Imagine. You have just spent the past week hanging out with one of your best friends as a mini vacation. You spend days adventuring in Georgia and spend nights on the porch playing the guitar. But the end of hang-out time has come and the time to drive to TWR Training Camp has arrived. After that time with you’re bestfriend you have to leave him/her to meet up with 47 people you have never met face to face with before. You might be nervous. You might be a little frightened. You might be hesitant, maybe these people won’t like you. Maybe they have solidified some cliques you haven’t had the chance to budge into yet. Now you have arrived. Looking out the window to the left you see dozens of tents and a giant group of people wearing the same blue shirts. Your friend stops the car and you get out, grab your bags and say goodbye to your friend. He drives further down the driveway to turn around and as he drives by, instead of giving you a warm goodbye, he shouts,” don’t forget your rash cream [insert name]!” There was no rash cream. Still worried and anxious you try to find the most welcoming face and awkwardly introduce yourself and try to guess names that you saw on the massive group chat that you couldn’t keep up with…
This was my start (and all glory to God this is not how it ended). Yes, I was nervous and anxious and all of the other emotions, but this isn’t a story about that. This is post is about the amazing community that God had put together and molded Himself.
It didn’t take long, maybe an hour or two, until we had begun to pour ourselves into each other. By the end of day one I was friends with half the squad, there are 45 people I got to the rest later :).
One of the biggest moments of growth was probably the first night that we had a field scenario. A field scenario is when we are put in an uncomfortable situation that very truly might happen when we are out on the field. The first field scenario we had was extremely testing. What had “happened” was that after giving the airport our bags, when we arrived at our destination, they had lost about half of the bags… So that night, right when a cold front hit Georgia, half of the squad didn’t have a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad or really anything else that wasn’t in their day pack. I was one of those people who had “lost” all that they had. After we got news of who lost their bags we all grouped together to decide a plan of action. Immediately, everyone was pairing up and saying that they would share a tent, lend a sleeping pad and socks, cuddle for warmth.
This event showed me where the teams’ hearts lie. And it is with each other. They wanted to give away what they had in order that someone else can be just a little bit more comfortable! We read everywhere in the Bible, especially the NT, what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ. Right before my very eyes I was able to get a glimpse of what that really means to be a part of the Body. To come together and to become one with the Father and in doing so with each other as well.
This was the turning point. I knew I could count on these people and them on me. The next 7 or 8 days we all had just become family. It doesn’t make sense that we bonded so much. I knew that this new family was a gift from God Himself! We grew so close that honestly I am sad being away from them these next two months. I feel like I have known them for years, but in reality only ten days!
Sorry for making this a longer blog, but I wanted you to almost feel the first moments of awkwardness. I just want to end by letting you know that God is good and that this new family of mine wants to bring the Good News of our good God to the World and I am happy about that.
