Hey all… India has been amazing and stretching for all of us!! This next week will be the first full week of ministry and life in India… We are looking forward to updating you on how things go. For the mean time here is a little deeper look at what training camp was like.

So I’ve now been in India for almost a week… wow. But before our team could travel on an incredibly massive engineering example of “lift over drag”, known to most as a Boeing 777 airplane, this awesome trip began in the beautiful city of Gainesville, GA. 

World renowned for its chicken farming, Gainesville is also the location of the SALT (Serving Together, Learning Abroad) training camp. Leading up to this week, I decided it was just a glorified Boy Scouts camp. Teaching those who had never experienced life without A/C and the like, how to cope without the common everyday luxuries of American life. Well, as a former member of BSA I figured I knew everything about “camping out”. Really, I could tie a square knot and knew how to make ramen noodles over a fire… “What more did I need to know?”

Well I found out quickly how wrong I was. Well the concept of “roughing it” was definitely there.  We slept on wooden floors, had no electronics, and took our showers using a garden hose… we even looked after two chickens all week.  (Yeah, real chickens. Check out the “Team India Losing to a Chicken” blog). But that by no means was the point of camp. This was an extremely important week of the trip, and of my spiritual life. The week was about getting to know your teammates as real brothers and sisters of God, so when you’re halfway across the world and you are the only Christians or English speakers in sight, you’re still alright.

So in order for my team to really become my brothers and sisters of God, there needed to be 2 key ingredients: teammates and God. Well don’t worry about God. He did His part… and so much better than I could have imagined. As for my teammates, well they did their part too. We all opened up and really became a group that truly loves each other… I couldn’t have asked for a better team, leaders included. It was incredibly moving how we opened up as a team and bonded together. I think even non-Christians can appreciate becoming so close with a group of people after just 6 days.

So the third important component of a solid team is, of course, a dance competition… you betcha! On day three we competed against the other 7 groups at the training camp. Well after a few rounds to eliminate groups going to Swaziland, Mozambique, Peru, and so on, it was team Thailand against team India. It was go time. Finals of the SALT Dance-Off 2008. For the sake of space I can only tell you that although my fearless leader and I did an incredible rendition of Will Ferrell ribbon gymnastics in “Old School” we lost to Thailand and their dancing Chicken. (Again, check out “Team India Losing to a Chicken”).

On a deeper level, I had two solid key moments at training camp. Both involved talking about tough stuff with my group. Just imagine knowing you had to tell a group of complete strangers some things that you hadn’t even told your friends. Being nervous and scared comes to mind… how about you? But due to our team all showing the same vulnerability, humility, and love, training camp was an incredible success!

So on Sunday afternoon we headed to the Atlanta airport. We got there a few hours before we needed to, but nobody had any real complaints. Airports have A/C, outlets, and fast food! Most of the group relaxed, called some family, played cards, and ate tons of Wendy’s to enjoy our last cheeseburger for 2 months. Delicious. Let me make sure I make this clear… unbelievably delicious. So now we’re in Delhi and getting settled into our home and places of service. I’ll tell you about this and have some pictures of the place next time. Thanks for reading guys… peace!