Hello again! These past few weeks have been such a joy. I cannot express how blessed I am to have such a loving and caring christian community here. I’ve made lots of new friends and am making so many amazing memories! If you haven’t read my last blog, I described what life is like here at training camp. I would recommend reading that to get an idea of my environment! After covering the logistics, I will be going into how I’ve seen God work here in Gainesville.
1. Living in Nature
It’s actually so crazy to say that I’ve been living outside for almost 3 weeks. But I absolutely love it! It definitely brings some challenges… like spiders in my tent…but I am so blessed for this experience! It honestly feels like home here already. I feel God’s presence the most in nature and worship, so this is perfect for me. I love to chat with friends and play my ukulele while laying in my hammock, it is so refreshing. Taking naps on the grassy hill while it’s sunny- especially after late nights or long sessions- is so nice too. Being in nature brings so much peace to my soul. I love to sit and appreciate God’s beautiful creation!
Recently, we took a hike up a mountain as a squad! As we were sitting on the mountain top, we were all just so amazed about the beauty that we were seeing. Mountains were all around us, the sun was setting, and there was a beautiful mist in the valley. I loved seeing God’s creation in a new light. We slept on the mountain as well, and praise God that it didn’t storm on us! (More on this in an upcoming post!)
2. Evangelizing in Gainesville
During week 2, my squad got the opportunity to go out into town and evangelize to people in the area. Overall, it was such a great learning opportunity and was glad to have an idea of what evangelism looked like before us racers did it on our own. My group ended up chatting with a nice elderly lady. She actually knew Christ already but had- and was still- going through some rough patches. Throughout her life, she had battled abuse, been addicted to alcohol and drugs, battled cancer and other health problems, and was currently homeless. She was confused why God had kept her on the earth after all the things she has experienced, especially health wise. Hearing her story was absolutely heartbreaking. But what was powerful was how she used her testimony to minister to her peers. Sharing her story allowed her to lift up other people and to show them that they aren’t alone and that God still has a plan and a purpose for them. She used the phrase “But God” quite a bit during our conversation. Such a wonderful reminder of his constant love for us!
3. Revival Night
Every week, we have something called “revival night” which is a couple hours of worship and messages. Basically, extra devoted worship to spend more time with the Lord! The first revival night was hard hitting for me, but not at first. I was loving the worship but wasn’t feeling super connected. However, later in the evening we did an activity where we wrote down what we were feeling convicted of and repent over it. I asked God to reveal those things in my life and I felt his presence more than ever before. I had a very overwhelming sense of conviction as he revealed a lot of baggage that I was carrying with me without even realizing it. That night, I laid down comparison, idolizing the opinions of others, forming my identity around others, and lots of other things as well. It was very emotional but I am so glad the Lord revealed those things from my life.
Later on that night, a gal came over to me while I was worshipping, put her hand on my shoulder, and shared a verse that she felt the Lord had laid on her heart to speak over me. It was Psalm 139:13-17. That was exactly what I needed to hear and was a beautiful reminder. I really felt the presence of the Holy Spirit that night and I feel more equipped to recognize his company throughout everyday.
4. New Identity in Christ
If you’ve been following along with my other blog posts or anything on instagram, you are most definitely seeing all the fun that I have been having! It has truly been such a blast! On the other hand, I want to be transparent as well. Even within these past 2ish weeks, I’ve been going through a little bit of an “ahhhh!” moment to say the least. The Lord has been revealing things about me over and over again and I have been feeling broken, torn apart, and asking myself, “Who even am I?”. But I truly believe that is God at work. I’ve been clinging to a lot of lies and tend to engage in self destructive thoughts. I usually think that I can handle everything on my own which tends to bottling up my emotions until I cannot handle them anymore. I’ve seen all of this happen while I’ve been in Georgia, but I now have such a better perspective and know that with God, I can tackle those lies and destructive patterns. I am in a “remodeling” phase in my identity and my walk with Jesus and I am so excited to strengthen my faith and grow my God-confidence rather than my self-confidence!
I was able to share what I was going through recently with my teammates (about 40 racers make a squad, but teams of 5-7 are divided amongst all of us) and it was very helpful. I really appreciate the vulnerability of my other teammates which helps me gain the strength to ask for help. We love to lighten each other’s load and help carry hard things. I already feel much better after our conversation. So blessed to walk with such beautiful women of God!
On a similar note, I got baptized here as well! I am excited to share more about my testimony before the race in coming blog posts to stay tuned!
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my blog! Thanks for taking interest and walking along this journey with me! Please continue to pray for me as well as my other squad mates as well.
Take care,
Ellie
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