Yes, you guessed it: TRAINING CAMP
I feel like there are at least 200 different angles I could take when writing about TC. Every minute felt like something new was happening within or around me and it was truly an adventure in every sense of the word. Below are 5 takeaways from training camp (in no particular order) — the good, the bad, and even the ugly.
1. COMMUNITY, COMMUNITY, COMMUNITY: At the beginning of camp we were assigned teams of 6-7 people within our squad that we will be working alongside during these next 9 months. My team bonded pretty quickly after making it to the finals in a dance competition on day 2 and it was all uphill from there. **more to come in another blog post about our team dynamics and who they actually are** As for my squad as a whole (there are a thousand things I could say but I’ll sum it up to the best of my ability), we are a big group of mix matched people with no sense of personal space and huge personalities that somehow work together in a perfectly imperfect way. Community is choice and I strongly urge you to choose it.
2. WHO GOD IS: No, after two weeks of training I do not know who God is as a whole but I do know this truth: He is good. He calms my fears, silences my doubts, has held me through every moment of my life. He is my freedom, rest, light. He KNOWS me and when I am fully known I am fully loved.
3. MATERIAL THINGS ARE NOTHING: This takeaway is short, sweet, and something I never thought I’d say: no part of me missed my materials that I thought I loved and worshipped. I learned to set my eyes on things above — not the clothes on my back nor the rings on my fingers.
4. SACRIFICE ACTUALLY FEELS GOOD: On the first day when they told us we could only use port-a-potties, the only way to shower was out of buckets with cold hose water, and that there wasn’t coffee I could actually feel my mouth dropping. I won’t say that going to the bathroom midday in what felt like a heat chamber or that eating less for your table to have more was awesome because that would be a massive lie, but I will say that it was necessary in my growth. On the second week when the company came to spray those porta potties down it felt like Christmas and I realized that sacrifice must happen in the pursuit of the Kingdom. If I cannot sacrifice my comforts for a Father who died on a cross in the middle of a desert, what am I doing?
5. FREEDOM: I’ve always been one to obsess over the way I look. To be transparent, I’ve never felt good enough in that way and it’s been a struggle of mine for a long time. That being said, I get to training camp and there’s not a mirror in sight. Seriously not one. To sum it up: I didn’t see myself for two weeks (with the exception of the foggy reflection in windows) and it was one of the most freeing things I have ever been through. The Lord created me IN HIS IMAGE so I must be beautiful and that’s more than enough for me.
So yes, it’s hard. Your stomach will growl at 12am and you’ll curse yourself for eating all of the cliff bars you brought on day one. You’ll wish you were home in your dark, warm room instead of in the airport stimulator with the fluorescent lights beating down on you. All. Dang. Night. You’ll question why you’re doing all of this in the first place at least once a day. You might even miss not having to squat on the toilet. But then there will be these moments in each day where every bit of that will melt away because standing before you is your squad worshipping Christ in the most breathtakingly stunning way. Those moments when you realize that the God that created the stars your tent has been staked under for the past two weeks thinks that YOU are even more beautiful than them. Or it’ll cross your mind that God completely obliterated what you thought was a good plan for your life but it’s okay because His plan overflows your cup. Or it’ll be sunrise and your entire team is awake cheering on second day hikers — running up the last hill holding their hands, literally dragging them along, not allowing them to give up. Those moments when you realize what you’re actually seeing are glimpses of heaven.
