Yesterday a friend asked me, “how was training camp?” and as I stumbled over my words with a huge smile on my face trying to sort through my thoughts, she interrupted and said “you seem full” and WOW–what a COMPLIMENT.
When I think about training camp, full is the best way to describe it.
Full of joy and laughter and seeds of friendship, full of teachings and team builders and worship, full of challenges and tears and prayer, full of the Holy Spirit and community and kingdom people doing kingdom life together.
It was so GOOD and not in the watered-down “how’s your day? Oh good” kind of way but in the “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was VERY GOOD” (Genesis 1:31) kind of way.
It was all very good, even in the midst of unexpected challenges and moments of doubt and miscommunications and unknowns (and rainy days and giant spiders and cold nights and hard hikes).
Leaving training camp I am more sure of the goodness of God, more excited to build community, and more ready for the coming year than ever before.
There are a million teaching points I could share with you, but here are just a few:
– Discomfort is a small thing for the gospel.
– We have to trust God more than we trust ourselves.
– When every promise is yes and amen, yes should be easy.
– His mercies are new every morning… ours should be too.
– The gospel is not Jesus + your preferences.
– We are only responsible for our own obedience. God does the rest. (Like what!! That’s crazy!!!)
Maybe you just read through that list really fast, but friends… each of those things is BIG. Each of those things should move us more toward the heart of God. Each of those things moved me and my squad toward the heart of God this past week! Hallelujah and amen!
Now if you’re reading this just to know the 5 best moments, hello and welcome! I hope you didn’t skip the above part because those things are some of the best of the best. But without further ado, the 5 best moments of training camp that may or may not make any sense to you:
1. Worship on the first night — being back in a room with World Race people felt a lot like being home. It’s crazy to anyone outside of it how quickly a family can be formed.
2. Getting to surprise the squad with s’mores at the top of a mountain after a really physically, emotionally, and mentally challenging day. We laughed and worshiped and invited people in and got to rest together. It was so so sweet.
3. Getting to eat rice and beans for lunch instead of adventure day food. I’ve never seen God’s goodness in a bowl of rice and beans before but… it’s everywhere if you look for it, friends.
4. Finding out we’d get to sleep inside on the last night instead of in the cold rain. A warm and dry and spider-less place to repack our stuff and have one last sleepover? A blessing plus some.
5. Worship on the last night — loud and fun and passionate and surrendered. It was so sweet to see the freedom my squad walked in after just a few short days of being with each other and pursuing the kingdom together.
And a bonus number 6 because God is so good and life is so sweet: GETTING TO MEET MY SQUAD! The squad is who I’ll be traveling the world with for the next year. Here’s a cute pic of us plus our leaders, coaches, and mentor:
So there it is… the brief overview of training camp, in all its sweetness and challenge and beauty. Please pray for my squad, that we would continue to be prepared to go to the nations next year. Please also pray for financial provision in my fundraising (and in all my squad mates’ too!) — my next deadline is mid-December and I’m roughly $2000 away from it right now.
Thank you so much for being here, friend! And thank you for reading this, I’m so thankful for the opportunity to get to live on mission and build the kingdom alongside some of the best people I’ve ever known, and I’m grateful that I get to share it with you! Reach out with any questions at all, I’d love to share more about this adventure with you. 🙂
