This past week was the World Race Training Camp for teams launching in January and it has been a total whirlwind. Going into training camp I had thought it would be more of an informative session where we would learn about the cultures we are traveling to and learn how to witness and be an example to the people. Well, it kind of was… but it was also SO much more. It was one of the most physically and spiritually challenging times of my life but also one of the most encouraging and impactful. A ton of stuff happened over the course of those 10 days but I’m going to highlight just a few.
One of the most awesome parts of training camp is the community that you are immersed in. The AIM Staff does not hold back from forcing you to look into your past and consider everything that has shaped who you are spiritually and as a person. Throughout training camp we told our teammates and squad mates so many things about who we are as people that no sane and normal person would ever tell someone they just met a week ago.. I guess it’s a good thing none of us are sane and normal! And I loved it; every second of it! I love every person on my squad, and am super pumped to have been given my assigned team for the first few months: Chandler, Jamilyn, Meredith, Brigitte, and Annalise. You all are awesome.
First off, let me just say that I have never experienced worship in the way that I did at training camp. Worship and the sessions that followed were so spiritually encouraging and moving that I couldn’t help but sing as loud as I can, and I SUCK at singing. Everyone pouring their heart out with arms out wide and dancing was so incredibly humbling and exciting. It was during worship that I prayed to God and asked him to help me to surrender everything and not care what the people to my right, my left, in front or behind, thought of me. It was just me and God. It was during these worship sessions when I felt more free than I ever have before.
Throughout training camp, I spoke to many people there, specifically in my squad, that had such amazing testimonies and have gone through absolutely life transforming experiences and totally turned their lives around for Jesus. Hearing all these testimonies made me think more and more about my testimony. I grew up in the church and have grown up hearing the Gospel and diving into scripture. I went to a Christian school from Kindergarten through 8th grade, then public school and got saved around age 17 at a camp in Michigan called Camp Barakel. After getting saved, it changed my plans for college and God sent me off to Cedarville University in the footsteps of my big bro. I learned a lot at Cedarville including many different theologies and all kinds of things about apologetics and how to study Scripture. I have grown to feel relatively adequate at defending my faith and being able to argue theology with various people of different religions, even Christianity. During this time at training camp, I felt like I was being attacked by the Devil and being told lies that my testimony is not good enough, and I don’t have anything to offer my team. I had a long talk with one of my teammates, Grace, who reminded me that every testimony serves its purpose. No matter how ‘plain and ordinary.’
Later in the week, I was trying to figure out what type of gift/talent I could offer to my team and squad… Bear with me here cause this is probably going to sound a little crazy and out of your comfort zone, cause it was for me… One of the activities that we did was allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us, closing our eyes, and focusing on what He tells us. We sat in a circle with either members from our squad or people from other squads. If we saw something like a vision or heard a word of some significance, we said it out loud. For a little background, my church and school have never really highlighted the work of the Holy Spirit, they primarily focus on the work of God the Father and Jesus Christ; there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, however, I noticed that I would tend to put the Holy Spirit in a box, and there is something wrong with this.. I would think of the many things that are spoken of in the books of Paul as having been “right and purposeful” for the Early Church. “There was a time and a place” is what I always told myself. So, naturally, going into this activity I was a little hesitant and skeptical. Sitting down with my eyes closed, I saw my team and I standing in this field and a flock of birds were attempting to fly towards us but were blocked by some random invisible forcefield thingy or something. I thought to myself, “this is stupid, I have no idea what I’m doing.” But I told the people in my circle what I saw and just kind of shook it off..
Later that evening we were told to go out and evangelize to people in Washington Square in Gainesville, GA. My teammate, Annalise, and I were wandering around and prayed with and talked with a few people and then we came across a gentleman named Raul. We greeted one another and then what seemed like a normal witnessing experience turned into a long discussion about apologetics. Annalise and I were stuck defending Christianity from his claims. Skipping over the details of the conversation, I felt inadequate at answering some of his questions and felt like the one thing that I could offer to my team was just blown up in front of my face on like the 6th day… After talking it through with some of our squad leaders, I was incredibly encouraged and was headed into worship session. During this worship session it suddenly dawned on me.. The day before seeing my vision of the birds and evangelizing to Raul, we had talked about the parable of the seed being sown on the path and being eaten by the birds, choked out by the vine, etc. Jesus proceeds to explain this parable by stating that the birds are Satan, eating up the seed that was sown on the ground. During this worship session, God told me that I have so much to learn in terms of apologetics and being able to witness and defend my faith, but He will teach me. And I saw my vision again and God told me that I can be that barrier, or ‘invisible forcefield thingy’, which blocks the birds from getting to my team. I can use my knowledge of Scripture and I can defend Christianity against these attacks. It was probably the most encouraging moment of my entire life. My newfound vigor for studying the Bible even harder and reading apologetics books has given me a ton of hope and motivation for these coming months before I launch!
Now to recap my novel… yeah I was little skeptical but God definitely slapped me in the face and was like, “See.. I can do anything.”
God is Good.
I believe.
I’m never going back.
