Training Camp

July 23, 2021

Last week was training camp, and I’ve been struggling to figure out what to say about it. It was a week FULL of fun, learning from incredibly wise leaders in the church, bonding with my squad, sleeping in muddy tents, and encountering God’s love and presence in new ways. Honestly, my brain is still trying to catch up and process everything I learned and experienced. However, there is one major thing I wanted to share with you about this past week, and that’s the community I found in the group of women I’ll be traveling the world with this year.

Right before camp I was getting nervous about friendships this year. In the past different fears and insecurities have made community hard for me, and in college I found friends I felt comfortable being known and loved by. The night before camp I sat with God anxious I would never have friends like that again and begging Him to give me just one person in my squad to connect with. I thought that was all I needed, that if I just had one person I was comfortable with I could survive this year. Praise the Lord that His plans are better than mine.

I got to training camp and found myself in the midst of women whose hearts were so passionately chasing Christ, and it was like all my walls and fears came tumbling down. There was no striving to perform, no pressure to make people like me. They already loved me because Jesus loves me. They already knew my heart because just like theirs, it belongs to Jesus. As I talked to one of my squad mates about how amazing it was that we all got along so quickly she reminded me that this is what its supposed to be like when the body of Christ gets together. We are already unified under Him, so all that’s left for us to do is love each other well. How cool.

So let me tell you about my squad. L squad is made up of 18 women from all over the US. They are so cool, check out my trip page to see all their cute faces and get access to their blogs:). Within our squad we are broken up into three teams, sometimes our teams will be sent to different cities and ministry sites and some months will be all squad in one spot (can’t wait for that!). My team (team pinky promise) is so wild and so passionate about God’s love. You can access their profiles through the meet my team tab on my page, but their names are Jackie, Addie, Claire, Kendell, and Cassady. Our team time is always full of so much joy and laughter, I’m so excited to take on this adventure with them and learn how to seek the Lord’s joy in every moment. The last group of people that make L team so special is our leadership team. L squad is so lucky to have Amy as our mentor – she’ll be managing us and supporting us mostly from the States but she’ll get to visit and pour into us in person a few times this year. She is so incredibly wise and her intimacy with the Lord is so encouraging to me. Next, our squad mentors are Kayla and Lubbock – they are both alumni racers and they’ll be traveling with us the first few months of our race to help us get the hang of everything. I’m so thankful for their leadership and am really glad they’ll be on the field with us in the beginning months when everything feels hectic. Last, but certainly not least, is Mike and Char – our absolutely incredible coaches. Mike and Char are a married couple that will act as spiritual coaches and supports from the states and will also get to come visit us a few times this year. They are already so good to us and came in real clutch by bringing us coffee and candy on the days we were all starting to feel the lack of sleep at camp.

If you can‘t already tell, I am in love with this group and am so so excited to grow and explore by their sides. I’m sure I’m biased, but I’m pretty positive L squad is the best squad ever. Like I said earlier, I learned so much at camp and I encountered God in amazing ways. But really, what He’s teaching me about community is the most exciting right now.

Here's a few pictures!