Wow! Training Camp is already over! It felt like each day was a year, but by the end of it all, everyone including myself, felt like it wasn’t long enough. Just incase you are a future racer looking for a blog post to see what to except—or spoil—training camp for you, that’s not what this is. However, I’m still going to talk about training camp, what God did, and the next step.
For those who don’t know what Training Camp is, it is 10 days of training for the World Race and the World Race Gap Year mission’s trips. Adventures in Missions sets up this training to prepare each racer for what they might encounter on the mission field and go over our relationships with God as well. I thought these 10 days would be a BREEZE and I’d get to know some cool people. I was wrong with one of those… I LOVE J-squad and they’re all incredible and wonderful people. Therefore… IT. WAS. NOT. EASY. If you are a future World Racer, take that from this blog post. God is using you for His purpose and His glory. That involves you laying down your desires, your dreams, your comfort, your whole life. Those ten days stretched me physically. Bucket showers, hikes, climbing mountains, sleeping outside in the rain, and so much more. It stretched me emotionally and socially. I had to live with and be vulnerable with people I had just met that week and continuously be in situations that were uncomfortable for me. Finally, it stretched me spiritually. God tour open my life and showed me many areas where I need to be more like Christ, trust Him, and be a better example of Jesus.
Each person has a different experience at Training Camp. Each person is created in the image of God and has different battles and challenges they are dealing with going into training camp. In my own infinite wisdom and knowledge (you can feel the sarcasm) thought I was good enough and didn’t have much to work on. Wow… God sure proved me wrong. I went in with the wrong attitude, but God totally turned that around and used it to humble me in several different ways.
Going into training camp I felt empty and alone. Not a good feeling for anyone, but especially someone who is suppose to pour out into others; I had nothing to pour out. The first few days there I went back and forth feeling this way. However, God quickly changed that during one of our sessions. God really broke through to me after several people prayed over me and my life. God showed me that he’s bigger than my problems, insecurities, and feelings. He showed me that there are far greater things ahead and that all of this was about HIM not me. It was definitely a hard reality to swallow, but I knew that I needed to in order to go “further up and further in” into Christ. God made every day a challenge, specifically so that I would learn to fully lean on Him. That is exactly what I did.
Each day presented a new challenge for not only myself, but my team as well. We heard sermons several times a day, each day, about so many different topics it will make your head spin. However, I have never seen God move so much in a group of young people as he did then. My squad was transformed from just a bunch of teenagers to young men and women living and on fire for the kingdom of God. Honestly guys, they give me chills. I get to bring the gospel to the nations with these people! It is an incredible honor! I’m confident that I’ll be running after them these next 9 months because I know that God is going to MOVE in the squad.
However, if you’re following, don’t think training camp did this all to me. No, training camp alone would not break me or even most people, but the Spirit of God is what broke people. He broke me. He broke my team. So be ready to stretch and lay down parts of yourself you’ve never even thought about before. Be ready to sacrifice for others. Be ready to live for a bigger purpose. Be ready to live a life totally for Christ. Be ready to live a life on mission.
One of my squadmates bestfriends wrote this to her:
“It’s not a journey of a lifetime, it’s learning to live a lifetime of kingdom journey.” -Kyndal Cody
And this quote is one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to share the gospel with the nations…
“I give what I cannot keep, to gain what I cannot lose.” -Jim Elliot
