Shortly after leaving LA in May, I attended the World Race Training camp in Gainesville, GA.
I have spoken with a decent number of friends since then, unpacking and processing some of the things we discussed during the 12 days I was there.
I created a highlight reel in bullet points for those looking to skim information. Below that, you will find a more detailed description of my days- which is in journal style mainly for me to look back on, but I am inviting you during my time on the race to journey along with me. Don’t worry they won’t all be as long as this one haha.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Met the 37 other people and some of the leaders that I will be traveling with over this next year!
- Route CHANGE: We are no longer going to Bolivia but are needed instead by ministry hosts in Chile and Ecuador! Making our new route 12 countries in 11 months.
- We found out our first team!!! – There are five members on my team (Ben, Averie, Alicia, Adam, and I).
- Our team name is Wildfire and our mission statement is Building the Kingdom by moving ourselves and others closer to God.
- We tented every night except for one and it rained and thundered the first 5 days.
- We met the other squads! And we WON squad wars.
- I was asked to be the treasurer for my team.
- We grew closer with our squads each day through testimony, conversation, and baptisms.
Tuesday, June 4
Day 1 Storytelling
Before the rain started, only a fraction of people attended this workshop, we were fed and set our tents. Spent most of the time indoors going over blogging, vlogging, and other media outlets to help tell the stories over the next year. We focused on cultural sensitivity as well as going over specific equipment and app recommendations. We also met several leaders from AIM who shared stories of past experiences in the field. One of the best lessons was how to tell someone else’s story in a way that is both respectful and honest.
Wednesday, June 5
Day 2 Everyone arrives
The beginning of this day we finished the Storytelling workshop sessions, and in the late afternoon, the other racers began to arrive. It was funny to see who we could recognize from our online profiles. As they began to arrive the rain started… the first experience repitching a tent in the rain. I also found out that my sleeping pad has a slow leak resulting in my hip hitting the ground around 4 or 5 am. We headed to dinner where we learned the protocol for the time we were there. Tables of 8 were seated then after announcements and a prayer, 1 or 2 people would retrieve a food tray for the table. At the end of a meal, different squads were assigned dish duty. Then we met back in the main training center for worship.
Thursday June 6
Day 3 Bible study
This first day was a grind. Sleeping in the rain, adjusting to all the new people, trying to get to know them, I had some limited options during a few of the meals, so I was rationing granola bars trying not to spend too much on the concession stand they had at lunch. Although all of the proceeds from the stand went towards helping offset the adoption costs for the couple running the stand. We woke up at 7, had a bible study and quiet time from 7:30 until breakfast. Then had an hour of worship before 2 different sessions. (CHECK NOTES)
Then lunch before heading back in for another session. Then we had some time with our squad as a whole where we got to know some of the leaders before being divided into smaller groups to complete team-building exercises where our leaders observed both personalities but also interactions to help compile the teams we would be with in the first months. Afterward, we were asked to volunteers… turns out we were volunteering to “lose” our luggage. Simulating the airport misplacing our big packs and having to deal without day packs.
We were given a short amount of “free time” before dinner then back for another hour of worship and one more teaching session. During today and tomorrow we were all scheduled for a ½ hour one on one-time slots with leaders to give them an even better idea of who we were, where we were at, and ways we were looking to grow. Many people left their one on ones in tears having just shared some of their deepest internal struggles.
That night I “lost” my luggage but was somewhat prepared and had most things I would need in my day pack. Irma was kind enough to let me share her tent that night! I had previously spoken to Irma since we had a mutual friend who had connected us prior to training camp! One main hiccup with this exercise was that like 5 of our 7 guys had volunteered to lose their luggage ha-ha. So, they couldn’t all share. One of the girls donated her tent for two of them and one slept in a hammock. Not a lot of people slept that well this night. Irma and I saw this huge two-inch spider chilling on her tent between the rainfly and tent… needless to say, we slept pretty close together to avoid the edges of the tent.
Friday June 7
Day 4 Latin American Day
Today’s schedule was very similar to the day before… with one major difference. During our scheduled team time we opened up the opportunity to share or receive prayer from the group. This turned into an amazing time of vulnerability as several people opened up deep wounds that they had been living with and allowed us to sit with them and pray over the different situations. While amazing, this time was unplanned, and we did not have any team building activities and it ate up our free time… instead, we had the amazing opportunity to catch a glimpse into the souls of our teammates.
As we left dinner for another hour of worship and another evening session, I could hear the mutterings in the crowd. “Another session, I’m tired, I can’t think, I can’t process, why are they doing this to us” Each session had the capacity to let God rock your world if you let it. I looked around and saw people at the brink of their emotional capacity.
That night we played a game with a lot of our squad. A get to know you game where the center person says a fact and if it applies to you then you have to run to a different place around the circle and the last one left in the middle says the next fact. So, we learned who had brothers and sisters and who had been skydiving (all those facts).
Saturday, June 8
Day 5 Find Our Teams
Lots of other things happened today but the main one was finding out our teams!!! Our Squad of 37 would be divided into teams of 5 or 6 and those people are who we will be spending most of our time and ministry with for at least the first few months. We all were all seated in a circle and given a paper with animal and then when it was time we had to get up and find the other people making the same sound! We wandered around for a few mins and then we found all of our groups!!!! My amazing first team is made up of Averie, Ben, Adam, and Alicia!!!!
That night our sleeping scenario had us sleep in the training center. We left our tents out and brought our sleeping pads. It was supposed to help us further understand living in community and provide an example of us spending the night in a local church.
