Hello from Bangkok!
We are here safely and I am personally enjoying letting my feet and ankles "unswell" from the long flights. It blows my mind that I have been with this group of girls for a day short of a week already. When we met on the 3rd, we sure were put to the challenge for community within our team. We slept outside, unexpectedly, on the first night. For me, I was a little hesitant at first about training camp when I arrived. I guess my poor attitude could have come from feeling a little sick that day but I also learned the next day that I had expectations about training camp that I didn't even notice until they didn't get met. Funny how that works. What I found really cool about that night was that it challenged us to work together as a team in an unexpected situation. While we probably won't ever be in a position like sleeping outside on a tarp with no sleeping bag in Phuket, we definitely will come across plenty of unexpected experiences. And because of that night and God with us, I believe our team can work out anything thrown our way.
I have loved getting to know these girls I will live with for the next two months. On the first day of training camp, we heard each others' stories of how we found this trip and it is obvious that God hand picked this team for Phuket, Thailand this summer. We also got to talking about the things people were praying over us and there have been a lot of similarities across the board. People getting their feet prayed over (Romans 10:15), hearing passion in peoples' voices when they talk to us about where we are going, power and boldness, and a lot of freedom. Freedom has been a huge theme this week. I felt a lot of freedom at training camp. Everything from learning to listen for God's voice to the way I move when I worship Him or even living in community with other believers, He has been breaking down the boxes I have been keeping Him in. I learned a lot of truth about the God I serve and the Holy Spirit that resides in my heart. It is true that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. It is also true that each of us on this team have the same spirit of God in us. Therefore, it is true that when we step foot in Phuket there will be freedom. God already has the victory in Phuket and we get to go tell these people who haven't heard about the victory of Christ.
One sentence for anyone wanting to know what to think of training camp: try and have no expectations for the actual camp and events that will take place, but expect God to move in the most unimaginable ways. Ephesians 3:20 tells us that God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine-so expect that from Him! He will move even more noticeably if we allow Him to.
that's all for now, folks
thanks for reading 🙂
by the way, where did the 8th go? we left on the 7th and now it is magically the 9th. I suppose we time traveled?
