Continued: Training Camp

 

Continued : training camp

to my friends,

training camp was informative, creative, exhausting, crazy, encouraging, eye opening, as well as life changing, in some ways, extravagant and some not so much. I observed many individuals at camp and watched as God freed them, encouraged them, called them, lead them, loved them, and empowered them. I experienced God as a God of PoWeR as well as a God that is AlIvE. God spoke to all of us this week in countless ways. I listened as a man of God came to me and genuinely said, “I’m Free” with a beautiful smile stretching across his face. I saw a God who is a God of Freedom and Love.

I learned of the word FrEeDoM and its’ relation to Christianity, God’s Plan and calling for all of us. I watched as His people experienced Him in a familiar and unfamiliar way. I sat out in a backyard this week as the sun beamed down on me and felt God saying: Lyndsie, you are wretched, and never going to be together. You, daughter, are always going to need me to equip, prepare, & mold you . I tell you to seek me and you will find me. I ask that you come a quarter of the way, willing, surrendering, and open to me and my plan. I tell you to seek me and you will find me because I will come the other three quarters of the way and beckon you and bless you. He asks simply for us to come and He will do the rest. He, a graceful God, will bless me, a sinner. And as I sat there, with the sun beaming down, singing breathe into my veins, breathe into my spirit, the wind blew and I inhaled.

I explained this to my friend Tanna she then tells me the night before she dreamed of Wind and in her dream she knew God was the wind. I tell you this to tell you I experienced God in that way many times this week through my story, through my teammates, my squad and friends, staff, alumni, directors. His voice is within us and He is Alive and calling us and Empowering us. He is Sending US out to reach the nations across the world and in our backyards and allowing us to be a part of it. He is calling us sons and daughters, heirs. HE is a powerful, awakening God whose plan is built upon Love and Freedom. He is calling us to love and to take advantage of the power he has bestowed upon us and to be His hands and feet which in turn will inevitably bless us. Join me in answering that call, learning to hear God’s voice, seeking out what he has for us, surrendering everything we are to Him.

I need you. I need your prayers. I need you to pray that I will keep him the focus and not become the liar, thief, prideful, and selfish individual I am prone to be. Pray that God is the focus, not me. As I write these applicable, raw words, I struggle with them. Pray that I would stay close to the Cross because I am prone to leave the God I love.

My Thanks:

James and Leigh Gilbert who guided me, ministered to me, and lived out what it meant to walk closely with a relational God.

Ashley, my best friend, who encouraged me and experienced life with me even when I wasn’t pleasant and for exposing me to truly loving people enough that she genuinely hurts for the lost.

My extended family, N squad, for being vulnerable and open to community. For being who you are called to be in Christ. Being beautiful examples of a life chasing after God whom I love.

AIM, Staff, Alumni, Directors, Coaches, for believing in us and empowering us and truly desiring to see us succeed and be bold. So much so that you put all that you are into genuinely and realistically preparing us to become disciples of Jesus Christ.