Hi my name is Laura Marchand! I’m 18 years old and I’m from Virginia. I recently got back from a passport trip to Ecuador where God did some absolutely amazing things! On that trip God really put it on my heart to go back to two countries He wrecked my heart for, Nepal and India. I followed that call and decided to sign up for the Spring trip! And at 3:30 AM my team and I will be leaving to start this amazing journey to India and Nepal!
I left Virginia on the 21st and over these past couple days I have been at training camp in Georgia. During training camp we get to worship, hear from some amazing speakers and meet our teams. Let me just say that my team is AWESOME! We are all so diverse but we are already a family and have so much love for each other. We have been able to be open with each other and fully embrace vulnerability with one another, about our pasts, about our expectations, and our fears, it’s been incredible to be a part of. I couldn’t be more excited to be living and working along side them for the next three months.
This time around training camp has been so different! Not in a bad way but still different. The layout and the sessions are so familiar, I know how things work and what’s going to come next. But this training camp is very different because God has spoken to me in distinctly different ways. With the experience of a mission trip of this length and intense so fresh in my mind, I’m listening to the same sessions but hearing new things. God is teaching me new things with the same words, which has been a real reflection of how his word is living and there is always something new to learn from it.
God has also allowed me to use my past experiences to encourage my team and even defuse some of the more awkward areas of training camp. It’s such a different role than I’m used to, but I’ve never felt more used by God than I have been here, getting to encourage people who are going to change the world.
Training camp round two has been absolutely unforgettable. It has been so Spirit-filled and honestly just a ton of fun! But I’m so excited to leave for Nepal and India. It feels like a homecoming! And I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to be going with!
Please pray for us as we travel for a solid 40 hours!
