It's Happening

Hey everyone!

As some of you may know, I, as well as my fellow YASCers, just returned from 2 weeks of cultural training in NY! These two weeks were absolutely amazing, wonderful, challenging, inspiring, educational, hilarious, and beautiful. Obviously I can't find a way to describe it in words so maybe this picture slideshow will help!

This is a picture of the Young Adult Service Corps 2013-14 (with the addition of some Young At Heart missionaries)! Such a cutie group!

 

We got to meet with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at the Episcopal Church Center - what an amazing and inspiring woman!

We had a "multi-faith day" in the city. One of the stops was Eldridge Street Synagogue, which had this beautiful stained glass window.

We got to visit Park 51 Mosque -the mosque around the corner from the World Trade Center. It was an incredible info session with an even more incredible and inspirational speaker.

We also got to visit this beautiful church in Tarrytown. This is a picture of the church where Susan Copley, our boss' wife, is a priest. It was a beautiful service that was in both English and Spanish. It was so full of joy and happiness and everyone was so welcoming!

This is the room where we pretty much lived. Home of all of our info sessions, discussions, worship, laughter, and just spending good ol' time together.

I couldn't leave out a picture of TEAM PANAMA. This is Joseph Morin, who will also be going to Panama City. I got way too lucky getting placed with this silly guy!

I could probably post 1,568 more photos, but I just thought I'd put in a few gems that would help sum up the two weeks. These don't even do the 2 weeks justice, but I'm trying to spare y'all and not write a novel for every blog. The two weeks were exactly what we all needed and I think we all left with a new inspiration and excitement for our missions. 

For me, one of the most important parts of this orientation was building such an amazing bond and community with all of the fellow YASCers. I realized that one of the coolest parts about  this mission is that we have each other as an incredible support system, which will be super crucial once we are shipped all over the world. 

So, I thought I'd end this post by allowing y'all to meet all of these amazing missionaries! My fellow YASCer and friend Ashley Cameron put together this awesome video. It's in the post below since I am the worst at technology and couldn't figure out how to put it in this post. Enjoy!