Before leaving for training camp, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Would I connect with these 40 strangers that I was going to have to live with for 9 months? Would God change me? Would I be able to let go of things I was holding onto? Would I get terribly homesick and doubt if I could even go through with the World Race? The questions went on.
I’m really struggling to figure out how to put into words all the things God did during those 10 days. I was stretched physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. If you asked me how so, I could literally talk about it for hours; in fact, I ran out of ink in all my favorite pens from writing so much of what I was learning during training camp.
From bucket showers with wasps, to eating all kinds of strange foods with my hands (including crickets!!!), to never being able to escape the smell of chaco cheese and BO that was everywhere, to living outside in the suffocating Georgia humidity, I learned to embrace the raw, the messy, and the hard. Every night I would walk to my tent smiling, because my tent was surrounded by the tents of my new family, because I was about to rest under the stars alone in God’s presence which never leaves me, because I was covered in dirt and sweat, and that meant that I had lived a day to the fullest, doing hard things. Being home now feels so luxurious. I have toilets, the ability to be clean, any food I want, a bed, and my phone all the time. But it’s honestly not the life that I want. I miss living minimally because it brought me to such a great dependence on God.
I clung to God’s word like never before–most the time at training camp I had my Bible in my hands. I was learning so much about Him and experiencing Him in new ways, and that sometimes made me uncomfortable, so I kept reading, kept clinging to truth, knowing that I could trust every Word God spoke. I learned how to better hear His voice. I was challenged to take God out of the box I had Him in and to let the Holy Spirit lead me. God set me free from things I didn’t even know were chaining me down. He healed me, renewed me, and changed me. He gave me a peace and a joy that is deeper than anything I’ve ever experienced. Something that I want to walk in for the rest of my life.
My teammates and squad mates (pictured at the bottom) became family to me. I’ve never been in such an uplifting community. We are FOR each other. We celebrated with each other, cried with each other, and took care of each other before ourselves. They called me deeper and showed me that they were people I could feel safe being vulnerable with. What a feeling it was to be so loved and supported by people who were strangers just a few days previous.
Going into training camp, I didn’t expect the freedom I would receive, I didn’t expect to be stretched as much as I was, I didn’t expect the deepness of the friendships that I gained, and I didn’t expect to know God this much more.
I can’t stop thanking Jesus for choosing me for this. In just 6 weeks I’ll leave for Colombia with my squad, and I feel more excited and ready than ever. With all the tools training camp gave me for ministry on the field, with the closeness in Christ I have with my team and squad, with Jesus holding my hand, and with the Holy Spirt within me, I AM READY FOR THIS. And I’m only ready because I don’t have to do this in my own strength, I get to rely completely on God, knowing that I can trust Him with everything in me. That silences all the fear and pressure that I’ll ever experience.
Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, Cambodia, and Albania, I can’t wait to meet you and tell you all about my Jesus!!!
