I recently returned from a week and a half retreat in Gainesville, Georgia at the World Race:Gap Year training camp. I am getting ready to embark on my amazing journey (which is now only 12 days away). This week changed my life in so many ways and helped me grow exponentially in my faith. It also helped me in very practical ways in realizing what equipment and supplies I do and do not need on my Gap Year trip. For instance, I need a new pack, because my original pack that I bought is a large frame, which is too big for me. This would prove to be very difficult on the man-hike. But I am getting ahead of myself.
My week started off with a two hour bus ride with 50 people I never met before. I quickly made friends, and started to build relationships that I hope will grow as I am on the World Race, and will hopefully last long beyond. When we arrived, we were all escorted to a small grassy plain which would be our home for the next ten days. We set up our tents, and for those of us who had hammocks, we set those up as well. After a dinner consisting of bagged sandwiches and a bag of chips, we went up to the auditorium where we would have our sessions for the next ten days. We had two sessions every day: one in the morning right after breakfast and one in the evening right after dinner. In these sessions we would worship, which was amazing, and then different speakers would share messages pertaining to our mission. These messages includes talks on salvation, overcoming fear, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit and how each of us has a different gift in the Spirit. These messages helped shape us to become better disciples for the upcoming nine months.
There was one particular night at Training camp that completely changed my life. It was the third night, and we were singing the song Oceans. I had my hands up, and while we were all singing, one of my squad’s mentors, Andrew, came up and told me that God had put something on his heart that he wanted to share with me. Andrew told me that God gave him two simple words to say to me: “Be still”. He then went on to say that God was telling him that he loved me, and that even though I was lost, wandering around looking for him, that he had never left me. He told me to stop searching for God, because he is standing right in front of me with arms open wide, waiting to show me the way back home. Halfway through I started to cry, and as Andrew spoke more and more the harder I cried. By the time he was finished I was bawling in his shirt, overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit and feeling filled for the first time in what felt like a long time.
Three days later, I would have my own opportunity to speak words of life into someone. It was during worship again, and as we were singing I looked to my right and saw a red-haired girl standing about 20 feet to my right. I immediately felt the Holy Spirit move inside of me, and He told me to go speak life to her. As soon as He said this I felt super nervous. But, as the song continued, this feeling in the pit of my stomach began to grow and grow until I could not ignore it any more, and I decided to go over and speak life to this random girl. I prayed to God asking for guidance for what to say to this girl, and he simply said one word: “love”. I was confused, but did it anyways. I walked right up to her and said, “Hi. I don’t usually do this, but I felt God calling me over to you, and he wants me to speak this word to you. And that word is love. He is a good, good father and he loves you so much. He gave his son for you, and he wants you to know just how much he loves you.” As I spoke these words over her, she began to cry and I could see with my own eyes the Holy Spirit filling her up. God is truly amazing, and I believe that he uses each and every one of us to be Christ in each others lives.
Training Camp wasn’t all worship and speakers. The main goal of Training Camp is to get us ready for the World Race:Gap Year. So, for half of the mornings, we would wake up and exercise. This would vary based on the day. For instance, our first morning we woke up at 6:30 and packed up everything and went on a 30 minute hike with our backpacks. Another day we went for a 30 minute run (which I thoroughly enjoyed, playing soccer and all). Another day we went for a two-mile hike in under 40 minutes right before lunch. Our last exercise was to do push-ups and yoga for 30 minutes in a closed space, in case there is nowhere to run where we are staying on the World Race. All of these exercises tested us physically to make sure we could deal with what is expected out in the field.
The major physical test for the men was a two-day, 18-mile hike along the Appalachian trail, while the women had a different training test at camp. Early our fifth morning we packed up our bags and embarked on our journey at 5:15 IN THE MORNING. Seriously, who is even up at this hour of the morning?! We drove an hour and started our hike at a lovely picnic site along the side of the road. The trail started steep and the weather was very windy. This would have been easy, but I had several things going against me at the beginning of our hike. First of all, unbeknownst to me, the salami I had agreed to carry for all the hiker’s lunch weighed about 20 pounds. This coupled with the 30 pounds my pack already weighed meant that I was carrying 50 pounds on my back. This may not have been such a big challenge if my pack wasn’t two sizes too big for my body. Even with the smaller straps that I had bought for the pack, it was still way too big for me to carry 50 pounds. I tried and tried to carry my pack, but about a quarter of a mile into the hike we were still going straight uphill and I was starting to lose feeling in my legs, and every step began to feel like it was going to be my last. As we finally got to the top of the hill I collapsed, and didn’t know what to do. One of my squad-mates, Rye, offered to switch packs so he could carry the weight. This really made me check my pride, and realize that I could not do this on my own, and realize that I needed help to carry this pack. I agreed and immediately felt like the whole weight of the world had been taken off of my shoulders. I did not carry my pack for the rest of the day until we reached our camp site, which was 11 miles away from where we started. Instead, my pack was passed around from person to person to share the weight, because the pack was really heavy. But, as we hiked that first day we saw some amazing scenery and got to know each other extremely well. At our campsite, our squad led worship for the rest of the men, and afterwards our guide gave us a talk on finding our faith through Christ. I shared a tent with a guy on my squad named Parker. As we listened to the rain hit the tent we each shared each our testimonies, and how God had brought us to this point in our lives. As Parker shared, I realized we had a lot in common, and shared a lot of the same struggles. But in the end I got to know Parker extremely well and look forward to seeing what God will do through him on this journey we are about to embark on.
The second day we hiked 7 miles, and I carried my own pack, for someone else had taken the salami. The hike was still difficult, but I was able to power through the pain. One of the guys on my squad, Matt, prayed over me and asked God to give me strength to finish the hike, and he did just that. The hardest part of the day was the beginning: one mile, straight uphill. We finished the hike at around 11:40 in the morning, and as we ate lunch our leaders gave us a talk on how the importance of avoiding dating relationships with girls on the Race. They really sent home the message to save dating relationships for after the Race, and I intend to follow that.
The final part of training camp were so-called “field scenarios” that simulate what may happen on the race. Our first field scenario simulated that half of our luggage was lost by the airline, and we had to wait until the morning to call the airline to get our luggage back. I did not lose my pack, so shared my tent and gear with my friend David while slept in my hammock instead. Our next field scenario camping with only a sleeping pad and bag. I chose neither and slept on a tarp with the sweatshirt I was wearing to keep me warm. Another field scenario was an all night worship session, where at least one person from our squad had to be up worshipping or praying the entire night. I had the late morning shift at around 6:30 (it was after this I started to feel sick). Our final field scenario was learning how to spend the night in an airport. We all slept on the floor on our sleeping pads. I did not participate, because my teammate Parker and I had been running high fevers and been weak all day long. We slept in the infirmary on a bed. This scenario was the most realistic in two ways. First, our squad has a night layover in Qatar on our way to Thailand. Second, I my fever turned to blisters, and it turned out I had hand, foot and mouth disease. We learned that illness is likely on the Race. Fortunately we have training on how to care for each other, and the World Race requires travel insurance to be part of ur fundraising.
The final part of Training Camp was team creation. There was a lot of large team building exercises prior to the creation of the smaller teams, but I was too sick to participate. However, I was connected to a great team of six people that I already love and am super excited to get to know the next nine months.
All in all, Training Camp was an awesome experience in which I got to meet an amazing group of people. I learned more about myself and God than I had ever before. I am so thankful for the opportunity to get to know everyone on my squad and my team as well, and look forward to spending life with these people over the next nine months.
