As I’m writing this post, I’m sitting on a reeaallly long flight. The lights are off, nothings happening, and I’m able to reflect on this past week. All we’ve been thinking about, my team and I, is this day: travel day. But, the past four days at training camp are days that I can’t just skip over. I’ve learned a lot and it’s something I want to share with you all.
Training camp was such a beautiful experience. As I like to put it, it’s like church camp and a conference combined, magical right!? And to make it even better, they send us off into the world to go on an amazing mission. Those are some of the three best things you can experience. But along with the overview of training camp, the spiritual aspect of training camp is something to rejoice in.
As an introvert, coming into this type of thing was definitely overwhelming. I prayed a lot while asking others to pray that I would not feel alone in this. God answered those prayers right off the bat. He blessed me with the most amazing, powerful, and accepting team of girls I could have asked for. The dynamic of this team is so strong and so supportive that it’s creating a sisterhood, not just a team. These girls are a light for God and it’s so awesome to see our flames come together to make a fire. We’re also some pretty fly dancers (you’re looking at the winners of the 2019 semesters dance off)!
The worship time this week has been incredible. We emptied the rows of chairs in the room to make space for worship. It allowed for us to praise and dance as much as we wanted to. At times we were singing so loud it was like we were all leading our own worship. The freedom of it all was so moving.
Our sessions this week have been spot on. AIM staff worked hard to prepare us for this trip and they did the perfect job. It’s amazing the ways that the Lord speaks to you even when you feel like He is silent. Something I’d like to share with you this week is how the Lord personally spoke to me.
I admitted to my team leader that I felt like I was struggling to hear from God correctly. I didn’t know if it was personal doubt, if there was some kind of disconnect, or if I was even hearing from Him at all. She reassured me and said that she felt that I could hear Him very clearly. She gave me a word: firecracker. She said I was a firecracker just waiting to burst for the Lord. I dwelled on that, hoping that she was right. Later that night, our speaker said that during worship God have her three faces that she wanted to call out because she felt like we were holding back. One of them was mine. The very first thing she said to me was “you are a firecracker”. WHAT!? A FIRECRACKER!! (that’s literally what I said) And then she continued to say “a firecracker bursts and when it does, it spreads that light over everything”. If you can’t tell through this blog, I’m just amazed. That right there was the Lord speaking to me. That was His way of assuring me that He is not silent and that He is speaking to me and that I am hearing Him.
I can’t believe it took till the last day of training camp to realize it, but God has been right beside me this whole time. He’s answered every prayer I’ve given to Him. He’s given me peace about this mission. He has blessed me with a wonderful group of ladies to lean on. He has assured me that I am qualified and that I am equipped. He has assured my team that we are eligible and that we were called. Now I don’t want you to think that I’m doing this with just 14 other girls, I want you to know that God is right here with us leading the way. He’s still over there in North Carolina where I left, He’s still over there in Georgia at training camp, but He’s also over in the Philippines saying “come, I’m waiting for you.”
Now I know this is a long post but I can’t just tell you all the good things about God in 3 paragraphs. I didn’t even get to all of them in the blog. So if you’ve made it this far, thank for your support and your prayers. They’ve been answered. I love you all and HAPPY TRAVEL DAY!
