and to think this is just the Beginning!

Oh man. Training camp. Where do I even begin?

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10 days!

10 days were spent in Gainesville, Georgia, preparing for what will be the next 9 months. 10 days were spent sleeping in stuffy tents that doubled as spiders’ homes. 10 days were spent using porta- potties and loving the sweet, sweet aroma that came with it 😉 10 days were spent meeting faces that had only been small profile pictures for the past 6 months. 10 days were spent meeting our Maker intimately and marveling at His works day and night. 10 days were spent shedding layers and masks that the World had tried to sow on us. 

Oh it was the sweetest of times.  

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On July 9th, 6 different routes of the World Race met in Gainesville, Georgia, to prepare and train for what will soon be our lives for the next 9 months starting September 6th! It was also a time where we met our squad and teams in person for the first time- we were finally more than a small profile pic 😉 

And that was just the start. This is all just the start. 

But!!! It’s comfortable to write about easy things. It’s easy to write about how sleeping in a tent for 10 days was hard. Or how eating foods from other countries was sometimes not what we looked forward to. Or how living in community was a new experience. Or how bucket showers are really really cold, but oddly refreshing. 

And that’s why I find myself struggling to write this. Because I keep finding myself wanting to talk about the easy things. Things that don’t raise any controversy. Things that don’t provoke questions. Things that don’t hold Truth and Power. Things that don’t move Mountains or reflect the depth of His character and the magnitude of the Holy Spirit’s power.

So… hard things about training camp! Let’s talk about em 😉

 

Freedom!!!! 

Real-life, ground-breaking freedom. The type of freedom you wanna tell everyone about. The Heaven-on-Earth type of freedom!!

I’ve lived a large part of my life drowning in shame and guilt for my past sins. Living in chains that dictated how I viewed myself, the world around me, and more specifically, the Lord. I would wake up and hear the lies that the Enemy constantly poured into me, day and night. 

But the Lord spoke sweet LULLABIES to me at camp!!!!! Life-giving LULLABIES! A prayer of mine on day 3: “I am not meant to walk in the shame the Enemy has placed over me. In Jesus, there is freedom. In Jesus, there is righteousness. In Jesus, there is forgiveness. I do not want to give the Enemy power over me anymore. I am TIRED of giving him power. He does not have that over me anymore.”

Jesus broke CHAINS at training camp. Years worth of chains: GONE. There is no room for shame in the name of JESUS!!!!! 

“To experience the fullness of God’s glory free of shame and guilt” is something the Lord spoke over me at camp as a vision for the Race. To bring this freedom- free of shame, guilt, insecurity, doubt, fear, anger, loneliness- to His children around the world!!!!! To be able to dance in that freedom with my Brothers and Sisters in Christ!!!! What a sweet time that will be. 

 

Identity!!!!!! 

Learning what TRUE identity found in Jesus is like. Learning that I was made for the center of His love. Learning what it TRULY means to be made in His image and LIKENESS. Learning that I am who I am because of who God is!! 

Letting go of the Lies that the Enemy tries to feed me. And taking captive of the Truths that the Lord sings to me every morning. Learning that I am protected by the KING OF ALL KINGS!!!!!!! (I will never get over that one) 

I asked the Lord to take what I had built my identity on and destroy it. And from then on, only to find my identity in Him. And he DID IT. From then on, everything I had relied on to form my identity- whether that be what other people thought of me, boys, my physical appearance, etc- had fled. and the only things that remained were His words over me::: 

– that He has chosen me and never rejected me (Isaiah 41:9)

– that I am made in His image (Genesis 1:16)

– that He DELIGHTS in ME (Psalm 18:19)

– that the Maker of the Heavens and Earth will HELP ME (Isaiah 41:13) 

– that I BELONG to the Lord and that He CLAIMS us as His children (Romans 14:8)

– that the Lord craves an INTIMATE relationship with me!!!! (John 17:3)

On day 5 I wrote in my journal, “I’ve been praying for a new identity and what You’re about to give me is a million times better than I ever had.” 

An identity based upon Jesus is, and always will be, better than anything this World could give us. 

 

The Cost. and the Choice. 

“For you to walk in salvation is free but to walk in the Kingdom will cost you everything.” 

One of the very first things we learned at Training Camp was the Cost and Commitment it means to follow Jesus. What it truly means to take up your Cross, follow Him, and to deny yourself. What it means to truly LIVE out Mark 8:34-35, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it.” The Cost of following Jesus is everything. But there is nothing in this world that is worth more than Him.

