Hey guys,
So, as of today, I have officially completed training camp at World Race and am now currently in Thailand. Before I share about my time in Thailand (which I will do in a later post), I want to give a recap of my first 2 weeks at World Race at training camp, starting with how things were formatted, what I did at World Race, and what were my big takeaways/ lessons learned.
For training camp, I was in Gainsville, Georgia, which is the headquarters of the mission organization Adventures in Missions, which World Race is a part of. During this training, I was introduced to the immersive experience of living in community. During my time there, there was about 60 of us, who were all being trained to be sent to various places. One thing to note about this training is that it was for 4 different squads, going to different locations for different lengths of time. A “squad” in World Race is a word used for a group of people signing up for a particular trip. For my trip, which is called World Race Expedition, there was 16 people who signed up, and we were given the title S Squad. My trip will be about 10 months of me going to Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. While as a squad the 16 of us will be going to these countries together, we will typically be split into 3 teams of 5-7 people, to work in 3 different locations while in each of the countries.
With that background given, now as to what I did at training/ what a typical day looked like. So my entire time at training camp, we all slept in a big open room inside on the ground, with a rolling divider separating the girls and guys. Each day, we woke up here and had to pack up our stuff from this space to be placed in a smaller room, as this big space was used as part of the training locations. After waking up, we had devotions followed by breakfast. After this, each day varied but generally consisted of teachings, scenarios, worship, and team building activities. Teachings started more basic/ for personal growth such as learning about God’s character, how to know God, how to deal with past hurt/ unforgiveness, gender talk, and other such stuff. Later teachings included learning to relate to different cultural contexts, how to share the gospel, and how to hear God’s voice/ be led by the Holy Spirit. Scenarios were very interesting and included staff members acting out and creating a scenario where you have to respond and then afterwards talk it out in group discussion. For example, scenarios included going to the airport, going to the marketplace to buy food, or going to a house visit. It was helpful so that when we are out in the field and experience these things we can know how to react and learn from mistakes during our training. Team building activities were good as they split us in various teams with different people from our squad to do a random activity and see how we interacted/ reacted to it. After we would talk about what happened, what we liked, and how to improve. After a day of these various things, we would then have to set up our sleeping areas again.
Now to what my big takeaways/ lessons learned were. As the title suggests, during training camp I have been learning to let things go. God convicted me of how I have to depend on Him for everything and how broken I am by myself. I thought that giving up the next 10 months of my life for Christian missions was enough, but I have been learning that I need to literally surrender all including my body and mind. I don’t need to worry/ focus about being sleep deprived, hungry, sick, or anxious. I just need to be fully dependent on Him. Another hard lesson I’ve been realizing is how I need to fully put my identity and worth in Christ. While I’ve always tried and thought I was doing this, I’ve realized a lot of my identity has really been in what I do/ did and on what title I had. Having given up my job and various church ministry stuff and having been put in a completely different situation, I have been challenged with feeling out of place/ not needed. There were many random things/ skills during this training camp that I thought I would be good at/ didn’t realize that I would need that I didn’t feel equipped to do. Missions requires a lot of flexibility, quick thinking/ spontaneity, and random skills/ abilities. This has definitely humbled me and made me realize that each part of the body is important and that there are different times and seasons for roles and such. In this season my role is to be a servant to whatever the need is.
All in all, my training camp experience was good but has been physically and mentally hard. I am thankful for the experience and will continue to try to walk out dependence on God and rooting my identity in Him. I need to daily fill myself up with God so that when challenges and difficulty comes, I can overflow with God’s love rather than my natural flesh. This is what I learned and needed in training to be most effective in the field. Moving forward, I will be spending the next 2 months in Thailand and will hope to continue growing and being used as a servant to bring forth God’s kingdom. I would appreciate prayers for fruit in ministry, team unity, team health, and for my body/ sleep to be fully restored.
Thank you for sharing John! We are so excited for you. I’ll be sharing this with the Church. We are praying for you man. God’s going to do wonderful things through you and your team. Can’t wait to hear the next exciting report. God bless you and thank you for your surrender and sacrifice.
Thanks for the encouragement and prayers. Glad you will be able to share with the church as I would love for them to hear my update as well. Yeah, excited to share my next update as well. From the last few days I have been in Thailand, there is much to say and many opportunities ahead during our time in Thailand.
John,
Remember let go n let God is like a nestea plunge…all or nothing! Dear Jesus fill John with your love, peace and wisdom. Cover him with Ur veil of protection and ensure him Ur love for him is unmatched. Give him the power to allow U to be in charge at all times, to fill him with all the right words to say and learn to use his overflow to benefit others! In the name of Jesus I pray!🙏
I receive that prayer. So true that it is all or nothing. Thanks Scott!
