My first thought about training camp, was that it was going to be in a nice resort, we'd pack the conference center with worship. I didn't expect anything from my team. I thought we would just get along but not really be close. It might've been awkward, and since it's sometimes hard for me to open up, I thought I would be shy around them. I also thought it'd drag on just because I've been so anxious about this trip. When I first saw the Passporters In the airport, I got so nervous, but I gained the courage to walk up. Immediately I was greeted by Karina, my...

Trust. Surrender. Speak. Listen. Learn. Love. Follow. Serve.  How is it possible to learn and grow so much in just three and a half days? I expected to come to training camp and learn about how to survive without committing some social taboo (or getting malaria) and to bond with my teammates, but I could  not have foreseen the incredible lessons I have learned this week.  In the past few months I have been "preparing" for this semester: buying ministry clothes and bug spray, saying good-bye to my family and friends, and googling everything about Puerto...

Coming into camp I didn't know what to expect. I thought it to just be about team building  and finally getting to find out exactly what I will be doing on the field. Instead I found myself starting to understand my reason for being on this trip. I thought I knew my reason. I was wrong. I laid down my past an picked up my future, refusing to let my focus be on anything but my future in Guatemala. I found an answer to a question I've had for a long time. How do you hear from God? What does he sound like? I got my answer. A very loud and direct answer. We spent a night speaking...

      Like I was informed yesterday, often times, people don’t realize they have kept these expectations locked in their subconscious until one becomes disappointed when those expectations come unmet.      All this to say, as I get ready to leave Training Camp, I have no disappointments whatsoever. Maybe that means I arrived anticipating nothing, but I learned a lot.      Before coming here, I truly felt suffocated when confronted with Christians that used words like, “rapture,” and “Believer,” and phrases...

"Welcome to training camp passporters! Here's your first assignment: You have ten minutes to return to your cabin and get THREE items. Those three items are all you will have till tomorrow morning. Choose wisely!"        I don't know what I was expecting for training camp, but THAT certainly was not it.  Using the boyscout skills I don't have to build a shelter out of tarp and ropes was not what I expected. Sleeping outside in the Georgia humidity and pine needles was not what I expected. (Our first night at training camp,...

The past week I’ve been sweating it out in the Georgia backwoods, training to become the perfect, put-together missionary that surely God intended for me to be… so I thought. I expected bugs, the humidity, and quality hammock time. And those expectations were met within the first night of training. But I didn’t expect my team of 7 girls to become inseparable within the first twenty-four hours. But my favorite time of day is meal time, because then we’re all together, laughing until we cry. I didn’t expect to spend my first night sleeping in the woods under a...