You know that spiritual high you get at church camp? The one that sticks around for a few weeks then you’re left with nothing but a countdown until next summer. Training camp is nothing like that.
We all arrived after a day of goodbyes, airports, and a long, sweaty, 2 hour, 3 bottoms in a seat bus ride. Feasted like there was no tomorrow (cafeteria food is always the best), jumped right in, and haven’t stopped running since.
All-group worship sessions are entirely God’s. People are shouting, dancing, crying, jumping, singing, praying, clapping- however you could think to praise God, it’s happening. And the exhaustion of travel makes it almost impossible to control your body. Or even hold up any walls/ protective boundaries we brought with us.
We’ve done different exercises to prepare us for now and the field-
• Our leaders were told to be a tribe and we were the missionaries. It was all about communicating with them when they didn’t speak our language. They spit on us, patted us on the back with all their strength, ran away if we said Jesus.. It was a mixture of laughter and frustration. Definitely created a dependency on God having to find ways to keep them interested and still build a relationship.
• We’ve practiced laying our hands on each other and letting God speak through us to them. Hard. & uncomfortable.
• We’ve had to practice surrender by writing on a log what we want to let go of and give to God, then carry it along as we hiked and prayed. Pretty sure they picked the highest and steepest hill they could find. As I went along, I realized how the log symbolizes the weight of carrying junk around instead of giving it to God. Finally being able to toss it into the fire pit was amazing.
Any uncomfortable thing I could think of has happened. And I hear this is just the beginning.
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