From July 6 to 16, I was at training camp for the World Race – Gap Year in Gainesville, Georgia. For 10 days, I endured the heaviness of the humidity, soggy everything, seemingly endless sessions, and craziness of almost 300 racers from six different squads.
At first, training camp felt familiar. I’ve attended enough Cru conferences to get used to the unfortunate rhythm of going to sessions, feeling exhilarated, and then coming home and falling back into the regular life while losing the fire I had gained. The first few days, I was wondering if the same thing would happen. Along with this, I was skeptical if I would be able to handle the fifty other people in my squad, most of whom who just graduated high school. Honestly, I was concerned about their maturity levels since I have been around people much older than me for the past 6 years. In short, they all blew me away. The maturity and fervor that these people have in pursuing the Lord is incredible, along with their awesome personalities. We also won the dance competition and the entirety of Squad Wars (all six squads competed in several events). When we submitted squad goals, a common theme was that we would be close, knowing everyone else on our squad. I might be biased, but I think we have the best squad.
The fifty-some people in our squad are divided into 8 teams. The whole squad travels to each country at the same time, but the teams might be in different locations. Sometimes the teams might all be together if there are few partnerships in an area or if the country is small, and other times we could be in completely different places depending on the talents of our team or type of ministry. My team has 3 men and 4 women (links to their blogs below). They are all incredible people, and I am so excited that I am going to be working and living with them!
Camp was difficult at times, with some discouragement and doubts. However, towards the end and after leaving, I realized I learned a lot that will be a good foundation for thriving in the next year. Here are two of the most important takeaways I had:
- We can’t just go to God when we feel good about life or when we want to go to Him. We have to go to him when we are happy, sad, depressed, angry at people, angry at God himself, or doubting ourselves and our faith. We must run to Him and abide in His Word and His truth even when we don’t want to because he is always faithful and always loving. That is the only way that we will persevere and grow closer to Him.
- Over the past year or so, I have been learning what it means to live with my eyes focused on Him and a desire to follow His will. At camp, we approached this in terms of missional living, which means in everything we do, we live as ambassadors of Christ who love one another and are here to spread the truth of the Gospel. This is something in which we continually grow throughout our lives.
Leaving training camp wasn’t very hard (I was looking forward to food, sleep, and alone time), but I quickly realized how much I am yearning to be back with my team heading out into the unknown. I know God will work amazing things in us and through us, and I can’t wait to see what happens!
Here’s some pictures of what it was like:
M-Squad’s Camp (Credit: Blake Dahlin)
Training Camp Adventure Food: Goat, Chicken Gizzards, and … Hot Dogs? (Credit: Blake Dahlin)
My Team (L to R: Me, Kendra, Casey, Audrey, Shea, Hunter, and Kassie) (Credit: Kassie Arrington)
My Awesome Squad (Credit: Kassie Arrington)
Please check out my teammates’ blogs!
Audrey Baughn: audreybaughn.theworldrace.org
Kendra Mallin: kendramallin.theworldrace.org
Kassie Arrington: kassiearrington.theworldrace.org
Shea Fitzgerald: sheafitzgerald.theworldrace.org
Hunter Meadows: huntermeadows.theworldrace.org
Casey Henry: caseyhenry.theworldrace.org
Thanks for reading!
Luke Waguespack
