Before the World Race: What Happens at Training Camp?

Before you board a plane, step into another culture, or begin serving communities around the world, your World Race journey starts somewhere you might not expect: a field in Georgia.

You’ll arrive with your backpack, pitch your tent, and meet the people you’ll spend the coming months traveling and serving alongside. You’ll worship together, learn from experienced leaders, and begin preparing for the adventure ahead.

Welcome to World Race Training Camp, where the journey begins long before you leave the country.

Preparing for an international mission trip involves plenty of logistics, but World Race Training Camp is designed to go much deeper than packing lists and travel plans.

Through worship, biblical teachings, hands-on ministry training, and intentional community, you’ll begin developing the spiritual foundation and practical skills needed for life on the mission field.

Core Teachings and Ministry Activations

You’ll dive into essential spiritual discipleship topics like identity in Christ, the biblical foundation for missions, hearing God’s voice, and forgiveness. Ministry activations will give you opportunities to practice evangelism, cultural engagement, and sharing your faith before stepping into another country.

Training Camp is designed to equip you for the realities of missions while creating space for God to work in your own heart.

Learning to Live Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Life at Training Camp is intentionally simple. You’ll sleep in tents under the Georgia sky, share meals prepared by staff, and spend full days participating in worship, teachings, activities, and personal reflection.

Without your usual routines and comforts, you’ll begin discovering how you respond to unfamiliar situations and what it looks like to depend on God when things don’t go according to plan.

These experiences help prepare you for the flexibility, perseverance, and humility that international missions require.

Where Strangers Become Family

One of the most meaningful parts of the World Race is the community you’ll build along the way, and those relationships begin at Training Camp.

You’ll meet your squad, connect with the leaders who will walk alongside you, and start learning what it means to live and serve as a team.

There will also be plenty of laughter. Squad Wars brings everyone together through friendly competition, ridiculous challenges, and opportunities to let your guard down. The inside jokes and friendships that begin here can become a source of encouragement throughout the Race.

By the time you leave the field in Georgia, the people who arrived as strangers may already feel like a lifelong family—a core part of the World Race community.

Making Space to Encounter God

Between the activities and excitement, Training Camp also creates intentional space to slow down and spend time with Jesus.

Morning and evening worship, personal reflection, prayer, and biblical teaching invite you to deepen your relationship with God and consider what He’s preparing you for.

You might arrive wondering whether you’re ready for the World Race or whether you have what it takes to serve overseas. Training Camp gives you space to bring those questions before God while growing alongside others who are stepping into the same unknown.

And sometimes, the most important preparation happens in those quiet moments of surrender.

Your World Race Starts Here

The World Race 11-month mission trip may take you across eleven different countries, but the transformation begins long before your first international flight.

It starts with worship, conversations around shared meals, new friendships, and a growing willingness to follow Jesus wherever He leads.

Ready to begin? Explore the 2027 World Race routes and take your first step toward the journey.