For months I have been trying to prepare for training camp.I watched video after video, read blog after blog. It’s hard to believe that I am now done with training camp. Despite of all of my research and the thought of having it all figured out I honestly can say I had no clue what I was getting myself into.
The 10 day‘s of training camp was a roller coaster For me. Training camp was packed with incredible things – worship, laughs, tears, new friendships, teachings, food, dancing (LOTS of dancing), challenges and lots of hugs!
Worship
we were blessed with an incredible worship team! We worshiped with four other squads; so about 150 people plus leaders. When you get that many believers in one room singing their heart out and worshiping our father, you experience God in a new way. They encouraged us to worship freely. Some of us danced, laid on the floor, lifted our hands, and some sat still. We were all worshiping at the same time just in a different way. I learned that worship isn’t just singing songs to God.
Living conditions
The 10 days at training camp we mostly slept in our tents. I got really good at putting my tent up and packing it up the next morning. The nights we didn’t sleep in our tent, They gave us different field scenarios. One night we slept in an “airport”. All we had that night was our day pack and our sleeping bag and air pad.They left the lights on all night and had a speaker that played airport noises and announcements. Let’s just say I didn’t get that much sleep that night. Another night half of my teams baggage got left behind at the airport, so we had to share our tents and anything we had with another teammate. I actually liked this because it gave us a push to connect with our team.
We also took cold bucket showers if we wanted to shower. I think I took four bucket showers the entire 10 days. Basically we got a big paint bucket and filled it with water, and we had a measuring cup. You would get the measuring cup and fill that with the water in your bucket and dump it over your head.The bucket showers were nice when it was hot outside but it was awful when it was really cold in the morning or at night!
One night we had a bonfire and a camp out. This was probably one of my favorite memories of camp. My squad cooked dinner over the fire. The food was delicious by the way! We then Worshiped around the fire for hours. Towards the end of the night one of my teammates spoke up and said most of us are believing lies that Satan is telling us. She said we need to throw those lies in the fire. So We brought to light those lies! As people felt led they spoke out loud the lies they have been holding onto and believing and then threw it into the fire. We definitely felt freedom after that night. That was the night we all felt vulnerable with each other. Hands-down an amazing experience!
Community
I met my squad for the first time in person as strangers. But I left training camp with 32 brothers and sisters. My squad became family fast because we were together every day and we did everything together. At first it was a little overwhelming because I never Really got alone time. But this is how it’s going to be on the race so I got used to it fast. A few days into training camp they revealed to us our team. Our team consist of six people per group. I will introduce to you my team on a later blog! I am On a all girls team and they are awesome! Go K Squad!
Food
Each day at camp represented a different culture. Some days we ate with a fork. Some days we ate with chopsticks. Some days we ate with our hands. There were culture dress codes on Some of the days.We had to cover our shoulders knees and ankles. Depending on what day it was there were different culture rules. On Asia day we could not serve our self. we had eastern European day, Africa day, India day, travel day, adventure day, and finally America day!
On adventure day week crickets. I definitely didn’t eat the crickets but that wasn’t the worst part. They also served a Thousand year old duck egg. The egg was black and smelled disgusting. One of my squad mates ate the egg and he almost puked!
On America day they served us biscuits and gravy, chicken, mac & cheese and hotdogs and hamburgers! That was definitely my favorite meal!
Squad Wars
we finished up training camp on the last day with squad wars. This was basically a field day. We all wore our team color(green) and painted ourself with paint to show our team color. It was so much fun! This consisted of several games and Competitions! We competed against four other squads, and each squad made a chant and a dance. we then had to do a “dance off” between each squad. K Squad came in 2nd place Overall!
Afterwords we had Spontaneous baptisms! This was one of my favorite moments at camp. I got to watch a few of my squad mates get baptize!
On the last day of training camp one of the leaders gave us advice. He said don’t wish away seasons of your life. Be present where you are. In the next six weeks, don’t wish you were on the race. You will miss all that God has for you before you go. If you wish you were on the race while you were at home, at the end of the race, you’ll wish you were at home. Be present and make the most of each season of your life .
I have 44 days until launch!!
I have raised $6,256 out of $18,100.
I still need to raise $3,744 by July 20th! If you feel led to donate any amount to my mission trip you can click this link lindseybrown.theworldrace.org and click “donate”
Please, Please Be praying! I leave for launch August 4th. Please be in prayer for my squad and I as we are wrapping up loose ends in the states and preparing to leave our loved ones. Also, please be in prayer for support raising. We each need to meet the deadlines, or else we can’t launch together.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog so you know when I post when I’m gone!
Love,
Lindsey Brown
