Holy cow. I was anticipating my spiritual growth to start right as we began serving in a local community in Georgia or once we go overseas, but from day one my life has been changed.

The first few hours after introductions, I knew that we had a special group of not only men and women racers, but also from our leaders, mentors, and coaches. I am 7 days into meeting this team of around 40 and I can already say that some of these individuals will be in my wedding someday.

But this training camp hasn't come without its challenges. After worship and our session the first night I was thrown off. I had never seen a pastor preach in a way that he did and was torn between my own understanding and the Lord's understanding. I was questioning whether this place was a cult and if I truly belonged. Boy was I acting silly. After praying that night and the following morning, I realized that singing, sermons, devotions, and prayers all look different even just down the road in a new church. Just because I hadn't experienced praising the Lord like this, doesn't mean its worse or better, it is just different. I came into the next morning with such an open mind and slowly fell in love with the mission that they have here in Gainesville and what they promote across the world. They promote Jesus.

Once I put down my pride and ego on the second day, I knew that this would change me from the inside out.

Training camp here is Gainesville is supposed to prepare us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for the trek across the world and it has been doing so. I have slept in a tent the last 7 nights and it has been hot and sticky with bugs flying everywhere. We have designated shower times, which are every other day. Otherwise we can take a bucket shower and do bucket laundry. I imagine this is what life looked like as our country was being formed. It is a real testament to my character to not look or feel my best, but praise and worship the Lord in the same way that I would if I had felt and looked my best.

That is just part of the physical aspect. I thought I had a rock solid foundation for my faith coming into this trip, but have been wrecked after lots of messages and have been so emotional for others and how they are processing them as well. If I ended up leaving the trip today, I could safely say that this environment has changed my perspective and attitude toward life and my Lord. Lucky I am not.

Along with the many times that we have sang for hours and listened to words from our Lord, we have done various forms of team building activities along with simulations or scenarios that could and would happen overseas. These scenarios have been where I learned the most about other cultures without even going there. We did a marketplace scenario outside and it was awesome. Lots of the leaders dressed up in clothes and acted as drug dealers, homeless, sick people, and vendors. I honestly had no clue what was happening most of the time and should have taken this activity a little more serious because once we went to the debriefing after, lots of people had amazing stories. Entering the scenario I thought our goal was to buy food and leave, but lots got to share about how they spread the gospel to the people in the street and prayed over them. I felt called out. So I started to take the trainings and scenarios a lot more like I was actually in the country.

Yesterday we split up into 4 different groups and had different lessons. There was one on "Ask the Lord," another on "childrens ministry" and "how to write a sermon," but I chose to go to the "home visits" one. I have never gone up to a house and evangelized like we did in this situation and especially haven't done that overseas. I am an extrovert but I am not the type of guy to hold up a Jesus sign in the streets and shout out to repent because that is not a spiritual gift that the Lord has given me. I am more of the guy to foster and build a relationship with an individual first and then subtly go from asking more surface level questions to questions that may get them thinking about their beliefs and purpose.

In the scenario yesterday I was in a group with 3 other guys (shout out my guys Zion, Woods, and Marcus), and we had the task of going up to their home and interacting with them like we would for a real home visit. We had around 10 minutes to prep and tried to cover the bases of introductions and talking to them about faith. For this scenario I took it way too serious. Since a few days prior I didn't take the marketplace scenario seriously, I ended up trying too hard in this scenario. I felt like I was pushing scripture and asked them deep questions before I even got to know them personally and their stories. Marcus was very intentional in the beginning and asked them a few questions about themselves. Woods was his charismatic self and was very personable. Zion gave a really good real world example of explaining faith by only deeds without faith using a mountain as the analogy and how we need to show our faith by our deeds. I pulled a few pieces of scripture and explained how we choose to live like Christ and spread his name not to gain his love and favor but because of his unconditonal love for us. If he extends us his mercy and grace, why shouldn't I try my best to live like he did and bring glory to him? He should be edified and glorified. So we definitely had our own wins in this scenario but after debriefing about it I understand that I need to fall somewhere in between how I acted on each of these two scenarios that I mentioned.

Woods made a good point and said that if we are talking with families for hours and the name of Jesus is not even mentioned, then that is okay, because the Spirit is working through them. Sometimes people just want to talk. Some people have never had someone to sit down and listen to them before or had someone pray for them, so that is my mission. Only speak what the Spirit is leading me to say and the seed will be planted in their hearts.

We had the opportunity to hike Mount Yonah yesterday and it showed me how God's creation can be so beautiful. Just resting in His presence and seeing the sunset with everybody was scenic and calming.

I could write for hours on this post but I will update this regularly to hopefully break down the stories that are created in the hearts of myself, my team, and the locals.

Each day that passes I become more grateful and thankful for all the people that have supported me from donations to prayer, and all those that I will meet on this journey who will offer their hand as well. I can see how the Lord has worked through this organization and the people who have gone on a race and have come back to volunteer, squad lead, mentor, coach, or hold a job in the office. They are truly so influential in my heart and I can safely assume in the hearts of many others.

We have a few more days before our local ministry in Georgia, then our debrief at home base, and we believe I fly to Jamaica on the 17th of September.

Wisdom of the day (Shoutout my girlfriend Maddie for this): "Failure is not the opposite of success, it is the prerequisite."

In my own life I have lived so many experiences where I have failed and thought I wasn't good enough and that I had to prove myself by hard work and just doing doing doing. But if God truly has a plan for me and all of you, then we will go through trails, temptations, and tribulations. He will use my mistakes for good. I fall short of his glory everyday, but that is why I choose pick up my cross daily. Just because you stumble doesn't mean you should let that sin or transgression define you. The only label that we have on us is "Child of God." It has been written on my heart. It is a choice and a free gift. What will you choose to do?

Toda la gloria sea para Dios. Amen.