Training Camp, Week 2 – Preparing for what’s to come

Let me introduce you all to a song:

I had never heard this song before coming here, but I love it and find myself humming it all the time now! It’s been played almost every morning at wakeup and it’s been a great reminder, as training camp has introduced us to a lifestyle of greater abandonment, that the Lord is so much better than anything this world can offer.

What does it even mean to say “a lifestyle of abandonment”? When I was first contemplating/planning for the Race, I looked at a lot of the World Race Instagram posts for an idea of what the ministry and schedule looked like. One post that particularly stuck out to me wasn’t about either of those things, but about the concept of abandonment – choosing to give up parts of our lives as a declaration of our willingness to make room for God to move. (Here’s the post: abandonment) It’s not just giving things up to give things up or to live as more of a minimalist, through those things aren’t necessarily bad or wrong. It’s a willful act of surrender in daily life, choosing to abandon excess, to simply have less (i.e. material goods, space in our schedule, even proximity to family and friends…) in our lives in order to see God do more.

Training camp is by far not the most extreme of abandonment that we’ll experience on this journey – after all, on the Race we’re going from the extravagance of the States to much different areas of the world; our standard of “normal” is that of so few others’ – but it certainly is a step in that direction. So much of what’s been disorienting for me at camp has been the small but unexpected differences, like

• those cold showers (though there have been warm ones too, I’m grateful to the Lord for that!)
• early mornings
• sharing a sleeping space with 50+ other people (quite a sleepover)
• almost literally living out of a backpack
• only having access to outdoor bathroom facilities in literally freezing cold
• a strict meal schedule (…I didn’t realize how much I loved snacks 😂)
• not having phone access between breakfast and dinner time

All of these, though, are just differentiations from the “normal” of my suburban American life. It’s been a revelation of my own small worldview. And even more than that, there have been clear benefits to living this way. Being less focused on food (with the acknowledgment of Serve Team which in fact has provided meals for us the past two weeks, thank you Serve Team!!!), possessions, checking my phone, etc. has allowed me and, I’d assume, all of us here to

• intentionally lean in to the Lord and His voice
• worship without worry or needing to check the time
• connect more deeply with one another from the start
• learn and soak things in without distractions
• value what we have more highly

I haven’t always enjoyed the training in this “abandoning” sphere, but I definitely am appreciating it now as we’re looking ahead. I know it’s prepared me physically and spiritually more than I even realized at first – I already can tell that I need less than what I often think I do. What I need most of all is simply more of Jesus, and getting to realize and live that at camp has been so good. 

As training camp ends – wow these two weeks have gone so fast! – we’re looking ahead to the next stage of the adventure: going international!!! We head to Guatemala on Monday and our squad is SO excited!! We also just recently learned our teams and the ministries we’ll be serving with for the next 6 weeks or so… stay tuned for the next update to learn more about that! 😉

I am so grateful to be participating in this adventure and ministry, and though I know the road ahead will be harder than I can even imagine now, I also know God has good plans and purposes beyond what I can imagine. Already I’ve tasted and I’ve seen that the Lord and His ways are better than my wildest dreams… I’m excited to keep seeing and sharing what He has in store! ❤️