The amount of work God did June 8-16th is overwhelming. I'm honestly having trouble trying to keep it all straight and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to blog about it all. So, I think that I may have a plan of attack. First, I'm going to give you the details of Training Camp (which will be pretty similar to the details that I shared in my June Update), the details of Golgotha, and then the following posts will be me talking through it. So, without further ado, the details:
As part of my being on leadership this summer, Jodi wanted me to come up to Xenia for the Training Camp that was being held for two other Track and Field teams being sent out this summer (Team Zimbabwe and Team USA East [OH, MI, and NYC]), as well as for a Volleyball team going to Brazil. I would be able to experience what AIA really focuses on and see what most teams do before they leave for a project. The first day was spent checking athletes in, going through paperwork, and getting things ready for the week. The next five days were pretty much the same thing - breakfast, quiet time, Spiritual Principle, a lab where we learned how to apply the principle during competition, lunch, workshop, practice, dinner, team time, bed. On occasion, we wouldn't have practice, so we would be able to hang out and get to know one another, but for the most part, friendships were made on the court during labs or over meals.
Then came the SPECIAL on the last two days. For those of y'all who don't know what that is, it is an acronym for "Spiritual principles Plus Exhaustion equals Confidence In the Almighty Lord". What that means is a nineteen hour competition with maybe two or three hours of sleep (so, a nap, really) in between the end of day one and the beginning of day two. The SPECIAL is meant to break an athlete down physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, hopefully having them fully trust in God to get through it. Each SPECIAL is different, depending on location and team. Volleyball didn't join us for the SPECIAL, so ours was very track-focused. The first of eight (or maybe nine, I'm not sure) events started at 5pm on Tuesday with a full decathlon (pole vault was replaced with a relay), followed by angle ball, relay races on the track/football field, a top-level CrossFit workout, nap from 2am-5am Wednesday morning, campus run with the "Ark of the Covenant" and a pencil/paper test to complete at stations, Ultimate Frisbee, tug of war, kickball, and one final relay where you couldn't crack the whip.
My team, Team Phoenix, did pretty well. We decided on Phoenix as our team name because out of the ashes of an old life that has burnt away, a new life rises. Our verse to go with our theme of a fire burning away the old and a new rising up was Hebrews 12:29 - but our God is a consuming fire. The staff members kept the score, but in the end, it didn't matter. I know my team wouldn't have won the overall SPECIAL, but the events that we did win, we won convincingly. The CrossFit workout was by far the hardest one to do, physically, but for some reason, our team showed up. I was so proud of my team for digging deep, relying on Him, and never once quitting. It was by God's power that we did as well as we did.
Then, the icing on the cake - Golgotha Hill. We drove out to a state park and found a dam with some long, green, wet grass on one side. We each took a two-by-four with us down to the bottom and then had to jog/walk back up the side of the dam with the two-by-four across our back/shoulders, as Christ would have carried the cross up His Golgotha. This was a very long, very steep hill that would have proved challenging for someone coming out for a tough workout, but this was our last event of a very trying 19 hours. We were all completely broken down, but we all gladly stepped forward to experience it. This was the point where we would be able to see if God had started transforming our hearts - would we be able to worship God in the midst of pain, exhaustion, and one very steep hill? Had the principles that we had learned that week penetrated?
As part of my being on leadership this summer, Jodi wanted me to come up to Xenia for the Training Camp that was being held for two other Track and Field teams being sent out this summer (Team Zimbabwe and Team USA East [OH, MI, and NYC]), as well as for a Volleyball team going to Brazil. I would be able to experience what AIA really focuses on and see what most teams do before they leave for a project. The first day was spent checking athletes in, going through paperwork, and getting things ready for the week. The next five days were pretty much the same thing - breakfast, quiet time, Spiritual Principle, a lab where we learned how to apply the principle during competition, lunch, workshop, practice, dinner, team time, bed. On occasion, we wouldn't have practice, so we would be able to hang out and get to know one another, but for the most part, friendships were made on the court during labs or over meals.
Then came the SPECIAL on the last two days. For those of y'all who don't know what that is, it is an acronym for "Spiritual principles Plus Exhaustion equals Confidence In the Almighty Lord". What that means is a nineteen hour competition with maybe two or three hours of sleep (so, a nap, really) in between the end of day one and the beginning of day two. The SPECIAL is meant to break an athlete down physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, hopefully having them fully trust in God to get through it. Each SPECIAL is different, depending on location and team. Volleyball didn't join us for the SPECIAL, so ours was very track-focused. The first of eight (or maybe nine, I'm not sure) events started at 5pm on Tuesday with a full decathlon (pole vault was replaced with a relay), followed by angle ball, relay races on the track/football field, a top-level CrossFit workout, nap from 2am-5am Wednesday morning, campus run with the "Ark of the Covenant" and a pencil/paper test to complete at stations, Ultimate Frisbee, tug of war, kickball, and one final relay where you couldn't crack the whip.
My team, Team Phoenix, did pretty well. We decided on Phoenix as our team name because out of the ashes of an old life that has burnt away, a new life rises. Our verse to go with our theme of a fire burning away the old and a new rising up was Hebrews 12:29 - but our God is a consuming fire. The staff members kept the score, but in the end, it didn't matter. I know my team wouldn't have won the overall SPECIAL, but the events that we did win, we won convincingly. The CrossFit workout was by far the hardest one to do, physically, but for some reason, our team showed up. I was so proud of my team for digging deep, relying on Him, and never once quitting. It was by God's power that we did as well as we did.
Then, the icing on the cake - Golgotha Hill. We drove out to a state park and found a dam with some long, green, wet grass on one side. We each took a two-by-four with us down to the bottom and then had to jog/walk back up the side of the dam with the two-by-four across our back/shoulders, as Christ would have carried the cross up His Golgotha. This was a very long, very steep hill that would have proved challenging for someone coming out for a tough workout, but this was our last event of a very trying 19 hours. We were all completely broken down, but we all gladly stepped forward to experience it. This was the point where we would be able to see if God had started transforming our hearts - would we be able to worship God in the midst of pain, exhaustion, and one very steep hill? Had the principles that we had learned that week penetrated?
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