TRAINING CAMP!
I have started and restarted this blog many times, because I have NO idea how to accurately explain all that the Lord did during my week in Georgia at Training Camp. I would honestly say that this past week was one of the hardest weeks of my life, but it was also one of the best weeks of my life. I’m letting you know in advance, this blog is longer, so sorry! 🙂
I want to tell you a little about what all we did at Camp. The Adventures in Missions staff did an incredible job at making Training Camp as realistic as possible by making us live through and work out different issues and situations that could happen on the field. From the beginning of the week we were given no schedule and usually just told where to go next and we weren’t even sure what would happen when we got to the next place. That was crazy and difficult, but it really made it so much easier to focus on the moment, instead of what was next.
We slept in our tents, we slept in community tents with 9 people and we slept under the stars as a squad (side note: this was SO MUCH FUN! It was the best night of sleep the whole week and I literally slept on a hill, with my bum in a hole. What. So funny.)
Every morning we had to be up, ready for the day and have everything (including tents) packed away into our backpacks by 7 AM.
For those of you who have ever had the “privilege” of seeing me in the morning, you know that this was a struggle. But seriously, I saw the Lord working in my life, though this process, every morning. I am the person who, when I have to get up early the next morning, dread it the whole evening before hand. I don’t sleep as well because I know I have to get up early. It is ridiculous. But one night at Camp, all bundled up in my sleeping bag, I actually thought to myself “Man, I wish it was already 6 am so I could get up and hang out with my squad.” MIRACLES HAPPEN, PEOPLE.
After we got up we had some sort of exercise for a little while. One morning it was hiking with our packs on, one morning it was a run and then a few mornings we could choose what we did and one of my squad mates, Meagan, taught us Yoga. That was so much fun!
For meals each day was a different continent. (Asia, Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, etc.) So we would eat meals that may be what we eat while in those places. We stood and ate, mainly because no one wanted to take chairs down the hill to eat for 10 minutes and then have to take them back up the hill. We were at tables of 8 people, and had one plate of food to split between us. My personal favorite was while in Africa, we got an egg, an orange and some cold French fries. Yum! They fed us on $4 a day, per person. Needless to say, I was usually hungry again after about 30 minutes.
Some days we had many lectures, some days we had just one or two. The lectures were on our relationship with God, the Holy Spirit, forgiveness, loss, healing, World Race advice, logistics and so much more. They were so good! Blog post to come on some of what the Lord taught me through all the talks.
F SQUAD, BEST SQUAD. All dressed in green for Squad Wars!
We had Squad Wars, where all four squads at Camp dressed in their colors and competed in games. We gloriously and cheerfully got 4th place. I lead my squad in our F Squad cheer, in front of 200+ people which, once again, was totally a shock. I know I can talk a mile a minute, but put me in front of even ten people and I close up. This was another way I saw the Lord working in my life. I SCREAMED in front of 200+ people. I felt like in that moment God was telling me that I have a voice and that it is time to stop silencing it, it is time to speak up and use my voice for His good. What a powerful moment that was, one I will never forget.
We shared four showers between 150+ girls. Also known as, I washed my hair once, my body twice and jumped in a lake, which pretty much made me clean, right?
We did team building activities and were put on our teams that we will be with on the Race (or at least, part of the Race). I LOVE my team!! Our team is Fearless Laughter! I am with 5 beautiful and precious girls. I will be doing a short blog post soon, telling you a little more about them because they deserve more than a quick shout out!
We laughed, we cried, we worshiped, we cried some more, we were exhausted, we sweat, we were pushed out of our comfort zones, we danced essentially all day, every day. It was the best.
I have the best squad ever. F Squad truly has become my (F)amily and I cannot wait to do life with them SO SOON!
More blogs about Training Camp coming soon! Thanks for reading!
Shannon
