Greetings to all of my brothers and sisters near and far,
As promised, here is another blog post about TC (training camp). This one will try to cover what really went on, as best as I can explain it. TC was incredible and sometimes indescribable to those who have never experienced it. As I have been explaining it to people, a lot of times, words fail me because TC was mostly about feelings/experiences, which, often can be hard to explain! I’m going to give it my best effort so bare with me, it’ll be a long one!
TC 10/19-29/2016
Wednesday 10/19/16:What a busy day! I was spending the morning with my dear friend Hannah before she dropped me back at the airport to catch the World Race shuttle buses to “camp.” Upon arrival at the airport, I had no clue where my team was. I tried to reach out, but to no avail. Finally, I recognized fellow World Racers (we stand out in crowds lol, see picture)! We continue to wander around aimlessly, picking up other WRer’s along the way! We finally recognize where “our people,” were! We join the group and as if Squad Wars was already happening, the squads were segregated already, each squad proudly doting their designated color! We continue to talk to people for the next 1.5 hours until it was time for “S Squad’s” shuttles! We board the shuttle and talk to the AIM staff! It was awesome! I instantly connected with a girl named Sara who told us she was going to be one of “S Squad’s” trainers! I was stoked (see Sara in the picture)! We had awesome conversations with everyone! When we pulled up to TC it was literally like a circus, people screaming at us, lots of hugs, laughter, packs of all sizes everywhere, and lots of green, blue, red, and orange shirts! We registered, had dinner, set up our “tent city,” and socialized until our first worship and session! It was awesome! We went to bed after more socializing! I did not sleep well at all, but that was to be expected!
Thursday 10/20/16: We had to be up with bags packed and outside by 7am to have a 30 minute morning hike with everything except our tents! It was hard. My muscles were already sore from carrying around all of my stuff when I had to meet Hannah (after being on 2 trains) on Tuesday 10/18! Anyway, it really made me worry about the 3 mile hike in 50 minutes with our packs! After the hike we had some personal time/quiet time. Every day was a different “country” or area for food and it was “Asian day,”aka lots of rice and vegetables! People, be proud I tried 98% of every food I was offered at TC! Y’all should be so proud since y’all know how picky of an eater I am! Our sessions were: Discipleship, Shame, and Love vs Relationship/Grace. The worship continued to be unlike anything I’ve ever experienced and the sessions were starting to get very deep and personal!
Friday 10/21/16: We woke up to “Latin American Day,”aka GREAT FOOD! Everyone was pretty pumped up about it! A lot of people were dreading the hike that would be that afternoon so we had to sit through a session and eat lunch before the hike. We finally got to the hike and I picked a “medium paced group,” I thought I would be able to keep up, even after we decided to run down every hill. I started out okay, but was hating life and was still paranoid I would not make the deadline. Then, my hat blew off and I had to run back and grab it and then try to catch up to my group. 4 out of the other 5 girls kept going, 2 were all stars and were like running the whole thing (y’all killed it Em and Ally). Malia noticed I had fallen behind and waited for me to catch up. Let me just tell you how great this girl is, she stayed with me the whole time, encouraged me the whole time, talked with me the whole time, and pushed me so we ended up finishing in 44 minutes. The route was tough with a very challenging hill towards the end of each loop and I just kept telling myself to push, one step in front of the other. I kept telling myself, just get 50 minutes, just get 50 minutes but God was like, “NO, you’re better than 50 minutes!” And I was! After finishing, I was dead, but SO incredibly happy! I flat out told Malia I would not have made it without her! She was my guardian angel that day! After I finished I felt unstoppable, like I could have picked up a mountain and chucked it somewhere! God gave me a sense of accomplishment, and it felt amazing! I was totally on a God high the rest of the day! The rest of the day was quite interesting, we were told to get into groups of 2 (giraffes and elephants). They then said that the “giraffe’s hiker’s packs,” were lost at the airport so we had to share the elephant’s stuff during the night.
Saturday 10/22/16: Friday night was pretty much the coldest night ever and no one slept. My “elephant” Sara was super cold (and with a bum ankle), and I was just straight up uncomfortable and got cold as the night went on. Everyone was miserable haha! We woke up to some great news that it was Eastern Europe day for food, aka BREAD! Saturday sessions included “Pain,” and the “Holy Spirit.” God finally started speaking to me through the journal questions during the “pain,” session. I figured out that I do not love myself and that I have been judging myself/putting myself down for years so that it wouldn’t give others the opportunity to do it. I was harming myself more than I knew. I began to pray to God more about it. Worship was insane during “Holy Spirit” night. The Spirit was moving all around the room, people were being told to go find people and give them a message/pray specifically over them! My “elephant” Sara, was even HEALED on the spot by one of our fabulous coaches, Toni! Toni prayed 3 times over Sara’s ankle and after the 3rd time, Sara was able to jump, dance, run, bare weight; it was powerful! Our team was also very happy to know that we had the “airport simulation,” that evening, which meant WE GOT TO SLEEP INSIDE and all the “giraffes” packs were found! I had a really awesome conversation with Hillary, or Hills as I call her! It was also just great to be inside with everyone on S Squad and with T Squad (the smallest squad)!
