Training Camp June 4th-14th 2018
After long flights & layovers I finally arrived in America! I had to keep pinching myself that this was actually happening and I was about to begin training camp for THE WORLD RACE. Still blows my mind.
Training camp was 10 days of fun, growth, friendships, and the Lord calling me to more…. not simply for the next 11 months, but for the rest of my life.
A few things that happened at camp:
Culture Days & Bucket Showers: I love food and learning about different cultures so I loved these culture days. Each day we learnt about a different culture while we ate the meals that they’d typically eat. One day we got to eat fried crickets!!! Trust me, they didn’t have any nice seasoning to take away the gross burnt flavour, but I have a YES in my spirit so I did it! Whoop whoop.
Bucket showers were a fun experience. It was literally just a bucket and measuring mug. They were preparing us for what we will have to do in some villages.
Worship: Around 200 racers came together to worship God. I loved that we were free to worship however our hearts desired. It was beautiful to see how each individual worshipped in their own way and they weren’t afraid to just be themselves. I had lots of sweet moments with the Lord during worship. I felt how strong God’s love is for me, I felt His arms embrace me, He’d fill me up with His love, joy & peace. Being still and standing in His presence is a beautiful thing and I’ve learnt to be still before God and trust in the Holy Spirit that He is doing work even when you can’t see or hear.
Community:
I didn’t realize how close I would grow to the 28 people on my squad in such a short amount of time. These people are my family, I know I will have life long friendships and I can’t wait to see what God does through each of them.
I loved how God used people around me to speak into my life. Whether that be my leaders, mentors or team mates. They would challenge me, they would encourage me and so much more. I’d have people that I didn’t know extremely well come to me and pray over me, they would pray prayers that were so on point in that exact moment that you’d know that’s the Holy Spirit speaking through them.
During one of our worship sessions near the beginning of training camp I was feeling like I wasn’t equipped or worthy enough to go on the World Race, I had let fear and doubt creep in AGAIN. I would compare myself to others on my squad and tell myself I’m not good enough. But every time fear would come flooding in, God was right there in that moment. Whether it be through a song, what they were preaching on that day or at this particular moment a prayer that was prayed over me. To be honest I can’t remember the whole prayer because I was crying… a lot. Haha but this is a few things that I wrote down straight after the prayer.
“I am here for a reason, this is where I’m supposed to be right now. God says that I have been obedient, God thanks me for the decisions I’ve made in life to get me here. God trusts me, He knows He can count on me.” I also wrote down this; “Have no fear of being wrong, NO FEAR. I have the gift of encouragement and it is powerful. I will touch so many lives and be relatable.
One of the ladies also had a picture from God while she was praying for me, the picture was of a swiss army knife referring to me as being multitasked.
I did a little research regarding the swiss army knife and this is what I found.
“As a Swiss army Knife Christian, you are created in such a remarkable way to adapt and change with your audience and surroundings. In the Bible Paul said his audience was mainly Jews and to the Jews he became like a Jew, to the weak he became weak. He has become all things to all men that by all possible means the gospel is preached.
Think of Jesus. Think of the Gospel. Think like a Christian Swiss army knife. You are an adaptable and you have the accessories to work well in this world. Some of us have sharper skills than others. But the neat thing is getting sharper accessories is something that can happen to all people. If you think you aren’t adaptable enough, or you have a prejudice towards things or you are racist in some way, Jesus is the answer to those sins. Lay them at the feet of Jesus. Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world. Not just for people who look like me and talk like me. But we know him. And to those who know Jesus we are to go and share the Love of Jesus. We are to be his adaptable mouthpieces able to spread the word to all nations. We are Christian Swiss army Knives. We adapt. We have the tools of love and the Gospel. We know how to use them. Now go.”
Fitness Hike: We had to hike 5.5km in 50 minutes with our packs on. Mine weighing just under 20kgs. My pack included everything I would need for the year including my tent & sleeping pad. I felt like I was going to die… not being dramatic. The Georgia heat, the uphill climbs and the weight on my back = Exhausted. BUT it was so worth it, I was also blown away by everyone on my team & how they supported each other through it. I also realise I need to train hard out to be prepared physically for the race. Our first country that we are going to will be Spain and we will be hiking the Camino de Santiago. This will be a challenge, the real problem is not walking 25 or 30km, it is doing this day after day. I will write a blog in the future about why we are hiking the Camino and how we can impact the lives we come across.
Training Sessions: Every day, we had anywhere from 3-4 training sessions. These sessions ranged in so many topics and my notebook is FULL! Still processing everything that I learnt. I will forever be grateful for the leaders/mentors that sacrificed their time to help us grow.
Leadership Role during The World Race: A couple of days before training camp ended my leaders came to me saying that they have prayed & asked God who would fit this particular role while on the race and they felt that God was calling my name to it. They asked me to be the Beauty for Ashes Coordinator and of course I said YES.I feel so blessed to be given this opportunity and so excited to explain to you all what this actually is and what I’ll be doing. I will write a separate blog for this.
Camping: We slept in our tents pretty much every night apart from nights when they gave us scenarios that happened on the race. For example, sleeping in an airport with a loop recording of an airport with plane noises and intercom announcements. That was not a good night sleep but a fun night playing cards made up for it.
Overall camp was awesome! I’ll be writing a few blogs about camp. 🙂
If you feel in your heart that you would like to be a part of this and make a difference in the lives of so many. If you would like to donate towards this mission so I can still go on the World Race, I would be forever grateful. My next deadline is coming up on the 20th July and I need around $5,000 NZD to reach it.
You can either click the donate button at the top of my page (note: this will be in US dollars) or an easier way for Kiwis is to transfer it to my New Zealand account and I can transfer it across.
Account info below:
N S DEAN
03-1549-0611399-000
Thank you to the beautiful people who have prayed for me & donated, I honestly can’t thank you enough. <3
With love,
Niki
A couple of photos from camp 🙂
