First off, I know that we just added a bunch of people to receive updates from us, and I am truly so happy to get to share this adventure with you all! I really don’t know where to start. I don’t want to share too much on here, and ruin the experience for any future racers that may be reading this. Training camp is so intense (every day feels like 2 or 3 days); it’s difficult to condense it down. But, here goes!
Training camp was completely amazing, out of this world, and yet really normal at the same time. I learned an amazing amount of stuff about myself and abour God. I learned to live a life pleasing to God because I love pleasing Him, not because I feel like I have to to make God like me. I learned that words have power. I learned to really pray my heart. After all, God already knows it all, right? No use in hiding anything. And I learned that if I let Him, He will guide my every step.
For the first two days, I had a really hard time committing to the experience. I was really caught up in stress about support raising, and so much of the focus was on God’s love for us, which I didn’t really understand at the time. But then Michael Hindes (Director of the World Race) did a message on the law, and how people get so caught up in the rules of being a Christian that they forget that it’s about a personal relationship with Christ. That’s exactly where I was. I had been beating myself up over not reading the Bible enough, missing church sometimes, etc, and I had forgotten/not realized that all I had to do for a deeper relationship with God was stop, relax. Just talk to Him, and listen when He’s talking to me. It seems so simple, but this was a real revelation for me.
The moment it really got through to me was one night at worship. The words to the song were “He’s never giving up (x2), He’s never giving up on you,” but then Jonathon David Hessler (awesome guy, look him up!) changed the words to “I’m never giving up, I’m never giving up on you.” When I heard that being sung, I almost immediately broke down into sobs. It was so revolutionary to think that God loves me unconditionally. I literally cannot make Him so mad at me that He gives up and walks away. Wow!! Our God is so amazing! We truly, actually, cannot make Him love us more, because there is no “more,” His love is already as big as it gets.
Other than awesome worship and learning, the situation for the week was this: Seth and I, and all the other “marrieds” had our own little section to camp in. We set up our tent, and it really wasn’t too bad. Although it was hard to fit all of our stuff plus us in a 3 person tent. I’m hoping we will get better at not making our packs explode with stuff as soon as we get in. Camping was actually kind of fun, although I did get bit by a tick for the first time (ick!!!)
Our tent.The most exciting and nerve-wracking part of training camp was getting our team. Although, it was pretty exciting when Seth was one of three winners in a World Race Dance-Off. Hilarious. There’s video somewhere. Back to teams, I admit, I cried a couple of times during the team making process, but I’m so happy with the end result! Our team is:
Joshua Maisner (team leader)
Jessica Smith
Colby Gardner
Leslie Medrano
Carrie Miranda
And Seth and I!
They are all really amazing people with their own unique strengths and contributions to the group. Colby and Jessica are going to help get me in shape this year!
This is our team!
So all in all, training camp was amazing, and I am changed. Just today I did something not too bright, and said “Oh, I’m so stupid!” only to immediately turn around and say “No, I’m not! I am an intelligent woman of God.” Because I learned that words have power, and I will not let negative thoughts and words define me anymore!
There’s so much more to say about training camp, like ministry day and meeting Thomas, or about the 3.5 hour worship session we had, but I will save those for later. Or, e-mail me and I’ll tell you there! You can e-mail us by clicking the “contact us” button on the side.