Sunday 10/23/16: We had to wake up early and be out of the worship center first thing in the morning. The guys had to pack up all of their stuff and they left for their men’s retreat, (plus T Squad), while the women had our women’s retreat back at camp. It was COMFORT FOOD DAY! They were smart and knew that women love to eat! We had honey nut cheerios, apples, tuna fish sandwiches, and chili baked potatoes! We were in food heaven! We had a session in the morning on “being women” and how we were created for a purpose in the Kingdom. Then we had to do this crazy activity where we were put into small teams and our team had to cross the boarder between Costa Rica and Haiti. However, we contracted a disease where some people couldn’t use certain limbs, some were blind, I couldn’t touch anyone, etc. We had to carry our team/get to certain spots and then do physical exercises. It was tiring but really good. My team worked very well together, we had Janet, Abby, Klancy, McKenzie, Lindsey, and Sylvia. After the activity (which took a while), we had some free time before we had another session. The next session was Shame part 2! God again spoke to me and I really put more dots together. I needed to love myself. I needed to stop carrying around guilt over something that happened over 2 years ago. After the session, I asked Trainer Sara if we could talk! I explained to her that God was telling me that I could not deal with shame, guilt, pain, or forgiveness until I dealt with myself. I need to learn to love myself as God loves me and I need to forgive myself for all of the lies I have told myself all of these years. I have always struggled with the triad of body image/self worth/I’m not beautiful, like since elementary school this has been a struggle. Anyway, Sara was like okay, let’s sit down. The first thing she asked me to do was to list all of the things I love about myself. I started to do that but before I knew it, I was describing things in my life. Sara stopped me and said all of those things are great, but they’re not about you. What do you love about yourself? I said I couldn’t think of anything else. Sara then said okay, pray to God and ask Him what He loves about you! I did, and as soon as I prayed, the word, “everything,” popped into my head. I told Sara and she said, that is awesome but now we are going to do something else! I want you to now pray and start forgiving yourself for all of the lies you have been telling yourself for years! As I started, the tears FINALLY came! This is what I had been waiting for days! I am typically a very emotional person so I was getting so frustrated that I was not having a breakthrough yet. It seemed like everyone else was having huge breakthroughs and crying besides me, so when it happened, it was awesome! I finished praying forgiveness over myself and hugged Sara. She was very happy I cried too, because I told her how I have nothing against crying, I think it’s good to cry, but nothing was happening! After talking to Sara I decided I needed some Jesus time and to spend some time in the Word! I was in search of a “life verse,” or an “anthem verse.” Of course, God led me to one! Song of Solomon 4:7 “You are altogether beautiful my love, there is no flaw in you!” I wrote it on my wrist and it became what I looked at morning, noon, and night. I said I would write it on me until I believed it! Our last session was “breaking from shame.” We need to SPEAK LIFE, not death! We also learned about “soul-ties” and the power they can hold over you! It was good!
Monday 10/24/2016: Monday was a busy day! Our guys returned from their man hike/frolicking in the woods. We learned it was African food day! Basically that meant the men sat at tables and had to be served. The women sat on the floor and had to wait for the men to be completed served before we could begin eating. The played African music, Lion King soundtrack/ it was AWESOME! Oh, and we had to ate with our hands, which was interesting! Monday sessions began focusing on community and away from “self,” which many of us were relieved about! We also discussed more WR information, which was great to hear! We also had our first “team simulation,” where the training staff prayed over team options and had us do an activity together to see how we worked together! My first team was awesome, Meghan, Janet, Janibel, Paige, Allison, and Rachel. Our trainer, Ricci, said we did it smoother than most groups she’s ever seen do it! I was pumped! We then had to pack up everything we needed for our camp out and went offsite! We had an evening of cooking our dinner over fire (chicken in cocunut milk and fruit/vegetables kabobs), setting up our tarps to sleep on under the beautiful Georgia sky (those stars, my word), and just bond as a squad! We all went around and shared our highs and lows of TC thus far and before going to bed, worshipped around our fire led by Katie, Malia, and Maggie!
