Training Camp (Week Two)

Week two, let’s go!

These past couple of days have been such a breakthrough for me. I’m seeing so much of the Lord’s grace, goodness, and provision in this time. I’ve been growing so close to my team, and I truly feel as though they are my family. God has been revealing a lot to me… things in my heart… things in His… and He’s helping me to align my heart with His. To remain obedient even when I feel as if I’m walking through this alone. He has been encouraging me through people back home as they take steps of obedience because of my own. It has been so evident these last few days that the Lord has already met me here and that He’s actually the one who’s been waiting for me. I’m just so filled with the goodness of the Lord! I’ve learned so much of what it looks like to live my faith out in everything I do. To make God my big G God… not little g. To not put Him in a Sunday church box but give Him room to move in all that goes on in my life. To invite Him into everything. I want to make God out to be as big as He is!

This week I’ve had a lot going on. We learned what our teams are inside of our squad, so I know the other 5 girls plus my leader that I will always be with! We will sleep together, eat together, do ministry together, breathe together, everything, we will always be together! I love and get along with all of the girls on my team so well, so it has given me such excitement to go on the field.

Another exciting thing is that I got assigned to a very important role on my team as a logistics & treasurer leader. It is a big role, so I have been stressed about serving my team well, but I am excited for the opportunity to grow in those areas. My heart in this trip has been to serve even the people on my squad, not just those who we’re ministering to, so the Lord really gave me a great opportunity to do exactly that! My job includes leading things like travel days, whether by air or land. So, me and two others who do the logistics job with me have all the flight, customs, visas, etc., information that we research and get finalized for our team to then share with them on travel days. It requires a lot of planning, research, handling money, and organization, but I’m confident in the abilities God has given me and the potential my leaders see in me to complete this job. I also handle group travel within the country with buses and things, as well as planning team debriefs and anything money-related to my squad. Team debriefs happen every two months, and it’s like a “vacation” for the team where we reflect on the past two months and spend time together and take time to rest. I book the travel to get there, the place we’ll stay at, the activities we’ll do, the food we’ll eat, etc. It’s a lot of budgeting and planning, but I’m excited to grow in all these areas! And as a logistics leader, I don’t exactly get to rest over these debriefs, so it’s another way I can step up and serve my squad, so I’m grateful. I am also a team treasurer, so I handle all the money my smaller team of 7 needs and budget the allotted money we get. That includes travel for ministry days, food, team expenses, and other needs, etc. A less demanding job but still another way I can step up and serve! Overall, you can see I have a lot of responsibility, so your prayers in that would mean a lot as I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to do a good job, but I don’t want to rely on my own abilities but look to the Lord for my strength. A big worry I have is that I will be so focused on doing a good job leading that I will lose sight of the ministry aspect of why I’m there, so my prayer is that the Lord would help fix my eyes on Him during those times when I feel overwhelmed and have Him help me to balance being a good leader and spreading His love to the people we’re ministering to.

Also, this week four other squads have left to go on the field, so I have a lot more free time and fewer packed days. So we’ve been given the opportunity to go out to coffee shops and write our blogs, explore, and have fun, which has been a nice treat every once in a while to go and do. Mainly that can only happen on our Sabbath as we have the time to go out, but it’s still a nice new privilege to training camp.

Lastly, I’ve found out more information about the weeks to come. So September 20th I leave to go to North Carolina (the Black Mountain area) to do two-ish weeks of domestic missions, and then I come back to base for a couple of days and fly out to Swazi, my first country, on October 7th! Swazi is going to be my most remote country, so I probably won’t be able to send out my blogs for those two-ish months I’m there, but I’ll still write lots of them and post them as soon as I’m able!

Thank you all for your continued support! I’ve truly felt all of your prayers touch me, and it’s been such a wonderful blessing to experience. I have only 15% left to go in my fundraising, and I could not be more in awe of how the Lord provides. Thank you thank you to everyone who’s following along and lifting my name up to the Lord. I’m so grateful!

This is my team! 
Name’s are from left to right:

Carlee, Avery, Naomi, Abby (Our Leader), Me, Kynsie, and Karen 🙂

Also, if you haven’t yet download this free app to see all the pictures from my trip in real time!

https://join.photocircleapp.com/4WBHQQ344T