Hey everyone!! Ready to read about training camp?? I hope so, because it surely was an amazing time!!
First off…THE FOOD
The cooks here are A-MA-ZING
Each day we ate food from the different countries that we are all traveling to. Our training camp is for all the semesters teams for spring of 2020 (this year…duh) which includes our team going to Nicaragua&Guatemala (obviously), a team going to South Africa, Thailand&Cambodia, India&Nepal, as well as South America going to Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador. That’s 5 teams going to some pretty sweet places. All of our meals have been “community meals” which means there’s one big plate in the middle of us all and we all pick from that one plate (There are different community plates for each team). Every meal there has been a culture card which basically explains the country that that meal is from and interesting facts from that country. It also includes cultural guidelines for eating our meals. Day 1 breakfast and lunch was African and we had to eat with our hands. Day 1 dinner was Indian and we were only allowed to eat with our right hand and all the females had to cover their heads as a sign of modesty. The left hand in Indian culture is considered “unclean” so we were not allowed to touch anything with it, including holding our plate that kept moving when we tried to pick up food with only our right hand…LOL. Day 2 breakfast and lunch was Latin American and was DELISH! There were no specific guidelines to how we ate, we were allowed to use a plate and fork, but for pupusas, it was easier to use our hands. All the meals were so delicious and educational which was SO FUN. Highly satisfied!!
Sessions: Every day we had about 4 sessions where we had a different speaker come up and teach us things to use on the field. We have had speakers talk about hearing the voice of God, storytelling through our blogs and how that will help reach people at home who may not know the Lord, as well as how to learn about a person before introducing Jesus so we know the best way to introduce him! These sessions have been very helpful in preparing our hearts, minds, and spirits for sharing the Gospel to the unreached!
Team Time: We have done a LOT of team bonding, which is so necessary so we know who we’re going out into the field with. My team is so awesome and they already feel like my brothers and sisters. We’ve done everything from fun games to getting serious and praying for each other. My teammates are so fun and we all work so well together from what I can see. Even in the team activities we did but didn’t succeed at, we still were open listeners to new ideas, supporting each other in trying new stuff.
Worship: WORSHIP AHHH!!! Worship is just my favorite way to talk to God. Every morning after breakfast and evening after dinner we have worship. Saturday morning and Sunday morning I had the opportunity to lead worship with a few other people from both my team and other teams. It was so amazing! Everyone was so gracious to us making mistakes and stuff since we only had about 30 minutes of practicing and picking songs LOL. It was a great time and such a privilege.
Hygiene: Do I really even want to go here?? I guess I will. We had to use porta-potties the whole weekend. It might not seem like a big deal, like oh porta-potties aren’t THAT BAD…well you’re right, they’re not THAT BAD. BUT when you have almost 70 people using the same 5 porte-potties for 5 days, it piles up (literally). We also were only allowed 1 shower the entire weekend. Normally they do bucket showers every night at training camp, but since our training camp is during the colder season, that would just be torture. So, they made a shower schedule for the 2 showers they have. We each got 10 minutes to do whatever we could in the shower to get clean. It felt SO good to finally shower. If you know me, you know I can be a germaphobe, and you definitely know that I DO NOT go to bed until I shower. I live by that. Well, that was ruined. I went to bed and woke up using the same 2 outfits for 4 days. It was definitely a learning experience…learning that I do not like being dirty. However, I will suck it up for the Lord and expanding His Kingdom!
Overall, training camp was so amazing. I absolutely loved it and all the people I got to meet/stuff I got to learn. Thank you so much for staying updated!!
I will be posting a new blog soon with my next Youtube video so be ready!!
Much love, Rachel <3
P.S. Im posting this at such a crazy early time because we just got to our hotel in Managua, Nicaragua!!
