Right now, we have about 300 Passport and World Race
participants at training camp here in Georgia. All of them are getting ready to
go out onto the mission field in September.
For most of us on
staff, training camp is our favorite part of our job. It is for me, anyway.
This is when I get to meet the people I’ve been talking to and praying for over
the phone for months!
Training camp is great and it’s hard for our participants.
It’s days in the hot Georgia sun, everyone smells bad, they’re sleeping in tents
and buses, having team formations, and God digging into the deepest parts of
the heart and breaking them. Brokenness. Healings. Every moment of training
camp is intentional and has purpose.
My very favorite part about training camp though, is moments
like last night. When we started worshipping last night, the Holy Spirit fell
SO THICK in the house; it was unreal. I imagined this enormous blanket of glory
over the room. Maybe it was more like the roof being blown off and
heaven was open wide, than a blanket. Who knows.
Some were jumping up and down or dancing. Some were swaying back and forth. Others
were laughing. Some were just sitting and soaking it all in. The bottom line –
God was encountering people with His sweet love and presence and there was no shortage
of ways to express it in the room.
I was praying for one of our participants when I hear this
guy behind me laughing. I turned to look at him and He was full of so much joy
I thought he was going to burst. In what words he could gather, he exclaimed “this
changes everything!”
I got goose bumps. I cried. There was something so powerful
in what he just said.
This does change
everything. This 18 year old guy was just met with God’s radical love. Perhaps
for the first time in his life, God became real. He came near. God stepped down
from the clouds and sat in this guy’s chest. It changes the way He sees God and
the way he sees himself. It changes the way he sees the world. It changes the
reason he’s signed up to go on the mission field. Suddenly it’s not about a
nice little missions trip but it’s about bringing that “this changes everything”
kind of love to a hurting and broken world.
More and more, I’m realizing that this is what I live for.
Seeing people like this 18 year old kid be changed by God’s real love. Stepping
more into his identity as God’s son. There’s nothing better.
Thankfulness and humility have been heavy on my heart all
day today. In some small way, I play a part in what happened last night. I’m
overwhelmed that Jesus chooses each of us for things like this.
