Home sweet Georgia

Yay first training camp blog post! Spending this much time outdoors has given me a whole new appreciation for my home state. When I was packing for this trip, I wasn’t crazy about the idea of living in the wilderness for five weeks but I’ve learned to love sleeping in a tent and even bucket showers.

The other day, my squad was given a pretend scenario to prepare us to experience loss and sharing on the field. They had us pack up all of our things one morning and pretend we were going to the Himalayas to spread the gospel. We didn’t have our hiking packs all day because “the sherpas were carrying them” (they were sitting under a tarp at our campsite) and I wasn’t able to do laundry that week because I had left it in my big pack. That night, our leaders told us the bison carrying our luggage stumbled down the mountain and lost half of our bags. So only half of us got our bags back. I got super lucky and got all my things back but some people were not so lucky. The people who didn’t have their pack had to bunk with those who did and, honestly, it was pretty fun other than it getting super cold that night. It was like a big sleepover! I would hate to lose something as important as my hiking pack on the race, but I am so grateful to have so many awesome brothers and sisters to lean on if something like that were to happen.

I went into the race thinking I had a pretty good idea of who God was. It was extremely humbling to realize how little I actually did know about Him. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that there will never be a point where I’ll be done learning about His character. He wants us to keep chasing Him. The same God who created the universe wants to have a personal relationship with you and reveal Himself to you. How freaking awesome is that? Jesus really is the best friend ever.

I would love it if you would continue pray for the health of my squad mates. There’s a sickness going around and a lot of us aren’t feeling so hot.

Until next time!