I’ve officially been at training in Gainesville, Georgia for one week!! And the biggest thing I want to say is that God has answered all of my prayers that I had going into this trip. I had fear of having anxiety, and have had none. I was worried about getting to know my squad, and they already feel like my family. I was scared I wouldn’t make good friends, but have already made several new best friends within the first few days. I was nervous I would get homesick, but have not felt that at all. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find time to rest, then was blessed with a Sabbath yesterday.

That’s not to say that there hasn’t been anything hard or challenging about training camp, there has. Getting to know 40 new people on a deeper level is hard, constantly learning new things and information can be overwhelming, not clicking easily with some of my team can be hard, living out of a backpack, sleeping in a tent in 90 degrees and humidity, and only having porta potty’s and bucket showers is uncomfortable. But somehow those things have been the least of my concern. I’ve gotten to hear so many of my new friends amazing testimony’s. I’ve gotten to be challenged in my faith in ways that I never have been before. I’ve had deep conversations with people that I met only a week ago. I’ve learned an incredible amount of new things about the Lord, mission work, and more. I already feel like I’ve been given a whole family here.

There’s close to no worry in my heart, which is such a gift from God because going into something as big and new as this was so scary. But I feel so content here with these people and I’m already so thankful for them. I can’t even believe I’ve only known them for a week because it feels like I have forever. And that’s one of the biggest blessings the Lord could have given me because it was one of my biggest worries. I feel like something He has been teaching me is that there’s more to Him than I can ever fully know in this life. Like I said, I’ve been challenged in my faith in ways I haven’t been before. My own squad has already challenged me so much. They are all women of God that give such Godly advice, wisdom, and truth. And men of God that protect us and lead us in our own faith. They make me want to know and learn about God more and more. I’ve never been so inspired by a group of people and have learned so much from them.

I’ll be here in Gainesville doing training for a couple more days. Training is pretty much lots of worship and teachings. Some of the big teachings have been about the Holy Spirit, “what is truth?”, the importance of feedback, God being a missionary God, loving our squad, and lots more. They’ve been so good and super helpful. After training we drive a few hours over to Adrian, Georgia for a week to build a base for Adventures in Missions. Then we’ll come back to Gainesville for a few day rest and debrief before we head out to Jamaica!!

Also, on August 22 I hit 100% fundraised!!! The Lord provided with that more than I could have ever asked and being fully funded before I left was not something I was expecting to happen. But He showed His faithfulness to me in that over and over again. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me reach that, it blessed me more than you can understand.

I would love prayer against the enemy trying to divide my squad and that we instead would become so unified and full of love for each other as we go to the nations. 14 days left in America!!

Love,

Ella