Five days of ridiculousness. Of difficulty, Of freedom. Of vulnerability.
Five days of laughter. Of tears. Of newly made jokes. Of truth and love.
Training camp for the World Race has been more than I could have expected, more than I could have dreamed up. Before coming here, I had glimpses of what might occur. I’ve heard rumors or stories from people who have gone before me. Yet here I arrived, in the gorgeous hills of Tennessee, after nearly twenty hours of driving, to meet a squad of 53 strangers and step into the unknown.
What has happened here is beyond my comprehension, outside of my "normal" Christian box, and past my understanding. A few days has felt like years, and the bonds here that have formed are already on a solid foundation. In one word? Training camp has been incredible.
While you might have expectations about what I did here, what I learned and what I saw, you’d probably be incorrect. I surely was. My idea of what “normal” is, has been shattered into a million pieces. It feels cliché to say that different is normal, but it’s true. This new normal is going to lead me into a new place with the Lord, for which I am incredibly grateful. It will lead me into a new power, a new purpose and a new freedom, beyond what I have had in the past.
These past few days of being in the rolling green hills, in the humid and muggy weather, with strangers who quickly became family has changed me. Changed me for the better. It has prepared me for leaving in seven weeks better than I would have assumed or guessed it could have. It has created an excitement within me that is so incredible that I want to burst. It has renewed my passion for this trip and for the reasons that I decided to do this oh so long ago in the fall of 2009. In that fall, I knew in my soul that one day I would be here, leaving for a year that would radically alter my reality. By my launch in September, this trip will be two years in the coming.
I couldn’t be more excited to share these stories with you, but we have been asked to not share specifics in order to keep the mystery and excitement alive for future racers.
Hear this, future racer.
I’m only in the beginning of this process. I haven’t yet left the states, haven’t yet eaten something disgusting, haven’t yet lived with the poor and the hungry and the broken.
But I have seen God move. And I believe that we are a generation that will change the world. I challenge you to join this, to look inside of you and know that you are meant for something greater.
We are royalty. We have destiny. We have been set free. We shall change history. This is truth. I declare it over you, friends, in confidence.
