Dear Future Racer,
One day you will fly or drive to (most likely) Georgia, to a mystery location and you will participate in what is called "Training Camp." You will have fundraised your heart out and you may or may not feel like you have nearly exhausted all of your fundraising options. You will be meeting people you have been facebook friends with for awhile, and you will try not to have any expectations of what they are like in person. You will be wearing a bright color that represents your squad. You will have packed everything you need in your pack and your daypack, and you may or may not be wondering how in the world you will get everything you need for an entire year stored into those two bags. You will walk into registration, and you may or may not be trembling with nerves. And then you will encounter others who are processing the exact same things.
I won't say that it is immediate, but somehow, throughout the week, you will lose yourself. You will find Jesus in a way that you never have before, or that you never thought was possible for you, or that you never thought was possible, period. You will plead with the Holy Spirit to fill you. You will plead with God to rid you of anything that will inhibit your heart from ministering to others wholly. You will come back changed.
And then you will start to wonder: if God has changed me this much in a week, if He has allowed me to fall in love with 30+ strangers, if He has shown Himself to me in ways I have never known, if He has broken my heart for the people I will encounter on the race, what is a year of this going to look like?
And then you will wait. You will listen for His voice. You will pray with and for your squadmates and teammates. You will soak in all that is "home." You will spend 6 weeks in preparation.
And then you will GO.
I'm not saying it won't be scary for you or for me, but I am saying it will be worth it.
Jesus is ALWAYS worth it.
Grace and peace,
Sarah
