Wowowowow.
What can I even say? It’s difficult to piece together all of my thoughts about the past couple weeks. There have been a lot of various emotions and experiences surrounding training camp and this period of time leading up to launch.
But I’m going to do my best to give you a rundown of my recent World Race endeavors and how it all has impacted me.
The basics about Training Camp:
TC occurs approximately 6 weeks before a World Racer’s launch date. It takes place in Gainesville, Georgia at the Adventures in Missions campus. All 3 Squads who are leaving in October (3 different routes) come to training camp to officially meet each other, their leaders and mentors, receive more details about the trip, worship and learn more about Jesus, and practice things that we might encounter during the 11 months abroad.
Each Racer…
sleeps in a tent
takes bucket showers
listens to sermons
undergoes team training and bonding
participates in a fitness test
enjoys group worship sessions
eats food from other cultures
experiences various field scenarios
and most likely does a little bit of organized dancing and goofing 🙂
There’s a lot of sweat, bugs, hydroflasks, video blogging, group prayer, chacos, hammocks, music, porta potties, and backpacks.
Here is what I brought with me to training camp!! Total pack weight = 27 lbs
The Basics:
Main backpack (Northface 65L)
Daypack
Tent with footprint (REI Passage 2)
Sleeping pad (Nemo)
Sleeping bag liner (Sea to Summit comfort soft)
Compressible pillow (Sea to Summit)
Turkish towel
Packing cubes – 2 large, 1 small
T shirts – 6
Pants – 2 pair
Shorts – 3 pair
Underwear – 12 pair
Socks – 4 pair
Bras – 1 regular, 1 sport
Chacos
Tennis shoes
Sandals/Shower shoes (crocs sexi flip)
Personal:
Small makeup bag thing
Shampoo & conditioner – travel size
Face wash
Toothbrush & toothpaste
Comb
Detangling spray
Nail clippers
Tweezers
Extra hair ties
Head buff
Mascara
Miscellaneous :
Hammock and straps
Blanket (Kelty Bestie)
Headlamp
Rain cover for backpack
Headphones
Baby wipes
Snacks
Bible
Journal
Pens
Collapsible bowl
Fork/Knife combo
Here are some of my favorite photos from our time at camp.
Making our way to the campsite. 
Our tent community.
Hammock hangs.
Every table, every meal.
Airport field scenario.
My team before squad wars!
A friendly, playful friend during an evangelism trip into town.
I don’t want to go into TOO much detail throughout this blog, just in case there is a potential future racer reading this. We want it to be a surprise 😉
BUT there are a few specific things that I took away from my traing camp experience.
1.) When I rolled up to training camp, I was carrying anxiety about support raising. I had barely met our first goal of $5,000 to even make it to Georgia in the first place, and the fear of having to switch to a later route had always been at the back of my mind. I knew God wanted me to go on the Race, and the support was coming in (s l o w l y), but maybe He just wanted me to wait a little longer! Maybe October wasn’t the route I was meant to be on.
But then something happened in Gainesville.
I met my squad and my team. The names and faces I had seen on social media all these months suddenly turned into real people with stories and backgrounds and perspectives. They turned into hugs and high fives and jokes and hand in hand prayers. We spent our days sweating together, eating together, packing and unpacking our stuff over and over — together. We completed the 2.2 mile fitness test practically arm in arm and then turned around and worshipped side by side.
A 37 person blind date quickly became a tight knit community.
All of the sudden it became clear. There weren’t any other options! I was apart of something much bigger than myself and couldn’t NOT be with this group of people. I was put on that team for a reason.
God brought me to training camp and He would get me to launch in October.
2.) In college you go through a transition of figuring out who you are and what role God plays in your life — You sort of feel out how your faith looks. Sometimes these necessary, beautiful changes and areas of growth can become somewhat awkward, however, because the people around you notice the differences and may expect you to stay the same way you’ve always been. You yourself might even resist the changes because growth is uncomfortable.
So for me, walking into training camp and meeting 36 other people at the same time and for the first time, allowed me to start fresh and express my faith in its truest form. My squad mates may have had a few preconceived ideas about me (I know I did about them) but I was given a chance to truly worship how I felt most comfortable, exercise my spiritual gifts, as well experiment with my relationship with Christ in some ways.
Remove all the outside voices and expectations, what does my faith look like to me?
But it didn’t stop there.
We were learning about cultural differences and how the gospel affects various people groups in different ways and discussed how we as Americans shouldn’t force our style of church and worship on a culture that expresses their faith in a different way.
We need to give them the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and allow them to live in that same freedom and express their faith in whatever way is comfortable and authentic for them.
I also realized that I needed to challenge myself to a similar task of how I will walk with Christ across international borders.
What does MY OWN faith look like outside of the American context??
Not only do I get the chance to express my faith freely around my teammates without the worry of personal expectations, but I have the opportunity to walk with Christ in an authentic way that defies cultural and “American Church” norms.
I am used to my Sunday mornings looking a particular way, a way that is most similar to the majority of Sunday morning services of every other Christian in middle class America. But what does it look like in Swaziland? or Panama? And what does that mean for me and my personal relationship with Jesus?
Well, I can’t wait to find out 🙂
3.) Finally, let me just throw some gnarly statistics your way.
As the Church, we send 97% of our missionaries to “reached people groups”. As in, areas that already have easy access to the gospel. That means we are severely lacking in our efforts toward the unreached people groups of the world. People who might not have the gospel printed in their language, or don’t have churches on every corner, or have never met a Christian.
There are more Muslims in the area of Bangladesh (and the surrounding area) than in the Middle East.
If we took care of India and spread the gospel throughout their thousands of people groups, we would take care of half of the need of the world’s population who don’t know Christ. HALF.
Once again, my heart broke for the nations and the 10/40 window.
All in all, training camp was a great experience that brought me not only into the world of missions even more, but into the lives of amazing people who I have the honor of serving with. It was challenging, stretching, joyful, and satisfying.
We were in the great outdoors practicing our camping skills, while also increasing our intimacy with Jesus and diving into community.
We ate foods from all over the world, exercised international traditions, and learned about the regions we get to experience for the next 11 months.
I am extremely grateful for my time at camp with my team as we prepare to leave in just 5 SHORT WEEKS. It was so odd coming back home after I got that’s little taste of what it’s going to be like on the field. It makes me feel encouraged and excited!! My next post will be an introduction to my team of 6 that I’m traveling with. :))
I am still lacking about $4,000 to make it to our second goal of $10,000 to be able to launch with my team in October and make it to the Philippines!! I have a couple fundraisers coming up for the month of September, but if you would like to make an online donation, you can click back to the home page of this blog site and hit the orange “Donate” button at the top of the page! I DESPERATELY NEED YOUR HELP.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING AND FOR YOUR DONATIONS!
