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For those of you not at training camp, I’m sorry that you don’t understand the title (it’s kind of an inside joke), but ask me the story sometime-it has to with the obstacle course, a hospital visit, and Benadryl- and it’s hilarious! And Molly, you’re awesome!

While we were at training camp, Tana, one of our leaders, asked us to practice writing a blog and to post it once we returned home. Well, after a week of reflection at home, here are my reflections on training camp:

First, I want to let those of you not at training camp know some of the things we did.   When we arrived at the airport on Thursday, August 6, we were given directions to find our way to a church in inner-city Atlanta and then spent the night on the streets as if we were homeless. The next morning, we went to the AIM camp in Gainesville for the rest of our time, where we participated in team building, a surrender walk, sessions on our identity in Christ, prophesy, feedback, gear and packing, and logistics of the trip, and our commissioning service. It was truly an incredible couple of days.

My team is awesome. We found out our team (or family) members on our third day of camp. I will be headed to Uganda with four of the most incredible people ever.  I’m so excited to spend eight months with them! My team includes John, who is 18 from Houston, Tara, who is 20 from Littleton, CO, Jenessa, who is 21 from Alberta, Canada, and Jess, who is 24 and from Indiana. That same afternoon, we went into “downtown” Gainesville, if you can call it that, to “do something stupid and make a memory, but not get arrested”. So, my family started playing sardines in the main square and then moved to bigger or better.   For those of you who don’t know the game, the idea of the game is that you start with something small and invaluable and ask people if they will trade you something bigger or better and see what you can end up with. My team started with a hair tie and traded that for a piece of cobbler. We ate the cobbler and turned a corner, where we saw a couch in a dumpster. So, naturally we got in the dumpster and pulled it out. We carried it around town, took pictures on it, and set it in front of our parked cars and were drinking milkshakes on it when everyone else returned. It was amazingly fun!
My Uganda Team!  (From L to R: Tara, myself, Jenessa, John, and Jess)

But on a more serious and spiritual note, this is what I wrote while still at training camp about when I was experiencing:

“I have mainly dealt with opening up to the Holy Spirit and experiencing God in new ways. As an individual reared in one (fairly conservative) church for my entire life, I have always been a little afraid to step out of my comfort zone spiritually and let God reveal himself to me in new ways. While at training camp, through exercises such as prophesying to other teammates (not forecasting the future, but speaking life into others through divinely inspired words) and “to the nations” (shouting God’s promises to the nations through a window- and yes, it felt crazy at first), God has blown the doors off the box I had Him in, and I expect Him to continue to do similar things throughout this journey.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
2 Timothy 1:7

At the same time, I have been really focused on 2 Timothy 1:7 and rejecting a spirit of timidity in the way I deal with others, in how I lead, and in how I express what God is doing in and through me. God has been teaching me to be bold, unashamed, and unafraid. He’s God and He has me in His hands- what am I afraid of? It’s ridiculous! I need to be wholly devoted to Him and not worry about anything else.”

So, overall, it was an incredible week of growth in so many areas. I can’t wait to go to Mexico for the next stage and be back with such amazing people all the time! I’ll close with the lyrics to a song that God placed on my heart while I was there at training camp:

Sold Out by Mark McConkey

“I’m giving you my life;
I’m giving all to you.
I will hold nothing back so selfishly.
I wanna live my days
in the plans you have for me,
 
And I, I wanna be sold out,
Sold out to you.
I wanna be sold out,
Sold out to you.
 
Author perfector of my faith,
My I not let another day go to waste!
You are my motivation and my goal-
My strength my sustenance,
Reviver of my soul.
 
And I, I wanna be sold out,
Sold out to you.
I wanna be sold out,
Sold out to you.”

One response to “We Ran, and We Climbed, and We Did Like This”

  1. i love it! i thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and getting to know you more. and i am so glad that i was able to entertain you with my benadryl high! can’t wait to read more of your blogs, but more then that..can’t wait to see you in Texas!!! ill be praying for you, kyle!!