In the name of Sam Hill
The long story (training camp part 3 of 3)
Taking into account that ants
were invading our tents and generally making life not so great for us, the
staff moved us in
to the largest cabins I’ve ever seen. Until that morning there
had also been a World Race training camp going on at the same time, and because
not all of us could fit in the cabins together, we were in tents.
These cabins are pretty tall and have three rows of bunk beds. You can fit 30
people in each of the two cabins, crazy!
were invading our tents and generally making life not so great for us, the
staff moved us in
to the largest cabins I’ve ever seen. Until that morning therehad also been a World Race training camp going on at the same time, and because
not all of us could fit in the cabins together, we were in tents.
These cabins are pretty tall and have three rows of bunk beds. You can fit 30
people in each of the two cabins, crazy!
So after we shook out everything
in search of ants and moved into the cabins, we went on what AIM calls a
surrender walk. Looks different for every team but for us we prayed over what
God needed us to give up to get closer to Him. We then wrote these on logs.
There were a few things that I knew God was bringing up in my mind but I really
didn’t want to deal with it. I finally wrote them on a dark portion of the log
so that I didn’t have to see it as we carried them through woods on our walk.
(really its ok if you laugh here) So we were sent out into the woods one by one
for the walk after we had been prayed over. W e weren’t supposed to pass any of
our teammates and there leaders along the way that we were to stop and pray
with. God must have known I needed a lot of time because I was the next to last
person that left the main building. The walk the first part of the woods I was
restless and honestly ignored what God was trying to get me to deal with. Then
after what seemed like an eternity (in truth it was probably a little over an
hour) I made it to Tana, one of the leaders that I had really connected with
over the week. She asked me how I was doing, I replied “pretty good” and she
kinda raised her eyebrows at me and said “really?” My reply was, “so really
there’s some stuff that I really don’t want to deal with right now”. She prayed
over me and I moved on to the next leader, Sydney. In the 50 feet between them,
God prepared my heart enough to confess to Syd what I was dealing with and that
I had no idea how to truly surrender it to Him. We talked for about 20 minutes
and then the dinner bell rang – it was already 6. So Syd and I met up after
dinner to finish our talk and were joined by Tana, =). God really had been
working in my heart to break me and then give me freedom. And it was freedom that I got! I hadn’t felt
my burdens being lifted like that in a long time. Though there were some
conversations at home that I needed to have before I could fully submit
everythi
ng to God, but I walked away from the night knowing things are different now. When I got home and spent the night with a few of my friends
from UT they saw the difference in me. And the conversations that I needed to
have weren’t as difficult as I had imagined, because God was bringing it up for
the other person as well! (Sydney is leading the fall Real Life trip to Swaziland and Tana will be with us Mexico but doesn’t know which small team, if any, she is going with yet.)
in search of ants and moved into the cabins, we went on what AIM calls a
surrender walk. Looks different for every team but for us we prayed over what
God needed us to give up to get closer to Him. We then wrote these on logs.
There were a few things that I knew God was bringing up in my mind but I really
didn’t want to deal with it. I finally wrote them on a dark portion of the log
so that I didn’t have to see it as we carried them through woods on our walk.
(really its ok if you laugh here) So we were sent out into the woods one by one
for the walk after we had been prayed over. W e weren’t supposed to pass any of
our teammates and there leaders along the way that we were to stop and pray
with. God must have known I needed a lot of time because I was the next to last
person that left the main building. The walk the first part of the woods I was
restless and honestly ignored what God was trying to get me to deal with. Then
after what seemed like an eternity (in truth it was probably a little over an
hour) I made it to Tana, one of the leaders that I had really connected with
over the week. She asked me how I was doing, I replied “pretty good” and she
kinda raised her eyebrows at me and said “really?” My reply was, “so really
there’s some stuff that I really don’t want to deal with right now”. She prayed
over me and I moved on to the next leader, Sydney. In the 50 feet between them,
God prepared my heart enough to confess to Syd what I was dealing with and that
I had no idea how to truly surrender it to Him. We talked for about 20 minutes
and then the dinner bell rang – it was already 6. So Syd and I met up after
dinner to finish our talk and were joined by Tana, =). God really had been
working in my heart to break me and then give me freedom. And it was freedom that I got! I hadn’t felt
my burdens being lifted like that in a long time. Though there were some
conversations at home that I needed to have before I could fully submit
everythi
ng to God, but I walked away from the night knowing things are different now. When I got home and spent the night with a few of my friendsfrom UT they saw the difference in me. And the conversations that I needed to
have weren’t as difficult as I had imagined, because God was bringing it up for
the other person as well! (Sydney is leading the fall Real Life trip to Swaziland and Tana will be with us Mexico but doesn’t know which small team, if any, she is going with yet.)
Sydney and me the morning I left.
