Training Camp!

Hi everyone! I am currently sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting to start the 4 ish day trek to our base in Cambodia. As most of you know, I spent the last 7 days in Gainesville, Georgia doing a training camp and I wanted to tell y’all about it! These last several months, I havebeen filled with such excitement for this trip. I had no nerves, God made it clear time and time again that I am supposed to go on this trip. But when I arrived at the Atlanta airport, I won’t lie I was very nervous. I had cried a few times on the plane ride there, just nervous about all the unknowns that lay ahead of me. I landed in Atlanta quite overwhelmed at just how big the airport was, much bigger than Will Rogers!! Eventually I found the group of world racers, and I stayed pretty quiet and reserved. We began to receive more information about what training camp would entail; sleeping in tents, using port-a-potties, eating foreign foods, lots of cleaning and packing. On the 2 hour shuttle to training camp, I was wondering what I just got myself into. I had been awake for 17 hours and honestly all I could think was I wanted to go home. Thankfully I slept great the first night just out of sheer exhaustion. I prayed that the Lord would give me peace. 

The next morning the Lord had answered my prayer. I started to get to know the people on my squad (H-SQUAD YEAHHHH) and I felt comfortable to be myself around them. These are some of the most loving, kind and fun people I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing! When I woke up on that second day, the Lord showed me the beauty of the way I was living. Sacrificing daily comforts for the sake of the Gospel was so beautiful and I feel prepared for any living scenario I will face in SE Asia. The Worship was such a great comfort for me. Every one was freely worshipping in their own way, and the worship team was very Spirit-led and it made me feel like I was at SpringCreek worshipping with my church family 🙂
Honestly though, the teachingswere my favorite part! I have gained such a deep understanding of just how much God has done for me and how much He loves me and who I am in Him! I don’t have to identify as a sinner any longer! The Bible says Jesus has made me a saint! We also talked about the power and authority we have inChrist. I am believing we will see salvations, supernatural healings; mentally and physically, demons casted out, and even more that my mind cannot even fathom.

At some point in the middle of the week, satan started filling my mind with insecurities. I felt comfortable to be myself around my new besties, but I had convinced myself that I was too much for them, that people were thinking I was annoying, that they were just pretending to like me, but instead of letting this fester into something more, I brought it up to two of my friends in our daily prayer time together. They reassured me that this was a lie, and they prayed over me. ALL throughout the day and honestly the rest of the week, I was constantly encouraged by others. They told me how much they loved me, how excited they were to serve with me, that I am a light to our team, and I just found myself thanking God all day long. I am seen and known by Him and He is a good father to His kids.
We also had squad wars against the squad that’s going to the Dominican Republic and our squad won. 🏆 The unity between our two squads was sobeautiful. Its crazy how I’ve made such deepconnections with these total strangers in just a week! I was also the only person from Oklahoma!

I seriously have THE BEST squad! There are 22 of us and we’ve been split into teams. My team has 6 ladies, and we came up with the name Women of Valor for our team. We will have great courage in the face of great danger! We did several scenarios of different ministries we will be doing and even though some seemed a little crazy, it has made me feel extremely prepared. My team will be working with a young kids ministry in the mornings, a soccer ministry and a youth ministry in the afternoons.
I have so much more I could say about this week, but I think I’ll stop here for now. I willkeep you all updated, thank you for your prayers, they are such a necessity! (enjoy the photos!!)