Training Camp in itself was an adventure. My squad and I spent ten days together in the beautiful, humid, peachy state of Georgia (pun intended). It was so exciting getting to meet my squad and finally put their personalities and names to a face. I can say with much excitement that I am very pleased to spend the next year with these kind, gracious, loving humans and call them family!
During the ten days we spent time eating a variety of food (which included crickets, goat and chicken gizzards), exercising at 7am almost every morning, taking cold bucket showers, using only porta potty’s, going through field scenarios (like losing backpacks, evacuations, and overwhelming market days), sleeping outside in the open air or in a tent, and also spending precious time in the Word and having wonderful fellowship.
There is no doubt in my heart and mind that this is what I am called to do for the next year of my life. I have said yes to a year of not knowing what lies ahead and to the challenges and growth that I know will come.
Those ten days of training camp were more than what I expected it would be like and has made me even more excited. It was filled with so much excitement, so many surprises, so many challenges emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Each day of training camp I was challenged. There are three words that come to mind that capture my experience at training camp and they are UNITY, INTIMACY, and FORGIVENESS. In those ten days, I am amazed by how fast and yet how slow the time went. Each day was filled with so much depth.
First, the Unity that was expressed was beyond what I imagined it would be like. The unity not only with my squad but with the other two squads was intentional, genuine, selfless and overflowing. This type of unity is rare and I am so thankful to be a part of it. One specific example was during the women’s day. We had to do a sequence of challenges that were to be done in a certain amount of time. Each squad had to do a workout challenge that included over 500 hundred squats, pushups, and burpees. Each of these had to be done for each squad in a certain amount of time. One squad finished first before all the other squads and instead of going onto the next challenge they stopped and asked if they could help take off some of our squats, pushups and/or burpees. I was amazed that they stopped and chose to help us. Personally, I would have kept going because I am a very competitive, selfish person. Seeing these women come along side us to help finish the challenge was unreal and opened my eyes even bigger to see the beauty of unity. They chose to help us even when they were tired and hate doing push-ups. They chose to lay down their pride and wanted us to start this challenge together and end this challenge together. Their selflessness and humility amazed me so much. Getting to serve and love these people within those ten days was a gift.
Second, the intimacy each person had with the Lord was so heartening. As we would sing in worship I would lift up my head and take a peek at those around me and suddenly I would start to tear up because WOW so many people love Jesus and are confidently singing that the Lord is Good and yes He is!! This year I am excited to have deep intimacy with the Lord and continually trust that He is Good and in control!
Third, I was challenged a lot by the word forgiveness. Forgiveness is powerful and not a word that I throw out so easily. I have been let down so many times and it’s difficult for me to continually forgive time and time again to the same person. This week I was challenged again to forgive. Forgiveness is very challenging for me and this week I was reminded of the power of forgiveness and how God extends forgiveness to us each and every day. Going deep and seeking the Lord through this was what I needed because my worth and identity is not fixed on this one person, but on the character and love of Christ. The Lord will never ever let me down and He is good!
I am so excited for this journey and see what is to come. To capture my journey, I am asking for donations of electronic devices. If you are willing to donate an external hard drive (1 TB), GoPro or camera I would gladly and gratefully accept them!!!
Thank you so much for reading my blog, there will be plenty more to come!
I am currently 34% funded and need to reach my next goal of 10K by the end of September! Please feel free to contact me at any time to know more about my journey and/or about myself!
With love,
Kelsey Yonnie
