Surviving In The South: A Testimony From Ashley Eaton

I was really blessed to be on the Red Team at Survival GA this year.

Tuesday we really struggled at first with getting things done. It seemed like everyone wanted to be a leader and we argued a lot. Once we got to the rope challenge though we finally began to realize that we had to work together, be positive and encouraging. It was also there that Joseph, a guy who had been fairly quiet, gave some of his ideas. The ideas worked really well and from there we kind of knew that he was the person we should have for team captain. That afternoon we shot the guns. I’d have to say that the rifle was my favorite to shoot but I really liked the handgun and blow darts too. Well, that night we elected our captain and Joseph got the job (he was so the right person for the job) and from there it was pretty smooth sailing.

Wednesday the teams headed out into the woods for obstacle courses. We started off by getting lost and going in circles, twice.  On camouflage I got lost (fail) and then ran around trying to distract the spotters. Apparently, it worked pretty well. The bridge was pretty easy if not a bit scary. We had by this point pretty much gotten orienteering down flat and it took us no time at all. We had fun with the fielded stripping. It was complicated by the fact the we hadn’t learned how to do the AR-15. Clay was nice enough to stop the time and show us and then we did it in 6 minutes. The ball thing was easy and it only took us a few seconds. The spider web was super fun and we were the only team to get everyone through! Then we got free time and we played Ultimate.

 

Thursday we learned a lot of survival skills then in the afternoon we got to do the obstacle course. Our team started with the beam going over it more times than any other team (205). Then we went to the ball catch. This really put a strain on the team but we persevered and ended up with 2nd place in that. That one came as a shock. We had problems with the wall due to weight distribution and who should go up when but once that was figured out we got 10 people up in 3 minutes. The giants finger was fun and we got the tire up around 20 times. Logistics gave us some deep lessons to apply to our lives and was very straining physically (not! ). Still, Logistics was fun and will be a hilarious memory for me.

Friday we survived. I loved making the fishing pole and Andy made a sick Apache throwing star. Joe lit our fire in about 2 seconds. We spent a crazy amount of time on our shelter but it paid off really well. We had about 2 feet of pine straw on it but it was completely waterproof (baring 2 drops on Erin’s foot). The trap didn’t really work but it was pretty close. We played something like 20 on 20 Ultimate that afternoon. That was pretty fun and we watched the staffers climb the wall. They were awesome. That night was one of the best of my life. We remembered Jimmy as we worshiped and then had a great talk about witnessing.

Now the thing I have as of yet only briefly mentioned, the sessions and worship. These truly blessed me. Daniel brought us through Romans 12 during the week and I was fascinated by the points he made. The idea of there being 4 stages of team building was fairly new to me and I enjoyed getting to learn about them and then apply the things he taught us. I was blown away by how much truth there was to what he was saying. Also, even though TeenPact talks about it a lot, I’d never understood the concept of servant leadership. Through the sessions and team-building activities I learned so much about it and I can see now just how important it is. The talk he gave on spiritual gifts was probably my favorite. It was interesting to learn about and I took many pages of notes. I’ve always had trouble finding out my spiritual gift. I’d tried quizzes and surveys but Daniel’s session made it clear to me which gift I have. In our team girl small group we went around trying to classify everyone who wasn’t sure and that was a lot of fun. Then we talked about how we could apply our gifts to our team the next day.

 

The girls only sessions were also exciting. Ruth is a gifted teacher and as she talked God worked through her showing me what it means to be a girl and what my role is on a team. We also discussed pride. I found this particularly insightful. It made me see that when we are prideful we are not only thinking of ourselves as being better than others we are trying right take the glory that is rightfully God’s for ourselves. It showed me how dangerous pride really is too. The team small group talks were a ton of fun and I loved getting to talk over the days events with the girls.

In personal devos I read through, studied and memorized Col 1:9-11 and I learned a lot from that passage but the thing that particularly encouraged me was the part where Paul says that if we live according to God’s will that he will give us great endurance, patience and joy. I was also fascinated by the times where we drew spiritual analogies from our experiences during the daily debrief time. Once an analogy was made from counting rice (I really liked that one) I decided that literally anything can be made into an analogy to help us in our spiritual lives.

I also learned a lot during the activities. I saw how great an effect a single unkind word or opinion had. It literally took an instant for everyone to be less cheerful, helping and encouraging and until someone apologized or we decided to forget it things would stay that way. On the other side words of encouragement and compliments went so far towards making us a close knit team. We were happier, way more enthusiastic and really gave it our best. It’s amazing that something so small and simple affected us all so greatly. I’ve already been able to apply this idea in some of my school classes!

All of the staffers and parents were amazing. They were funny, always cheerful (even when we got frustrated) and they were so encouraging. They were great examples to us.

Sorry, I’ve been kind of long winded. To wrap things up, my first experience at Survival was amazing. It was funny, moving, terrifying, exhausting and challenging sometimes all at once. It was on of the best weeks of my life and it was so cool watching my group grow into an amazing team that really trusted each other. This alumni event has taught me so many lessons that I can bring into my everyday life. It challenged me, forcing me to grow. I will definitely be returning next year. Now I just have to pick a location…

~~Ashley Eaton~~