Training camp was nothing short of a special experience.

In the past, I’ve been given the opportunity to live in community with other believers, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything quite like this. For ten days, we gathered in Gainesville, Georgia, being poured into as we prepared to pour everything we have into serving the Lord in the field over the next eleven months. And somewhere in those ten days, twenty-five people who had started this journey as strangers began to become family.

There is something really beautiful about being surrounded by people who are all running after the Lord. People from different backgrounds, with different stories, personalities, and gifts, but with the same desire: that our lives would be pleasing to Him. We worshipped together. We learned together. We laughed a lot. We had hard conversations. We prayed for one another. We were challenged, encouraged, and stretched. And through all of it, the Lord kept showing me that this season isn’t just about what we’re going to do for Him. It’s about who we’re becoming in Him.

A word that has been following me into this season is encourager.

Coming into this year, I felt like the Lord had spoken that word pretty clearly over my life. He was inviting me into His heart for His people—to see others more like He sees them and to learn how to speak life over them. Training camp gave me so many chances to put that into practice. Sometimes encouragement looked like noticing that someone was having a hard time speaking up and creating space for them to do so.

Sometimes it looked like reminding someone of something they had already learned but hadn’t quite allowed to become true in their own heart yet. Sometimes it was simply speaking words of life over someone and reminding them of who they are.

I also had the opportunity to sit down and talk through this more deeply with one of our team’s coaches. She helped me understand some of the differences between words of knowledge, wisdom, and prophecy, and honestly, it helped untangle a lot of the mess I had created for myself in the past. I’m grateful for the chance to learn and grow in this.

I think one of the most exciting parts of this season is that the Lord has been so clearly highlighting the areas where I need to mature, and then, almost immediately, He’s been creating opportunities for me to actually do so. He’s not just pointing out the places that need work. He’s inviting me into the process of becoming.

When I was offered the role of Worship Coordinator, I think my initial response was mostly surprise. I genuinely hadn’t given the role much thought beforehand. I thought it was an interesting fit, but it wasn’t something I had specifically been expecting or pursuing. Still, I trust my leaders, so I said yes. Then I went to the Lord and asked Him, What does this actually mean? Why am I here? And how are You going to use this to grow me in this season? And in that invitation, He began bringing things back to the forefront of my mind. He showed me the skills He has developed in me throughout my life. He pointed back to the areas I already knew He was asking me to develop. And He brought to mind some of my favorite moments with Him, the moments where I get to pour out my oil at His feet. And suddenly, it made sense. Not only does this role make sense for me, but it turns out I’m actually incredibly equipped for it.

As the Worship Coordinator, my role is to help keep our team focused on our relationships with the Lord, to encourage them, and to create space for us to worship together. And worship is so much bigger than singing songs. It’s the way we serve. It’s the way we love people. It’s the way we respond when things don’t go according to plan. It’s choosing obedience. It’s surrender. It’s giving God our attention and our affection in the middle of whatever we’re doing. I don’t know exactly what this role will look like over the coming months (our roles, as well as our teams, are likely to change at some point), but I am really excited to see the special moments the Lord invites me into through it.

As you may already know, our squad of 25 has been split into smaller teams for our time in Kenya. My team is made up of Kira, our leader; Emily, our logistics coordinator; Trenton, our treasurer; Judah, one of our two squad storytellers; Ana, one of our squad leaders; and me, serving as our Worship Coordinator. Together, we’re headed to Butere, Kenya.

While we’re there, we’ll have opportunities to visit local schools and homes in surrounding villages, and we may even have the chance to participate in labor and farm work. We’re incredibly grateful that Butere is considered a relatively safe place for us to be serving. That safety gives us greater freedom to be bold in the ways we minister and love the people around us, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what that looks like. With a population of around 152,000 people, there are countless opportunities to love and serve the people of Butere. And that’s what I’m most excited about. Not necessarily the list of things we’re going to accomplish. Not the places we’ll visit. But the people we’ll meet. The conversations we’ll have. The homes we’ll enter. The stories we’ll hear. The chances we’ll have to show people the kindness of Jesus.

Training camp showed me that before we ever stepped foot into Kenya, the Lord was already preparing us; not just for ministry, but for relationship. He was building a family. He was teaching us how to serve one another. He was revealing the places where we needed to mature. He was teaching us how to worship beyond a song and how to encourage beyond a compliment.

And now, we’re finally here. The training is over. The packing is done.

The goodbyes have been said. And we’re stepping into the part of this journey we’ve been preparing for. Eleven months of saying yes. Eleven months of surrender. Eleven months of trusting that whatever the Lord asks of us, He is worthy of our yes.

And I can’t wait to see what He does with it.