When they told us, ‘What to expect for training camp is have no expectations’. They knew what they were talking about. Training Camp was nothing I had thought it would be, and yet everything I needed it to be. It has already been two weeks since I was in Tennessee meeting my squad for the first time and being bombarded with information, worst case scenarios, and sermons, and I am still attempting to process it all.
If I was to attempt to describe all of my feelings and experiences that happened that week, I would write a novel and still not be able to clearly articulate my experience in a way anyone who wasn’t there could relate.
Although vague, I have written a list of bullet points on the most memorable things for me at training camp.
- Meeting all 46 of my squad mates ranging from the east coast to the west coast, all the way up to Canada and over to New Zealand.
- Realizing although I packed 1/16 of my closet, I still over packed.
- Secretly enjoying the fact that for one week, it was okay to eat with your hands, because well.. you had to!
- Learning to take down, roll up, and pack my tent in my pack in record time, in the dark, half asleep.
- Sharing a two person tent with three other girls I had only known for 24hrs. and actually enjoying it!
- Worshiping my Savior with 270 other racers in a more freeing, open way than I had ever experienced before.
- After months of prepping myself for this task I am about to do for Christ. I actually allowed myself to stop, and simply and purely bask in Gods love for me and what He has already done
- Sharing every meal with seven other squad mates, with not utensils, and only one plate
- Being able to sit and hear World Race alumni tell their best and even worst stories from their race, ranging from seeing people healed by Christ right in front of their eyes to enduring the dreaded squatty potties
- Finding out who my small group is! The specific people who I will be doing ministry with every day while I am in each country
(Everyone, meet my small group, Team Fire Starters! Casey, Cassandra, Justin, Cathy, Sabrina, and me)
- Realizing I can survive without showering every day.. or every other
- Seeing God meet me where I am in my quiet time, crying out for Him to give me encouragement and the next chapter I read in the Bible couldn’t have been more perfect for my situation, on multiple occasions
- Being chosen to be my groups’ treasurer, thus in charge of my small groups finances for the entire trip
- Taking more notes in the four sermons we had daily than I ever took in high school and actually wanting to go back over them as not to forget them
- Wearing the same exact outfit two days in a row because it’s too cold in my tent in the morning to change, and being okay with it because everyone else did the same thing
- Seeing myself stretched physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and although sore in every department, I embraced it!
- Our Y Squad working together and winning Squad Wars on the final evening over four other squads!
- Instantly developing friendships that you can tell will be life long after only knowing them for a couple days
(Liz, me, Kate, Sabrina, Schuylar)
What a week, I am still speechless. God did great things and filled all of us with the promise of that just being the beginning!
Although I am feeling the fear of homesickness creeping in more and more the closer that launch gets here. How could I ever fear what God has in store for me when I know that His plans are only to prosper me and never to harm me (Jeremiah 29:11). Yes, it will be hard to leave home and everyone I love behind for eleven months, but God has invited me into an amazing opportunity to see things and experience things I would never see if I wasn’t willing to risk a little comfort and homesickness.
What opportunity has God invited you to be apart of? If it’s a little scary and requires a little stretching, do it! Because He only invites you to have a hope filled future! (Jeremiah 29:11)
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11
