Training camp just ended on the 25th of January, it was an insane three weeks. There were many highs and a good few lows but man, God was teaching us all a ton the whole time. The whole time our excitement was just compounding in expectation of how God was going to move. We are now in our first country, which is located in Central Asia.

What happened at training camp?

Training camp, like I said earlier, was three weeks long. I was with my squad of 16 people and we dove deep into many areas to prepare. Spiritually, mentally, and physically we were challenged. The whole three weeks were Holy Spirit-filled and worship-centered. It was incredible to see how close we got over a span of only three weeks. In the first week, we took an intensive class called “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement.” This is a class offered throughout the world and it truly does change your perspective on how you read the Bible, how you view missions, and how you see the unreached. It was incredible, and if any of y’all get the chance to take it I highly recommend it. It’s typically a 15-week class, so doing it in a week was a bit extreme for us.

The next two weeks of training camp we switched gears. Three more squads came to live at the base with us so the base got a lot more lively. We all stayed in one room, guys separated off by a partition. It’s safe to say it was a tight fit. All of us guys were literally sleeping pad to sleeping pad, with no room in between. It was like a game of human Tetris trying to find a spot to sleep each night. We had to restart each day as well, by 7:40 in the morning all our stuff had to be picked up and in our bags. Then that night we would set our beds up and do it all again. Our packing skills got pretty good pretty fast.

During these two weeks the teachings also changed. We had people coming in to give lectures on different parts of our faith and ministry. We had a bunch of different topics like the Kingdom of God, what is the Gospel to someone who’s never heard of Jesus, and risk management; among many more. This time we also got to deep dive into Islam together, we would all bring together our knowledge and work out different methods of ministry. One of the coolest parts of this section of training camp was the times of intercession. As a squad, we spent many hours interceding over our first country, which is in Central Asia. These times were really sweet. Our hearts got very attached to the prayers we were putting before God. It seemed like every time we prayed for our first country, our hearts broke for the people more and more.

All in all, training camp was crazy. But it was so good, it was a time of deep growth and bonding for my squad. It was a time when God was moving quite a ton. I’m very glad we got to get ready the way we did. I will post again soon with more specifics on what we’re doing here in Central Asia. I wish I was able to post more but life has been incredibly busy. And I’ve been battling sickness for a while now so when I’m not active I’m probably resting. At this point, I’m feeling a lot better so I should be able to share more blogs more often!

Prayer Requests:

• Health, we have had a ton of sickness going through our entire squad. It’s been taxing our ability to do ministry.
• Wisdom and discernment in sharing the Gospel. How much of it to share, when to share, etc.
• To grow in relationship with the students we are helping with now in Central Asia.
• That God would soften the hearts of the people we are meeting.