September 15, 2009 | Missions (General)

Real Life Training Camp

Our friend and colleague, Matt Snyder, spent last week at AIM headquarters for the Real Life training camp. Here is his account of that experience:

This past week 43 God-thirsty, college-aged students gathered together in Gainesville, Georgia to prepare themselves to go overseas. Some have never even been on a mission trip, let alone another country, and here they were getting ready to set out for Nicaragua, Swaziland, Kenya, or India. One thing was unanimous though: their hearts were determined to make an impact on the world no matter where they went.

I was invited to Real Life to help lead worship this past week, and decided that this was a great opportunity to observe another program inside of Adventures In Missions (AIM).

I’m no stranger to AIM. I participated on the World Race in January of 2008 and am currently on staff. Some of my good friends went on Real Life trips when they were in college and walked out of them completely transformed, but I didn’t quite grasp what the program was all about.

The Real Lifer’s met at the airport Tuesday afternoon. Although excited about their upcoming experience, they were more determined to get the most out of it. As we sat on the ground at the Atlanta airport, I asked some of them why they were doing this trip. Their responses were so similar, “I feel called to missions; I want to make a difference; I know there’s something else out there and I need to go find it.”

Their determination to pursue a calling in life inspired me.

There’s a purpose behind training camp that many don’t seem to understand. A participant can’t just jump into the mission field. Life is so different overseas and the culture shock itself might paralyze a newcomer. More than that, a missionary needs to be equipped with knowledge and bits of hands-on experience before effectively making a difference in the field. That’s what Real Life training camp gives them.

Throughout the day participants worshiped together, learned about life on the mission field through various teachings, participated in team builders to unify their team and grow closer to one another, and got a dose of hands-on ministry to apply their newly learned skills.

It was really encouraging for me to see the students’ growth throughout the week. They came into training camp determined, yet were timid and shy–not only of one another but also of trying new things. They came out on the other end bold and courageous.

The last night of training camp the Real Life staff organized a commissioning service, a night of prayer and worship to send them off. The atmosphere was perfect and focused on one thing: sending these eager radicals out to go manifest the kingdom of God so they can help make disciples of all nations.

Everyone stayed up really late Saturday night as they prepared to leave early Sunday morning. The anticipation could be cut with a knife. There was so much excitement to leave, to finally set foot in these countries that have been on their hearts for so long.

This past week was especially good for me. I quickly fell in love with this group. If I could clone myself into four different persons, I would be in Nicaragua, India, Kenya, and Swaziland with all of them. But I can’t. I can only read their stories from a distance. The best part is that I’m more inspired now to go live a kingdom-centered life here in the States. I’ve been encouraged to go make a change. Knowing that there are so many God-thirsty people storming the mission field abroad, I’m even more determined to storm the mission field within the borders here at home.

Here is a look at the smiling faces of our Real Life teams preparing to enter the mission field:

RL India RL Nicaragua