Training Camp has come to an end. It was nothing short of spectacular. Full of moments with nature, people, and God. I am currently inspired to share what I took from training camp, especially after having a few days to process and a few days to recover from one of the craziest times of my life.
I have absolutely LOVED reading my fellow squadmates blogs on this subject.
Now its my turn
Important Vocabulary
Here is some information that I feel valuable for you to understand.
I am going on the World Race… I am on the July 2015 Route 1. We have been given the name “R Squad” (which actually makes us the 3rd generation R Squad).
We in the “R” Squad have deemed ourselves The Wolfpack. #WRwolfpack (if you want to follow)
The Wolfpack squad consists of 55 World Racers, and 3 squad leaders.
In the Wolfpack, we have divided into 8 teams.
My team of 7 is named “Arm The Masses” #armthemasses (if you want to follow)
TRAINING CAMP
It was full of many things. Much activity, little time to take a break long enough to think about it. Now I have had the opportunity to think back on what hit me hardest and what God taught me through the entire thing. Here are 4 BIG things that made a huge appearance during Training Camp.
1. Presence of Community
Community forced itself upon us. We arrived and immedately light was shed on the fact that nearly 60 of us would be camping in a rather confined space in the woods. Boys and girls, that is 60 tents, more campers than the state park down the road can satisfy… all in one patch of love-fostering forest. Someone 12 tents away from you is probably your nextdoor neighbor once removed. 😉 The scenarios that the staff put us through, also sped up the bonding process, FOR SURE. But yeah, I found so much beauty in my squadmates. As someone who loves running around and getting to know everyone, I exhausted myself, but it was Glorious! It was incredible to be surrounded by people who all are in love with Jesus, but more specifically, who all find their heart beating heavier when the same subjects are brought up. to have 55 people who have listed the same countries as I have over the last few months when asked: “Oh that is neat, you are going on a missions trip for a year… where are you going?” To have 55 people who actually want to live out of a backpack in order to live alongside the least of these in order to relate with them. How could you not want to know these people better?
2. My walls broken, My Sin Revealed, God’s walls up…slowly: Nearly 2 months ago, I had written a blog “I’ve Been Missing God”. In this blog I was really drawing to light just how Lust and other petty sin had robbed me of experiencing a very powerful, and Authoritative walk with God. I was living a life full of small victories. Sin had its way of keeping me floored and it dropped the ceiling of my potential in Him. My rocky mountain tops looked more like “Pennsylvania Humps” (little green bumps of earth. Not impressive. Its Science.) Years and years of this battle finally revealed that my walk with the Lord was too often a way of keeping myself safe. I was too busy looking at my sin and trying to prevent myself from falling, than looking up at Jesus and letting him guide me towards the things He wants me to accomplish for Him. I was a great fan of Jesus and into the whole Jesus culture thing, but I realized: I was protecting myself from damnation rather than damning hell itself. On a day to day basis, I was more concerned about keeping myself safe than uncomfortably saving others from falling. I now realize that there are bigger battles to be fought. God wants us to enlist and become slaves of Christ… and that should leave us feeling less comfortable than more comfortable in this sexy christian culture of today.
Training camp was in this way…. a continuation of what I have learned while living in Charlotte for the last few months. My “God-in-a-box” mentality is forced to collapse as I learn more about who God truly is and how He communicates. As this box collapsed… some of the hidden sin in that box were revealed…
3. My walls broken, My Sin Revealed, God’s walls up…slowly.
2 main things: Insecurity in my walk and Pride.
1. It left me wondering what my relationship with God consisted of if I hadn’t been believing in the authority of His name and the function of which the Holy Spirit should function in someone’s life. Thank God for the last few months as I have already been processing this, or else those walls would have been even more shocking as they collapsed.
2. One way God has made me, is to have a leader like mindset. Leadership has become such a norm for me that it could be on the level of an idol. He has given me strengths and a heart for it. I realized that perhaps my desire to be a leader came from past opportunities that I had as a leader on past missions trips, and when I considered the possibility of not being a leader on this trip, I really had to ask myself how I would handle it. I felt like God was really telling me “Ryan, you know that in order to be a good leader, you need to be a follower”. I realized I needed to start being a servant: I tried to embrace shutting up a bit and simply loving those around me behind the scenes, and agreed with myself that I needed to be okay with following any of my brothers and sisters in Christ of that’s what I was called to do. And guess what, The Humble Pie didn’t taste too bad.
4. My walls broken down, My Sin Revealed, God’s walls up… slowly.
Through the lessons at training camp. God continued to remind me that He reveals himself through everyone in different ways. I dare not compare the beautiful ways that he communicates to me with the beautiful ways he communicates with others. I also realized just how much we waste precious time in this life, defining our relationship with God, rather than running with it and just getting to KNOW Him better. How silly is that?! In a very direct way, God gave me more peace with my relationship with Him. He also reminded me of just how SIMPLE the gospel is. And how simple the reasons are that I am going on this trip in the first place!
Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Mark 16:15 “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation”.
Luke 10:2 “The harvest is pentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest”
God also built up His walls around my role as a leader. God used my squadmates to encourage me heavily on my “leadership”. They affirmed my strengths and when I found out I was going to be made one of the 8 Team Leaders, I saw what God did. I would rather consider myself my “Team Servant”. I want to lead from behind, rather than lead from the front. I am so excited to serve those wonderful people on my team. Which will be what my next blog is about!
So there you have it. God tore my walls down, built His up, meanwhile revealing some selfishness and dirt in there that I am thankful He cleaned out!
I believe Training Camp put us racers an a trajectory that has enough velocity to start the race out strong. Lets do it, Wolfpack 🙂
financial update:
I am just over 7,500. if 8 people gave $100 dollars a month (25 dollars a week) until January. I would be completely funded.