Tuesday 10/25/2016: I battled all night long trying not to roll down the mini slope I was on, man it was hard. I also kept moving closer and closer to the fire! At 5am I was woken up by people talking. There were people who woke up and decided to restart the fire and then just started talking, yes a 5am pow-wow that lasted until everyone else woke up. We had bagels for breakfast, packed up, and hauled back to camp once the vans came! We had “Sabbath,” until lunch so it was time for us to spend however we wanted, work out, shower, spend time with Jesus, hang out, sleep, whatever we needed to be filled! Lunch was PB & J and potato chips (we had Cool Ranch Doritos). Can I just tell you, it was the best PB & J I’ve ever had haha! We then had another team simulation! This time, my team was Hills, Janet, Caitlin, Jordan, and Sara Panda (yes lots of Sara’s). We did not finish, but were told not many teams finish this particular exercise. I couldn’t help but compare that team to my first team. Ideally, I was super stoked for my second team; however, I felt that our first team worked better together. I give major props to the training team who pray over these teams and work them together until they figure it out! We were so happy to have the worship team back (well part of them), we seriously were starving for music to worship our Savior to! That evening we had our community tent simulation! We all slept in huge tents, 10 to a tent. It was fun, I still didn’t sleep well, and I was still cold.
Wednesday 10/26/2016: We woke up and had to have all of our stuff back at our campsite before breakfast. Wednesday was India food day. We had sessions focused on more WR information. We had our final team simulation. My team was Janet, Klancy, Abby, Rachel, and Jordan. We were able to complete our task and it was really good! We then were asked by our trainer Kaylaynn if we liked this team and would we be upset if it was broken up. There were mixed feelings because some of us had never talked or worked together. I ended up saying I would be upset if the teams changed because I trust God and I trust the process. The training staff stayed up for hours praying and trying to finalize the teams. After the talk, we all wanted to stay the same, and we found out later in the day that WE DID STAY THE SAME! For all of those who have been reading my blogs, I introduced my team to everyone already! These women are my sisters, please pray for them! That evening was our evening out on the town! It was also Jordan’s birthday so we did our best to celebrate it for her! We got Starbucks and pizza at Mellow Mushroom. Afterwards, went back to one of the WR head’s houses and had a game and dessert night. Check out my team blog for a cool thing that happened and find out how we got our name,”It Is Goode!” Everyone went to bed pretty happy Wednesday night!
Thursday 10/27/2016: Thursday was the hardest day of TC. Because we had seen the outside world, and a lot of people had contacted friends and family, there was a discord among our squad. There wasn’t the same unity that we had shown from day 1. We had to go to a session either on teaching, evangelizing, or preaching. I went to the preaching one and we had to write a sermon! That day our team needed to figure out when people would be praying in the pavilion (where we ate food) all night for the prayer vigil. It was so chaotic and no one was listening to each other. It was disheartening. However, I prayed about it during the prayer vigil (2am-3:30am) and God gave me reassurance about it! On top of it all, Thursday’s food theme day was “Adventure Day.” Crickets, cow intestines, chicken gizzards, chicken feet, and some other unknown food. This did not help anyone’s attitudes, a lot of us were super hungry! We also had to say goodbye to Jordan, so that was hard! Thursday night for dinner was a marketplace simulation. It was absolutely insane, slightly over the top, but I understand why it was necessary! That night, before bed and the prayer vigil, we practiced our dance for Squad Wars (S SQUAD BEST SQUAD).
Friday 10/28/2016: Friday morning was a completely different mindset than Thursday. Everything felt normal and cohesive again! Friday was “coming home food,” which was so wonderful! We had sessions about how to be an effective missionary to hurting people, orphan ministry, and women’s ministry! Then we got all decked out in green for Squad Wars. Squad Wars was at the park where we did our timed hike. Each squad performed, WE WON, and then had a picnic with food and games. It was sad though because Abby dislocated her knee and had to learn how to use crutches! On a positive note, it was SUCH a great way to spend our last night at TC! After the picnic, our squad stayed up playing games with each other for hours! It was so good! We went to bed with heavy hearts!
Saturday 10/29/2016: We had to be up and all packed by 8am. We had fruit and pop tarts then were assigned a place to clean up. It was so weird to be putting everything away. After we cleaned up, we then got into prayer circles with our teams, and then as a whole squad. We then all went our separate ways; some back to their cars to drive home, others to be shuttled to the airport. It was so sad. I had to leave my family.
TC was absolutely amazing and crazy and beautiful. I would do it ALL over again in a heartbeat!
