Hey again, my name is Sophia, I’m eighteen, and this is my first time away from home for longer than a few hours.
I am SO STOKED to tell all of you that I made it to Georgia for training camp!! I am already loving everything about being here. I’ve made amazing friends and gone on the worst hike of my life, as well as learned how to fend off spiders and how to take a shower using only a five-gallon bucket.
I’m thriving here, guys.
My days are also really busy all the time, so that’s why the blogging schedule has been a little off. I’m going to try and keep up the bi-weekly thing still.
But the most interesting thing about this so far has been the fact that I made it here to training camp in the first place! As many of you may or may not know, I struggled a lot with the fact that I didn’t have enough money raised to be here. I needed ~$7500 and only had raised ~$2000 and so had actually been transferred to a Gap Year trip happening in January.
But the Lord is good and keeps his promises, and the literal day before I needed to be there, I got a donation of $4500 and had enough money to go! It was from anonymous, though- so if that was you, thank you so much!!
However, in lieu of knowing who it was that donated all that money to me, I am choosing to believe that God sat down on his computer and charged it all to his credit card.
So, I talked with my advisor and she talked to some people who talked to some other people and they all said, “Yes, you can come!!”
After that, I literally hopped on a plane and flew over fast as I could. Living in Georgia has been more of a climate shock than anything- in Colorado I’m used to hot and dry weather. Here, it’s humid and hot.
Not fun!
But other than sweating buckets, everything I’ve been doing so far has been a blast. My team, a group of seven girls who will be doing ministry with me, have all been welcoming and we’ve all made fast friends.
On campus, we learn about the Lord and how to live with each other. Here we are in constant community- there is always someone with you no matter where you go unless you make a point of saying you want to be alone!
Of course, within constant community, there will be annoyances and frustrations just like any family or group of friends. We’re currently being taught how to deal with that and how to tell each other about what’s bothering us without starting a brawl on the dining patio.
For ‘home’, we live in tents out in the middle of the forest. The spiders like to come out at night so a lot of us girls have had to learn how to get rid of them without a shoe or a fearless father around to do it for us. Most of them are daddy longlegs, and those actually eat the mosquitoes that are everywhere so we like to leave them alone.
During the day, we eat, shower, do laundry, spend time with each other, and spend time in the word and learning about God. Each day looks different for every squad that’s here, and we have a weekly schedule we’ve just ironed all the wrinkles out of.
(Squads are the people who are on the Gap Year trip, but are going to different places than I am.)
There are COVID restrictions here, but these days you can’t go anywhere without having those, and everyone is used to it anyway. For instance, you have to go everywhere with a mask on unless you’re in your squad’s designated ‘hanging out’ points or doing extensive amounts of exercise.
Which brings me to the point of going on the worst hike of my life.
Imagine the worst workout you’ve ever done and add ‘carrying 45 pounds up an almost-vertical hill twice’ to that. Now, everyone’s experience of the worst workout of their life is different, but this was pretty terrible and I never want to do it again.
Unfortunately, I have to, because on top of carrying 45-ish pounds on your back for 2.2 miles, you also have to do it in 38 minutes.
I didn’t make the time, so I have to do it again.
Now, I’ve never asked for prayer about many things on this blog other than general support prayers and also for fundraising- but when I ask for prayer to finish this hike a second time within the time limit, please know I am dead serious and I need prayer to finish this.
It’s horrible.
What isn’t horrible is actually the bucket showering. The water is cold here, so on a hot day you get to dunk a bucket of water on your head and it’s very refreshing. You can only use a measuring cup to pour it on yourself and get everything clean, and it’s actually a little hard to get everything out of your hair so I’ve stopped using conditioner because I can never get it all out.
Laundry is a lot the same except it’s your clothes that go into the bucket. And then you scrub and hang them on a laundry line. It’s really relaxing and actually eco-friendly, and when you do it with your whole team at once it’s a nice time to spend together and talk. We have like four hours to do it in as well so we can really take our time.
I keep in contact with my family, because that’s important. But a lot of people have been asking if I miss my family, and the answer probably is no. I would love to see them again, and I still love them dearly, but I don’t miss them. I have good enough relationships with everyone that I’m fine with not living with them anymore.
I really enjoy being here. I love the community the most, I think, and that was the thing I didn’t expect to love as much as I do. I’ve kind of always had a hard time making relationships with people but I’ve made an effort to open up and they’ve done the same. We’re all in the same boat here so it’s easier to get along.
The staff here are wonderful. I have a team leader named Regan and she’s amazing; I have a squad leader called Mackenzie but she only likes the Kenz part of her name so we call her Kenz. The boys have Austin and Aaron who are both super cool people and the other half of my squad (the other 14 people) have Sam, Leanna, and Mily as their team leaders and squad leader respectively.
And onto my last point of the day but it is no less important- my next fundraising deadline is October 15 for $10,000. I currently have $7,679 by the grace of God and I’m asking you all to donate again if you can!
Next week I’m going to write out another blog probably Monday or Tuesday night. That one will talk about what a day in the life is here and I’ll show you my weekly schedule as well as update you with whatever new is happening spiritually. I think the Lord is giving me a break from mind-blowing spiritual awakenings for the moment just to get adjusted to the new atmosphere of being in Georgia, so whenever those resume I’ll be sure to tell you all about it.
Until next time,
Sophia