Was great to read this recap, John. Been remebering you in prayer, and it is good to know some different points to continue in prayer for. Blessings now to you & Team while in Thailand!
– Maaike C.
Thank you so much Maaike! I always appreciate prayers and your continued support for me over the years. Glad some of the prayer points are helpful and yes will have another update for Thailand probably in the next few weeks or so.
Praise the Lord for these valuable lessons He is already teaching you John! So excited for all that you will do for Him and all that He will do in you.
Thanks John. Yeah, hard uncomfortable lessons to learn but necessary and helpful in the long run. Yes excited for daily being able to be used for God!
John, I love that you are allowing God to dig deep into what your identity has been rooted in, and am excited for you in this journey of growing, serving and knowing God in new ways! So glad you are on our squad!!
Thanks Kris. Yeah you actually were the one that brought up the question helping me realizing part of my struggles were wrong identity. If you remember when you kept asking me why during that one team time in training camp, I thought more about it and I realized after some time that some of my problems were rooted in wrong identity. Thanks for your help/ role in the process of this! Thankful to have you as a coach and thankful to be on the squad as well!
Thank you for sharing your experience! We are praying for you and thinking of you!
Thanks so much! Prayers and knowing people are thinking of me makes me feel so loved and appreciated. ☺️
Hi John. Greetings from South Africa! It’s great to hear from you and to learn what God is teaching you at this time. What a faith adventure! (Uncle) Jim and I are praying for you. Thanks for the updates. Blessings, (Aunty) Jen 🙂
So good to hear from you! Thanks so much for reading my newsletters and the comment. Appreciate your prayers and God willingly one day maybe I will join you guys again in South Africa. Hope all is well on your end and enjoy reading your newsletters as well. Blessings.
John, I’m so glad to see the update. I’m so proud of you for stepping out into your calling no matter the cost. Hearing you take Aways is a great reminder to us all. Thanks for sharing.
Praying for your journey and looking forward to hearing how God uses you in this season to touch others fir Him.
Thank you for being His hands a feet around the globe.
Hugs and smiles,
Lee Ann – ALCC
Hey Lee Ann. Thanks for the encouragement. Yeah my take aways are a good reminder to me as well when I forget to default back to. Thanks for the prayers. Hope all is well on your end as well.
John – Thank you for sharing your experiences so far and your training! I’m excited for you and am looking forward to learning more about what God will do with you in the months to come.
Yes…I pray that you may continue to “decrease” more and more each day so He may “increase” in you as well, moving through you and using you in a powerful and influencial way that will greatly impact the many different nations you go to serve. May the Lord continue to bless you, provide your needs, protect you from sickness and harm, and empower you to do great things that will release the Kingdom of Heaven to the many people you encounter, for His Glory and Praise! In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Thank you Brian. I receive that prayer and am excited as well to see how God may use me this next year!
Hi John!!
From the moment I met you at the fair in Hackettstown, I felt how loving, kind and full of the Holy Spirit you are. You shared with me your dreams of going on missions and spreading the gospel! I am so proud of you for responding to God’s call! I’m excited to hear your testimonies and stories!
I pray in Jesus name that he provides you with rest and strength to get through every day. I pray for peace over your mind and healing in your body. I pray that every seed you sow be watered by our Father and fruit to grow abundantly. I pray for unity in your team and I pray that you all are protected and in perfect health. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen 🙏
With Love,
Nickole Lovell-ALCC
Hey Nickole. So good to hear from you. Yes thankful for our time together at the fairs and am thankful I am finally living out the mission work now that I shared with you in the past. And thank you for the prayers!
Hey John! Great update! One of my months with WR I served in Thailand as well—I remember it being VERY hot this time of year. Amazing to hear how the Lord is bringing renewal & vision in your life already! No doubt you’ll get to give that out to others as you travel! Enjoy it all : ) Hope you can get some good rest on a Sabbath or during a debrief! It’s a long year, & if you ever need to stay back a morning or a day or so from ministry to recover—it can make you more effective in the long run & no one would look down on you for it. Everyone cares for you! Prayers sent your way!
Hey Kaitlynn. Thanks for the message. I wonder if we were in the same place in Thailand? Regardless you are right in that it is almost always hot outside. And yes Sabbath is so important and learning to enjoy it and be intentional to rest is something I’m learning. I also agree in that I need to know where I’m at throughout the week to rest as it is a bit of a marathon and not a sprint. Anyway thanks for the advice as always. I feel like I’m finally getting a routine and feel for things at least in country 1 for the moment.