Canadians, Deep Sea Fishing and Bravery

I have been a busy little bee since my last post! I got all my gear on a trip to Nashville… Here’s my tent, sleeping pad and sleeping bag!!

And here’s the two that helped me!                                                  

 

Dad and my cousin Tristian!

 

And then the next week my family came in to visit from Canada….

And the next week we made our annual family trip to Gulf Shores and went deep sea fishing….

           

I know that’s a lot of pictures and kind of random but it’s been a jam packed few weeks of trying to spend as much time as I can with the people I love!

 

And now back to world race business….Drum roll please!!! I am only 6 days out from training camp!! Here’s a video to show you what training camp will look like!   

 

I have been shopping, packing and repacking and trying to buckle down and pack only the most essential things for training camp because every day we will be taking down our camp and repacking all of our gear to possibly hike somewhere else and make camp.  

I feel like I’ve taken that last breath before I cannonball into the swimming pool. I am now less than a week away from this 7 day experience where I sleep outside in a tent and bond with complete strangers while eating strange food and being pushed out of my comfort zone. I’m not nervous, but so very excited and ready to embrace it all. 

Someone said of training camp, “It’s everything I didn’t expect it would be.” That sounds about right. It’s like the verse of a song I heard this afternoon. “It doesn’t matter where I’m going if I’m going with you.” Meaning, exactly what I’m feeling now which is, I can’t see the big picture or understand the vastness of this whole experience that I am on the edge of. I can only see that I’m where He wants me to be and that He’s with me.

I love to travel and meet new people and different cultures. But to tell you the truth, since this whole world race journey began I haven’t focused on that for one second. You would think that I naturally would think on it, but I honestly haven’t. But I will tell you something astounding, since this journey began, more and more I have been filled to overflowing with love for my Lord. I mean it. “I Can Only Imagine” comes on in the car and I want nothing more than to pull over and fall on my face before the Lord and worship. I am overwhelmed by this tender love for Christ. I knew that this journey was the Lord’s will and calling for me. But the way He’s showed up and is working in my heart is amazing. I thought of that old hymn that is really what my heart is just bleeding out in tenderness.

                   
                       My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou,
                       If ever I loved Thee, Lord Jesus, ’tis now.

 

I’m reading a book right now entitled, “Why We Act the Way We Do” by Tim LaHaye in which he tells a very interesting story. This woman asks this minister how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So he tells her to pray to the Lord and ask him to fill her. She said she would do it and that she would go into the chapel and pray and not come out again until she was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Well, she prayed and prayed and when she finally came out of the chapel the minister asked her if she had been filled with the Holy Spirit. She replied that she didn’t know, but she had never been so away of the tender love and presence of Jesus. Which is awesome because that’s what the Holy Spirit does, He glorifies the Son. And since I began this journey the same has been with me. I feel like I love Him more today than yesterday and it just grows inside of me, this all consuming love, this magnificent obsession, this Jesus who calls me out upon the waters.

I could not do this if He hadn’t called me. But because He does call me, He makes me brave. Being brave and courageous is something that the Lord has had me thinking on for the past couple of months. I just finished my annual reading of the Mark of The Lion series by Francine Rivers. The courage, humility and love for Christ Hadassah has never, ever fails to touch my heart and encourage me. On the tail end of the series I was introduced to a worship song that is sang at training camp and it absolutely captivated me. The title? “You Make me Brave.”