Sunday June 9
Day 6 Sabbath/ Campfire with the team (Birthdays)
This day was in direct contrast to the other days. We were given instructions to take a Sabbath. A day of rest. There was a list of potential ways to spend time which included spending time listening to music, spending time in nature, reading the bible, and spending time in fellowship. My Sabbath included a little bit of everything. Starting with conversations just before lunch where my team shared what inspired them to come on the World Race as well as a little bit about some of our testimonies. Then after lunch, I spent some much-needed time in the sun in my hammock just listening to worship music. Since every day before had been nonstop, with session after session of information, this further illustrated the importance of taking time to rest and sit in God’s presence (whatever that looks like for each individual).
Then in the late afternoon, we were instructed to return to our campsite where we would eat dinner and spend the rest of the evening cooking out with our entire squad. There were several birthdays, and we were able to celebrate and eat the cake that our squad coaches had so graciously brought us! Afterward, we took time by the fire to share more individual testimonies and get to know our teammates better.
Monday June 10
Day 7 Women’s day (but men didn’t leave)
This day was supposed to start with all of the men leaving to hike part of the Appalachian trail as we had separate activities planned. However, there was intense rain as well as some major lighting that cause the guys to stay around. So we ended up just meeting in different parts of the training camp. We spent the morning in the training center and played several games some get to know you type games and some more active ones. Then we spent more time in sessions that were specific to us.
Tuesday June 11
Day 8 Fitness Hike – 2.2 in 38 mins- Women’s day
Bright and early we met for the fitness hike – 6:45. We organized ourselves best on how fast we thought we could make it through the path, like those planning on running should start together. It had been raining so much that the path was super muddy. There was this one hill that seemed to go straight up. 2.2 miles in 38 mins with our big packs on our back. I was able to make it on time! In the end, many people either didn’t made it, sprained ankles, and one girl was sent to the hospital for heatstroke! Georgia hiking in the humidity is no joke.
After the hike, we were able to get breakfast! Then we had several sessions again.
Wednesday, June 12
Day 9 Team time- leave campus
Today we got to spend time with our teams outside of camp. We had several with things we were supposed to accomplish. Coming up with a team name, we also came up with a mission statement. We went to the Gainesville square and met at the coffee shop. We came up with a team name of wildfire. Then we worked on our mission statement… we settled on “Building the Kingdom by moving ourselves and others closer to God”
Afterward we went to a nearby park that had several trails along the river. We split up and walked in different directions. We were each given a water bottle to give to someone as a means of sparking conversation. Each of us had a different story that we came back with, some of us had simple interactions, and some of us were able to share more in-depth about our trip, the story of Jesus, and God’s love for us.
Then the 5 of us went out to dinner before the entire squad met at a local community members house for dessert and spent more time getting to know everyone. Then we went back to camp for the night.
Thursday, June 13
Day 10 (Pick your session) Adventure Day – Century Eggs and Crickets
Today we got to pick which session we went to as long as someone from our team was represented at each session. There were sessions on preaching, worship, and other certain ministries.
This day also featured some very interesting food options. Crickets to snack on. Some normal foods that were just altered to look different. Lots of people could not stomach the century egg, which was black and smelled like it had rotted a century ago. Lol.
One of the days ( I am pretty sure it was today??) we had a Market scenario for dinner! Where we were given fake money and told to barter for our food. The market setup included the leaders acting in the roles of beggars, drunk tourists, pickpockets, and more. Like I said… the days started to blend together a little at this point.
Our sleeping scenario tonight was a night of prayer. There was supposed to be at least 3 people from our squad in the training center at all hours of the night. That way the campus would be covered in prayer. For the 7 required hours, each team was given an hour time slot. If your team had 6 people you could have divided it to ½ hr slots. Our team’s time slot was from 2am-3am. It was a long sleepless night. It was also ridiculously cold for GA in June. Getting down into the 40’s when the previous week had been in the 90s.
Friday June 14
Day 11 LOGISTICS (Insurance etc.) SQUAD WARS (Baptisms)
This day was a lot of what everyone was waiting for, specific logistics about the launch, insurance, information for our parents and more! At the end of the day, we had squad wars. Our team came up with a group dance kind of the last min so most of us were a little worried. We practiced and smoothed out a few things right before squad wars started. When it started there were like 5 games. One where you had a balloon tied to your ankle and everyone had to stomp it out. One where someone had a pool noodle and their partner had an egg tied to the back of their head and they had to try to crack the other teams’ egg. There was a standard dodgeball game. And there was a game where you had to leapfrog over people to get to a bowl of flour full of marshmallows that you had to retrieve using only your month. Lol, that game was gross. Then at the end, there was a “dance-off” where each squad showed the dance they had put together. Surprisingly, WE WON the whole thing.
Afterward, they had baptism and I was elated to see several of my squadmates take the next step and profess their faith publically.
Then we went back for some final words and one of the most freeing worship experiences I have ever been a part of.
Saturday June 15
Day 12 Clean up campus, say goodbyes – Go to Waffle House
SESSIONS:
I wish I could share the knowledge from each and every session but I wanted to highlight some key points I will be taking on me this trip.
- Each member of the trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) plays a specific role and as Christians, we have the opportunity to grow and learn more about what that means in our lives.
- Mission and the purpose of the mission include both reaching those who haven’t had the chance to learn about God’s love as well as working with those in are already following the message of God and enabling them to be able to continue to reach those who haven’t after we have left.
- Culture and how looking at things through a different lens can help you communicate and better understand how those around you are interpreting your words and actions.
- This year will provide 2 amazing opportunities. One to hopefully leave a positive impact on each person that I encounter both in my team, squad, in ministry, or even just in passing on the street. Two, to allow myself to grow by opening my mind and heart to seek God first and allow him to work both directly in my heart but also providing me with the chance to learn from all those around me.
