If the saying were true that “you are what you eat,” then after spending five days in the woods of White, Georgia, I would be some kind of a combination of Latin American, Asian, and African with some leftovers thrown in for good measure. Training camp was absolutely incredible and I could spend time writing to you now about all of the different experiences I had or about the foods I ate or the people I met or even the many amazing works that the Lord did in my life, but instead I want to focus on what the Lord is doing – emphasis on the present tense. The Lord is showing me that training camp was not a one-time event in which I spent a few days basking in the presence of God just to leave my experiences behind in the woods and call it a great memory. Instead I believe that I have just begun to scratch the surface of the change that He is continuing to work in my heart and in the hearts of my teammates. He is wrecking us for the ordinary and preparing our hearts for greater things than we could ever imagine.
In January our squad of over 30 people will be taking a leap of faith as we follow God into some of the darkest parts of the world. We are going to places where the enemy has bound people by his lies and where he keeps people enslaved to his yoke of sin and death. We are going to “heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound…to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified” Isaiah 61:1b-3. He is working His preparation in our hearts now so that we will be ready and able to carry out this commission when we go.
As my team of 7 people discussed possibilities for a team name, we all knew that it was a very important decision. Because even though you may not become what you eat, you do become like the things that you say about yourself. In my counseling training I learned that if your internal dialogue consists of positives about yourself, you are more likely to think optimistically and have a healthy view of yourself, and vice versa. My team knew that the name that we claimed would truly define us as a team. As we prayed about it we all settled on the same word; illuminate. We know that God is calling us to be His light in these dark places that He is leading us into. By claiming the name “Illuminate” for our team, we are declaring that we will be light and we will allow Christ’s glory to be seen upon us, as it says in Isaiah 60. I ask that those of you reading this, as partners with me in this journey through prayer, will begin to pray this over our team; that Christ will allow us to be His light in every dark place that we go. Pray that He will prepare the heart of each squad and team member for the work that He has in store and that we will walk unified with courage in boldness and in truth. Pray that we will not wait until January, but that even now we will be active in bringing God’s light to those around us. May we be the vessels the Lord uses to bring freedom to the captives and His light to those bound by darkness.