“Choosing Him.” Something the Lord placed on my heart every day at Camp. He taught me what it looks like to choose Him, despite what I’m feeling. He showed me what it looked like to worship Him, despite how I was feeling. Because a relationship with our Heavenly Father is not based on emotions. When you truly commit to the Lord, you don’t choose to worship Him when you feel like it. You glorify and worship Him regardless. 

A prayer I prayed almost everyday at camp was to lose myself in the process of gaining Him. And something He took from me was the “joyful, happy” feeling I get when I worship. I feel the most connected to God during worship so not being able to rely on my emotions anymore was different. But I was learning that I had to take up my Cross and CHOOSE to worship Him. It was hard. I didn’t want to at first. But I chose to. Because He is Worthy of it ALL. Even when I don’t feel like it. 

The Lord related this choice to marriage. When you are married to someone, you don’t get to choose when you want to love the other person. And if you did, it would fail. And just like our relationship with Jesus, if we only choose to worship and love Him when we want to, it would fail. It isn’t a relationship based on emotions. It’s a relationship based on taking up our Cross and CHOOSING Him. 

As I sat one day with the Lord, I heard Him speak “Habakkuk 1:17-18” over me which says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”  I MEAN COME ON!!!!! Too good. Though I may have NOTHING and the Harvest is none, I will rejoice and CHOOSE to glorify Him. 

Here are some journal entries during Camp about this Revelation: 

– “Worshipping You is a Choice. It’s not a feeling. You didn’t leave me when I left. I will choose You, everyday.” 

– “My feelings don’t equate to Your feelings. When I’m feeling empty, You’re still there. When I’m feeling stuck, You’re still there. When I’m feeling disconnected, You’re still there.”

– “Sometimes we are called to things by You and we are hesitant, and even say no. But at the end of the day, we obey You. and say Yes. Every time. Even when it’s not our choice, you have Your way. And it’s the same about worship. We are called to worship. And sometimes we don’t want to but we OBEY. And choose to say Yes.. Every time. We are obedient to You. Because we love You.”

 

Real-Life HEALINGS!!!!!! 

I put the Lord in a small box; a small box that limited Him and His capability. I grew up in the Church which made, and still makes it incredibly easy, and almost inevitable, to put a box around the Holy Spirit and to simply forget all that He is capable of doing.

At camp, Adventures in Missions heavily emphasized hearing the Holy Spirit and the activation that comes with that. While there are countless stories of physical healings and miracles that happened, there’s one that especially hits close to home!!! 

Day 6! Over halfway done with training camp. (A couple days prior to this, there was a night of worship where dozens of people got PHYSICALLY healed- from migraines to depression to neck and back pains to sports injuries. It was truly Heaven on Earth!!!!) My team and I, consisting of 7 girls total, were sitting together after a team building exercise when a girl on my team spoke up about her hip hurting from the fitness hike a couple days prior. She then went on to tell us she was born with uneven legs and the hike really hurt her hips and legs because her pack sits on her a little funny. We all instantly got up from sitting and stood around her as we “waterfall prayed” over her and the pain she was feeling (“waterfall prayer” is a type of prayer where everyone prays out loud simultaneously- it’s POWERFUL). We called upon the Holy Spirit to lift the pain she was feeling and proclaimed freedom from the pain in the name of Jesus. She then got up to put her shoes on to go inside after the prayer and THE PAIN HAD LEFT HER. AMEN!!!!!! Hyped UP, my team ran inside to tell the rest of our squad and as we were praising Jesus, an alumni of the Race told us to check her legs to see if they had been healed but my team had told her, “no no no, we didn’t pray for her legs to be healed, we just prayed for the pain to go away!” But she insisted, saying that she had seen uneven legs healed on her Race. So we all lowered her to the ground to check her legs AND THEY WERE THE SAME LENGTH!!!!!!! The. Same. Length. HE HEALED HER LEGS! Complete AWE!!!! INSANITY! 

And THIS is the Jesus we Worship. The One who restores. And Heals. and is ALIVE. He isn’t far off. No, He is HERE!! The stories we read in the Bible aren’t the end but the beginning. They aren’t far off or made-up, but they are the TRUTH. The Jesus who defeated DEATH is the same Jesus today- and He is healing the sick and bringing revival!!