The next morning and some of the
afternoon we had a question and answer time. So we know a little bit more about
what we’ll be doing. Although since most things we pray about and then act,
only the Lord really knows what we are doing for sure! We do know that we will
be doing at least 40 hrs of ministry weekly and probably more like 60 hrs. We
know we have 10 sick/vacation days (obviously they are pretty lenient about the
sick days if we need them to be…). Every 45-60 days we will have a 5 day
debrief with AIM staff. We also learned that there is a risk assessment company
that AIM works with and they study the political situation of each country that
we go to and they will get us out if necessary. A lot of this time was can we
find this certain item in the country or should we pack it with us? =)
First off let me preface this
part of the blog with no one was harmed in the events of this story, ok now
that we have that out of the way – We then had a time for us to spend as a
large team to have fun and put on our own commissioning service. Well being the
adventurous group that most of us are, we decided to go swimming and the closest
thing to cliff jumping we could get – bridge jumping. We did get permission and piled into the cars
that some of our closer team members had driven to training camp. Once we got to the river one of the boys surface
dived down and never hit bottom so we started swimming and jumping. Keep in
mind I don’t like heights so if something is more than about 8-10 feet high, I’m
not jumping off of it. This bridge over the Chatanooga river about 30 feet from the water. I
personally have seen many friends jump from about 45-50 feet so the possibility
of it being unsafe never really crossed my mind. We were there for about 20-30
minutes and about that time we hear from above us – “wh
at in the name of sam
hill do you think you’re doin’?!? Get your buts up out of that water right
now!!” Ruh-row…a Georgia cop had seen some of us jump from the bridge and
now we thought we all were gonna be arrested and Tag would have to come bail us
out. There was a no diving sign posted on the bridge and I realize its gray
area but diving and jumping aren’t the same thing to me.
Apparently that also meant you also shouldn’t jump from that bridge OR swim at that spot
either though. (What ever happened to a simple no swimming sign?) After
a good talkin’ to, assuring the cop that we were all over the age of 18 and
seeing some ID, he let us off with a warning. And in case you’re wondering, yes
we did tell Tag that night.
part of the blog with no one was harmed in the events of this story, ok now
that we have that out of the way – We then had a time for us to spend as a
large team to have fun and put on our own commissioning service. Well being the
adventurous group that most of us are, we decided to go swimming and the closest
thing to cliff jumping we could get – bridge jumping. We did get permission and piled into the cars
that some of our closer team members had driven to training camp. Once we got to the river one of the boys surface
dived down and never hit bottom so we started swimming and jumping. Keep in
mind I don’t like heights so if something is more than about 8-10 feet high, I’m
not jumping off of it. This bridge over the Chatanooga river about 30 feet from the water. I
personally have seen many friends jump from about 45-50 feet so the possibility
of it being unsafe never really crossed my mind. We were there for about 20-30
minutes and about that time we hear from above us – “wh
at in the name of samhill do you think you’re doin’?!? Get your buts up out of that water right
now!!” Ruh-row…a Georgia cop had seen some of us jump from the bridge and
now we thought we all were gonna be arrested and Tag would have to come bail us
out. There was a no diving sign posted on the bridge and I realize its gray
area but diving and jumping aren’t the same thing to me.
Apparently that also meant you also shouldn’t jump from that bridge OR swim at that spoteither though. (What ever happened to a simple no swimming sign?) After
a good talkin’ to, assuring the cop that we were all over the age of 18 and
seeing some ID, he let us off with a warning. And in case you’re wondering, yes
we did tell Tag that night.
We all headed back to camp and
had some sweet worship with our large team. Near the end we got together and
though some considered it cheesy, began to sing a child’s song together:
had some sweet worship with our large team. Near the end we got together and
though some considered it cheesy, began to sing a child’s song together:
He’s got the babies in Uganda in his hands (x3)
He’s the whole world in his hands
He’s got the orphans in Swazi in his hands (x3)
He’s the whole world in his hands
He’s got the peeps in Nicaragua in his hands (x3)
He’s the whole world in his hands
He’s got the street kids in South Africa in hands (x3)
He’s the whole world in his hands
Tuesday we left quite early for
the airport and having already bonded as a team we waited in the atrium
together until one by one or two by two we went through security to get to our
flights on time. Two of my teammates came to my gate with me to pray over me
before I got on the plane…that’s just the kind of family we already are! =)
Oh how it warms my heart to see the little girl I knew grow up in God’s love and continue to do his works. I am so proud of you for accepting His calling to go to Africa as His hands and feet. I will continue to pray for you. My prayer will be that God opens your eyes to those that are around you that need his help and allow you to “be not afraid” to step into a situation and do what needs to be done. I pray that God will continue to bless you and keep you and your team safe.
Grace and Peace,
David