt as though I needed to mend a relationship with a person that I had some bitterness towards. This had to do with something that happened years ago and how they had wronged me. When I returned, I reached out to this person and asked for forgiveness in holding bitter feelings toward them. I then found out that they had still been struggling in forgiving themselves from how they had wronged me.
The last few days I have been reading pretty incredible blogs on all that took place at training camp. I am really jealous in how beautiful my fellow squad mates have articulated their experiences at training. For me it was a week of growth, self discovery, and a whole lot of discomfort. While I smelled and looked unkept due to lack of showers and sometimes went to bed a little hungry, inside I felt refreshed, washed, and spiritually full. While I would love to share more, I just can’t simply articulate the words of all that happened to me. Just know this, just as that lighting storm in the Alps was absolutely breathtaking, so was the work of God in me at training camp.