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I could 100% go on forever and ever about training camp and all they taught us:::

– how we learned to preach the Gospel to all different cultures

– that we are our own expression of Christ

– the absolute importance of Sabbath

– how to truly hear the voice of our Father

– how fear has no power in the presence of Jesus’s blood

– that the Cross is the ultimate tool of liberation 

– the realness and heaviness of spiritual warfare

– the craziness of living in community (and sharing 6 bucket showers with 200 other girls HA!)

Training camp was nothing short of life changing. 

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!!!!! Here are some disposable pictures throughout camp to give you a visual of all of this !!!!! 

 

Oh yeah, baby! Porta potties! Can confidently say I don’t miss these bad boys! 

 

AFRICA DAY!!! YUM!!! Each day was a different “culture day,” such as Africa, India, South America, Asia Day etc. Our meals were centered around these cultures and served community style! This plate would’ve fed 8 people! Crazy stuff!  

Sabbath! We had around three hours of rest on day 7. And as you can tell, we used it very wisely 😉 Naps all around town! 

On Sabbath, I was also able to take a walk with a sweet teammate of mine and we sat and admired the beauty surrounding us. The last thing I journaled that day was, “share something good with me Jesus!” and as I was packing up my things a BUTTERFLY landed on my hand!!! And he stayed there the entire walk back! 

This day! I wore this dress for the first time at camp and received SO. MANY. compliments on it. It felt like I walked into a room and that’s all people said to me. It was so weird- such an absurd amount of compliments for just a simple dress!!!! I asked the Lord that night during worship, “why are so many people complimenting me today?!” and He said back, “Because I like the dress!” Not fully understanding it at the time, I asked again, saying, “But God, WHY are so many people complimenting it???” and He said, “Listen. Because I like the dress. So I sent people to let you know.” WHAT!!!! He is so intimate and romantic!! Thank you Jesus, for sending people to let me know something about you, even if it was as small as liking a dress!!! 

INDIA DAY!! Drank yummy Chai tea for breakfast<33

Snack break! Apples never tasted so good :’) 

That glorious night all 35 of us crammed into one room to stay the night! Thank you Georgia thunderstorms, AC never felt so good!! 

Meet Team YES! (Minus Jaynna and Elisa) Women that I will be doing daily ministry with! They truly embody what it looks like to surrender and say “yes!” to Jesus!!! 

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On our very last night of worship, the worship leader spoke this over us. Powerful words. 

“it’s not about the countries you go to—

it’s about every. single. place. you step foot into. 

it’s next week when you’re at home and you don’t know what to do with your life. 

and, yeah, obviously it’s on the field, we want you guys to go on the World Race but the whole point of this THING is to start a Kingdom lifestyle in you EVERYWHERE you go. 

Whether it’s in the mountains of Swaziland, or sitting in a Starbucks in Boise, Idaho.

Because He’s everywhere. And he wants us to bring His love and His joy and His goodness everywhere. 

So it’s not ABOUT Training Camp.

It’s about You and the Holy Spirit that You have inside of YOU. 

Because the same Holy Spirit that you have inside of you, is the One I have inside of me, it’s the One that Paul had inside of HIM when he wrote those letters.

IT’S THE SAME THING! 

So don’t think just because you’re at home next week that you’re not on the mission field. 

This is the VERY VERY beginning of an entire LIFE of Heaven on Earth. 

So no matter where we are, we won’t stop singing, every breath in our lungs we’ll shout out: You are Lord. You are Lord.” 

THIS! IS! JUST! THE! BEGINNING! 

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The rest of this Journey starts officially in ONE month!!!! September 6th baby!!!! One-way plane ticket to Swaziland! 

I cannot thank you enough for your generosity with your time to read this. I truly truly appreciate it! 

And if you have ANY questions, please don’t hesitate to text/call me:::: 678-708-8430! I would LOVE to talk more about this!!! 

I have OFFICIALLY hit my $12,000 marker!!!!!! UNREAL!!!!!! I cannot stop thanking the Lord for everyone’s generosity. Gosh! Thank YOU!!!! I have a little over $4,000 to fundraise and I am completely confident that God will provide. If you feel led to donate, please please do! Any amount helps! Even a dollar!!  My Venmo is @laurenkobe OR you can press that handy dandy “donate” button at the top of the page! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!! 

– much love, Lauren