This week we've been at Cherokee Retreat Center in White, GA for Passport Training Camp. 82 students. 15 leaders. A whole slew of staff and serve team and a worship team. It's been a great week! Our teams are preparing to
head out tomorrow to one of these awesome places: Nicaragua, Thailand, India, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania.
It's been a full week and we're ready to launch these teams out. During training camp, we spend a lot of time preparing these teams for their trip. This includes time of worship and teachings on things like spiritual formation, feedback, vision, culture, and ministry training. We also have a plethora of FUN involving a variety of activities! It would be impossible to convey everything that went on this week at camp, but here's a little snippet…
Things NOT to do when you're NOT at training camp…
-Bust out in random dance parties while you wait on the next planned activity
-Freestyle canoe outside of water with an imaginary paddle with a choreographed routine to the song, “Lady in Red”
-Randomly yell when you hear the name of your country spoken
-Refer to any room with sliding glass doors as “The Glass Castle”
Things I learned this week…
I would like to believe that every single day I can and should learn something new. Just because I’ve lost track of how many training camps I’ve been a part of doesn’t mean that I haven’t learned anything new this week. So here's some things that some people would call "useless facts" that I have aquired this week…
-Apparently you’re supposed to mount a horse from the horse’s left side. Otherwise the horse will be disoriented and confused, which would end poorly for you.
-Apparently there are things called urinal cakes. I learned about these things at the breakfast table this morning and all of their benefits and uses.
-I learned that freestyle canoeing is actually a competitive sport. If you don’t believe me, check out this video here. This is for real folks.
Things I LOVE about training camp:
-The look on the faces of our leaders as they look at their team. They look a bit like new parents watching their child take their first wobbly steps.
-Watching students discover for the first time their true identity in Christ, as a child of God, and that God is absolutely crazy in love with them. This changes everything.
-Hearing stories from students and leaders about their life stories, their pain, their celebrations.
-Watching as students realize for the first time that they can hear God speak to them personally, that they can speak what He is saying into others around them to encourage and build up their team.
-Midnight runs to Sonic for ice cream and tater tots to process my day with my husband. 🙂
