training camp: chaotic, frigid, and refining… oh my!

good evening from ISTANBUL! it has been a wild past 12 days and I still am processing it to this day. However, when thinking about it the moment that training camp started, i felt nothing but overwhelming love from not only the staff at AIM but my squad, including my squad leaders. It was so good to match names with faces that I had corresponded with online. Not only getting to know the squad and leaders, but the welcoming and hospitable staff. Even though the days were jam packed with lots of worshipping, bonding, and learning all the while of being exhausted i embraced every single moment. From sleeping on the floor with our sleeping mats and being woken up at 7 am with sweetest most considerate team serve lead, she may have enjoyed her role more than we had to endure her crazy shenanigans of being sleep deprived and tired because morning would come so quickly. Our training experience really prepared us for the world overseas. We relied on port-a potties for our necessary bathroom time. Along with the frigid temperatures of being outside brushing our teeth with the water jugs. Since there were 4 different squads there, we had to have scheduled shower times. This meant that we would potentially have to wake up earlier than our normal 7 am wake up time. Now that you have the understanding of the minor inconveniences we had to go through, here is what a typical day looked like times 11. Once we were up, rather we had a choice or not, we started the day with personal devotions. Once we finished that we had breakfast…OUTSIDE of course… but made it so much better to all be in the same boat with my squad. After breakfast, we would have a session. Days would vary if we would have two or three sessions a day. Even though travel day was exhausting getting to Gainesville, Georgia and we took off training week off and running, the Lord sustained our strength. Our first session was about the reason as to why the World Race came to be and the thought process behind it. The three words that the founder thought of to sum up the World Race was Abandonment, Brokenness, and Dependence. A further breakdown of these three words are that one is abandoning the comforts of home, realizing that we’re all broken people in need of a savior, and dependence on nothing but the Lord because of the areas that we are going to, it could be very difficult to depend on anything but the Lord. The 3 core values that the World Race goes off of is intimacy, community, and mission. You can probably imagine how the rest of the sessions went. They were all based off of Jesus and joining him in the work He is doing. Specifically one of my favorites was learning about the kingdom and the man that spoke on it was actually from South Africa and has been with AIM for a while. Each session was very thought provoking and gave lots of insight into the heart behind Jesus and the World Race. One of the main points in his message was everyone has a price point, “what is the price the enemy could offer you to walk away from your convictions?” After the session was over, we would go and debrief with our squad. When we finished debriefing, we would have lunch together and you guessed it… it was OUTSIDE again.. It wouldn’t matter if it was 20 or 40 degrees, rain or shine we were outside. Thankfully, we had warming heaters on the patio deck that we all huddled by. After lunch, we would have personal time to do whatever we needed to recharge. We did a variety of scenarios while in Gainesville so that when we were in South Africa, we had a better understanding of approaching different situations. After dinner, we would have campus clean-up and be assigned a group chore each night. We would also take turns doing dishes after one of the meals every day. Training camp was filled with lots of team building activities and becoming vulnerable with each other. There were many laughs and also very hard, emotional moments. I was able to be vulnerable with my team about the way I was feeling day three or four into training camp. I had multiple people come up to me or encounters of the Holy Spirit, you could call it, and felt that Jesus never left me, even if I felt that things had not changed. In conclusion, training camp was exhausting but the conversations that I was able to have with people was everything I could have wanted and more. We are getting ready to board our next 11 hour flight to Johannesburg and then when we arrive in Johannesburg, we will drive 10 more hours to Eswatini. The next time that you hear from me, I will be in ESWATINI!

Love you all!

-bethany ♡