Sponge, Meet the Eternal Fountain of Water

Hello, hello, hello all! Here is my third and final post about Training Camp, only a over two weeks before I go back to Georgia to Launch and leave for Thailand! This last part is about my favorite experiences at Camp.

 

Experiences 

Where to begin? The first thing that hit me was all the new terms. Before coming to Training Camp, I had never heard of a ‘prophetic word’, or seen worshiping like how we worshiped at night, among many other things. It was thrilling to learn about different ways that people feel comfortable talking about and talking to God. With prophetic words, it’s a word or a sentence that God tells you to give to another person, or it’s for you. I understand why I haven’t heard of this before. It’s an all too easy avenue to exploit for your own gain. “Oh, God told me that you have to donate half of your belongings to those less fortunate in need. Like me.” or something like that. 

 

Through my counselors, God told me two prophetic words. ‘Bystander’ and ‘Free’.

 

I told you on the last post that the word ‘bystander‘ would be important! I already said why in my last post, but I’ll summarize it here. When I’m in a new place and I don’t know the social rules (What’s appropriate to say? Who can be a potential friend? Who would scoff/ignore me?. etc.) I become a bystander. Meek and quiet, I wait to identify the rules. The issue is, that I can get too caught up in doing this. And God called me out on this during Training Camp! I was like this during the entire time, and I didn’t need to be! God had placed me in a spot where I was free to be my unequivocally imperfect self! 

 

With the word ‘Free’, I also explained it in the last post, but another summary: I had given my all to God the night before. I told Him that I wanted o do His will, not mine, for the rest of my life. The next morning, one of the counselors told me that God had told her my prophetic word was ‘free’. Hearing both was just wowing. Both words aligned to Scripture, and made sense on what I was feeling and acting and doing. i don’t think the counselors lied to me. 

 

Moving on, another crazy experience was the Two Mile Run. We had to be fit enough to carry our entire backpack, weighed between 30-45 pounds, and run 2.2 miles in 38 minutes. Sounds somewhat easy enough, right?

 

 

I am so beyond grateful that I trained for that sucker. Almost every day in June, I ran about 1.2 miles with my backpack up and down a hill. It was taxing but ultimately helped me pull off the run. The run was separated into two sections, with a breakpoint between each. 

 

The counselors had specified that we needed to be with our team the whole time during the Race. I was easily the fastest person in our team, so I would run ahead and then wait for my team to catch up. At one time, I had reached the second breakpoint and was waiting for my team.

 

I spent three minutes for them to catch up, which I do not regret, but it comes into play later. So we finished the run, and that’s it. We all know that some people didn’t make it- they had gone over the time and would need to redo it. None of us wanted to redo it if we could help it. A couple of days later, counselors are making their rounds to tell people if they have to redo the Race or not, and I do. I was two minutes over.

 

As the counselor was relaying the news to me, tears sprang into my eyes, and I made a decision. In the past, I would have screamed and wept that this wasn’t fair. After being at Camp for a week, and absorbing the different lessons they had taught us, I  had excused myself and went to my tent.

 

In my tent, I prayed and read the Bible. God helped me calm down and think about the situation rationally. After that, I accepted my fate. I thought that they were in the wrong because I had waited for my teammates for two minutes. And as they had specified, we were supposed to end the Race as a team. But I accepted that I would have to redo it. So I wrote down questions (When will I retake it? Do I still have to do it with my backpack?, etc.) and resolved to talk to one of the counselors, Megan, that night.

 

It was such a different thought process. I had to separate myself from people and vent in my tent. Then I read the Bible, calmed down, and thought rationally. That night, I talked too Megan. I asked her my questions and she answered all of them, and then I told her about my team. Now let me rephrase.

 

A week ago, if I was told I had to redo the mile run because I was over time, waiting for my teammates which was the whole POINT of the mile run, I would have screamed. I would have thrown a fit and said that this was ridiculous because I was staying with my team, and my time shouldn’t have suffered because of that. I wouldn’t have been taken seriously.

 

After a week at camp, I didn’t do that. Instead, I calmed down, and thought about it rationally. That night, I was able to talk about it rationally. At the end of my questions, I told Megan that I had waited for my team. I emphasized that I wasn’t trying to get out of redoing the mile run, but wanted to tell her so she would take it into consideration.

 

And you know what? She did. 

 

The following day, Megan told me that I didn’t have to retake the mile run, because I had talked to her about it rationally after taking time to cool down.  I had stayed behind for my teammates, which staying with your team was the entire point of the mile run, even though it cost me two minutes.

 

In conclusion: when anger or wrath or any other negative emotion strikes you, GO TO THE LORD. Read His Word. Write your emotions down. Don’t act on the instinct of lashing out. Instead, turn to the Lord, and your path will be made clear.