Orientation week

Hello everybody! Sorry it took so long to post again, but I'm back! I'm actually currently in Slovakia, day 3! Although, I'm going to back track to last week before I dive into more recent adventures. So I left on August 19th to fly to Chicago for Orientation. Orientation was held at McCormick Seminary at the University of Chicago, pretty much in downtown. It was really nice to be in the U.S. for a while longer, to pick up any extra things we needed if we forgot them at home. We got there a few hours later than scheduled. Everyone had a long day because of the bad weather causing delays and things, but we all eventually got there fine. We had orientation with 2 other volunteers from the Reformed Chruch in America, and with 20-some volunteers from the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). There were about 63 of us all together, so a pretty big group! The countries the ELCA Young Adults will be volunteering are: Argentina, Mexico, Slovakia, Scotland, England, Germany, Kenya, India, and the Philippines. The other two churches will be sending volunteers to some of the same countries, as well as Ghana, Guatemala, Uruguay, and Northern Ireland.

I was pleasantly surprised with orientation. It was loaded with speakers who lectured about religion, globalization, and racism. We had daily bible studies with Pastor Al Starr, who is a pastor at a Lutheran church in Los Angeles, CA. He was very inspiring and covered a lot of different ideas and pieces of scripture in only a week. He offered out his congregation to be a prayer partner (or support group) for anyone who was interested, so I put my name on the list. I’m thankful to have all of your support and prayers, and now I also have a congregation in Los Angeles praying for me too! Amazing.

I was inspired not only by the speakers that week, but also by all of the other volunteers. I was in amazing company all week long. I met so many interesting people my age that had great faiths and shared a lot of the same interests. I feel slightly frustrated with myself at times because I feel like I’m setting myself up for this never-ending process of meeting people, then saying goodbye, then meeting people, then saying goodbye, then meeting people, etc. It was hard to get close to everyone, and then have to say goodbye AGAIN, after we all had to say goodbye to our own families and friends for a year. After a week at orientation, I feel very comforted by the support system I have in my fellow volunteers. It’s amazing to think that there are 60 other people, all scattered around the world, that are going through similar experiences at the same time.

Ok, will try to write again soon! Hope everyone is well, take care!