A lot of people asked me, before I left for training camp, what I was going to do there. And honestly, I had pretty much no idea what to expect (other than I knew in past years there was something about spending the night on a bus)!
We didn’t actually spend the night on a bus. But I did get more out of training camp than I ever could have expected. Training camp served to prepare myself and my squadmates both physically, emotionally and spiritually so that we are best able to go out and serve others on the world race.
Part of training camp focused on recreating situations that we may encounter on the world race such as:
- sleeping in an airport
- losing luggages
- eating local food while respecting local customs
- sleeping in a “hostel”
- using outdoor bathrooms
- hiking a couple miles with our 11-months-worth of clothes and supplies
- setting up shelter, cooking food and starting a fire
- bucket showers (or in my case jumping in the lake twice in ten days)
- having to transport sick or injured teammates to a pharmacy before making it to the bus on time
- getting dinner (and items stolen) in a marketplace full of people
The rest of training camp included worship sessions and seminars on various topics such as:
- keeping the law vs. creating a relationship
- forgiveness
- expressing emotions in a healthy way
- dealing with loss and painful events
- baptism of the Holy Spirit
- disciplines for intimacy with God
- dealing with shame
- living in healthy community
- breaking soul ties
- orphan ministry
I never could have predicted or imagined that training camp would have been as transformative or as powerful as an experience as it was. I got to training camp, and the first couple of worship sessions were a bit uncomfortable (which is probably a big part of why the experience was so powerful, because I’m learning that stepping out of our comfort zone is one of the greatest ways in which God helps us grow in our faith). We had some sessions on some pretty uncomfortable topics. We were asked to share our stories and to show our raw emotions with the people around us- the word vulnerability came up a lot (not such a popular word in our world). However, as difficult and uncomfortable as it was at times, it also allowed us to create a unique sense of unity as a squad where we listened with open hearts about past hurts, where we prayed for one another and worshipped together under the stars, and where we ultimately shared in the healing and preparation of our hearts as we prepare to head to Uganda in just 6 short weeks.
I would love to share more about my experience with you, so feel free to shoot me an email and I will take you out to coffee 🙂 I am currently a little over 40% funded, but I still need to reach $10,000 by August 21 in order to leave with my team. In order for money to arrive in my account in time, all checks need sent in by August 7 and online donations need made by August 18. Thanks again for all of your continued support! Here is a short video that I made from my time at training camp:
