For the last two weeks, I have been more challenged in every aspect of my life than ever before. My squad mates and I were all pushed to our limits physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I learned so much, and I could write an entire book of not only everything we did but what we learned from those experiences. But alas, I don’t have time to write a book today, so a blog will have to do.
I sit here wondering where to go with this. How I grew spiritually? How fantastic my squad and team are? What I learned about myself and others around me? The crazy things we did over the past two weeks? How nuts my squad is and how much I love them for it? There are so many directions to choose, so we are just gonna roll with the crazy scramble of my mind right now.
My squad is utterly fantastic. I could talk the ear off whoever would listen to me about the crazy friendship I have with each of the 40 weirdos that I have become a family with. We spent nights laughing together, crying together, fighting over the plate of food we were given for meals, worshiping together, being pushed to our limits, and generally just being the wackos known as the Yellow P Squad. I am still blown out of the water by how much we grew together over the 10 days we had together. We got vulnerable with each other real fast, but I think the coolest thing was that it wasn’t scary to open up to each other. There is this deep love we have for each other, and we now all have a safe space to come to. My team is absolutely amazing, and I will be introducing them all soon, but we have all shared about our joys, our struggles, and our God moments. There are many things that hit me at camp that I didn’t realize were such a big thing for me. Growing up, I always held hands with family at meals. It didn’t matter if it was my family or a friend’s house, but when a family was together, we held hands when praying. About halfway through the week, we started holding hands when we were praying, and I didn’t realize until then how much that meant to me. We all are there for each other. We all are here to support each other, and we are talking to each other now more than before camp, and we just can’t get enough of each other yet. (that might change over the next nine months, but who knows)
God revealed Himself to me in ways that I had never really thought about before. I danced when we worshiped. I cried seeing what God was doing in my life and in other’s hearts. I learned so much about God’s goodness and love, but mostly about trusting in Him. God’s got it. His plan is greater than anything we could think of. Even if at the beginning, if you are far from happy about the situation you have been put in, just wait a few days and see how God changes your heart – He sure changed mine.
Training Camp was designed to prepare you for any situation, and the moto is “expect the unexpected.” Even though I knew that going in, I still had all of my expectations I didn’t know I had blow out of the water. I expected to enjoy the time with my squad mates, but how fast we grew together was amazing. I expected to grow in my faith, but I had no idea how much. I expected to be tired, but that was again much more than I thought. I expected to try weird foods, but eating crickets was something I didn’t expect to do. I was stretched past some of my limits of comfort (real bathrooms, above-freezing showers…) but it was amazing and I am so thankful for that amazing time we had together to grow.
There are six weeks that I have to be home until we leave for India, and then the rest of the world. There is still planning to do and last second things to buy, but God is doing amazing things. I am so excited to be able to tell people all over the world about how amazing my Father is. I cannot wait to share with people the amazing love of Christ, and I hope you continue to follow this crazy journey of God working through my squad. I would love to meet up with anyone that wants to hear more about Training Camp or everything that God is doing, feel free to contact me!
(If any of my squad mates are reading this, I miss playing Bunny Bunny.)
