It's a beautiful thing

I have this feeling. A feeling that's so hard to explain to someone if they've never experienced it before.  But...I'm going to give it a go. 

Have you ever met a group of people that you've instantly felt accepted for who you are and what you believe?
Have you ever so completely opened up yourself and let God take over that you find yourself in a place you least expected?
Have you ever found yourself in that place and all you could feel was "THIS is where I'm meant to be."?

I have.
And it's one of the most extraordinary feelings in the world.


I've been here for just over two weeks yet it feels like I've been here for two months.
 I am awestruck by how quickly you can fall in love with a community if you simply just open up your heart and are willing to let yourself receive their love.

I was lucky enough that I already knew quite a few of the members of the new community. Of course I knew the staff and the three other returning volunteers but I also had met 8 of the new volunteers last year when they came on interview. So there were only three newcomers I'd never met before.  But that didn't hold them back from squishing me, when I arrived, in a huge hug that nearly suffocated me because they squeezed so hard. Rest assured, I was smiling the whole time.

Its been quite an interesting experience in these first two weeks alone. Usually I find myself holding back a little bit until I feel I really know people, then I can be myself. However, there's so much I still don't know about these guys, which is mainly because I jumped into working as soon as I got here and it hasn't really slowed down since.  But, despite not actually knowing much about their backgrounds, I honestly feel so comfortable with all of them, it feels like I've known them for years.  I've never been the "new kid in town," so I wasn't sure how I was going to respond, or how they were going to respond.  They welcomed me with such open loving arms, I couldn't help but immediately feel I was part of the family.
To be fair, they had a good warning about me before I arrived: the 3 other second year volunteers filled them in a bit and told them some things about me before I came.  I know that if I want to get to know everything about them, it's just going to take time.
I find myself fascinated by how much the feeling of community can be so effected by each individual within and where they come from. This year there are 4 guys on team(soon to be 5- in January we'll have another American joining us!) which is a few more than last year.  The average age of the volunteers is one year older so quite a few of the new volunteers have already been to university- only 2 18-year-olds this time. And there's a larger number of volunteers that are actually from England, so we're getting more British influence than we had before-I think it's brilliant!


I could tell, almost instantly, that this group is something special. Everyone is friends with everyone, there's no separation like you'll often get in a group full of young adults.  They're such a tight-knit family already, and they've only been together for a few months!
I feel truly blessed to have such an incredibly opportunity to be a part of such a beautiful thing. We spend more time with these people than we spend with anyone else, most of us never even spend this much time with our family. Not only do we live together, but we also work together everyday and we play and pray together in our free time.  To some people that sounds terrifying, but to those of us here now, it sounds fantastic. 
There's no better group of people in the world that I'd rather be with this year.
I love my new English family.

God is good.