the disciples.

yesterday was a sad day. i had to say good-bye to twenty-six of the funniest, greatest, inspiring people i've ever met. i only knew them for 8 weeks, but that was enough for me to fall in love with them all and to be forever changed from meeting them.

let me explain.

i am living and working at "the cedars," which houses the centre for spiritual life development (where i live it up) and the international college for officers (ICO). salvation army officers from around the world come here for eight weeks as a type of sabbatical period for spiritual renewal. there are 4 sessions every year, and it's a very special and meaningful time for the officers. in fact, the reason i'm here is because my dad came to ICO in 2006 and came back and told me about the volunteer program here.

well, the first session of the year (session 212 - "the disciples") came a week after i did, so essentially they've been here since i have. there were officers from all over the world -- USA, south america, canada, africa, indonesia, the UK, australia, india...

they blessed me every day.

they made me laugh every day.

they encouraged me every day.

this session was unique (in many ways :) but especially in the fact that it was a spanish translation session, so there were about 6 spanish speakers, and also all 4 USA delegates were bilingual. (usually a requirement is that the officers must have some grasp of the english language, but for this session translators were provided for the spanish speakers.) one very cool thing that came from that -- for me, personally -- was that i was reunited with major munoz, who was the divisional commander in guatemala when i went in 2008. my team and i LOVED munoz. even with the language barrier, he is hilarious. so when i got here and saw the list with his name on it, i was so excited. and really, come on! i could have very well never run into him again for the rest of my life -- but, 3 and a half years later, i do...in london. the Lord blesses me. no doubt.

saying good-bye was not fun at all, but with all the other amazingly awesome things that happen here, i figure that there HAS to be something not good to balance it all out.

so, los discipulos, i love you, i miss you, and i am praying for you. thank you for everything!

(pictures coming soon!)