- just to talk about the chocolate for a moment more; I have not found myself very fond of the brand, not finding it a very unique or delicious taste.. however, every chocolate lover tends to find her favorite combination for every new brand.. which I indeed did this weekend. Their dark chocolate is really not bad and besides that their almond/caramel chocolate combination is very amazing.
I also tried some of their 'Hershey's specialty drinks'. The almond joy latte, I truly have to say - was indescribable! So amazing.
But.. the weekend and actually commissioning was thousands times better!
Taken from the fact that I feel very exhausted, a bit down and quiet this day after the weekend, is just a sign that the experience really left its mark on me.
What a great celebration I witnessed!
Putting words to the whole weekend would be near impossible.. well okay, in fact I think the statistics of my long blog post in the past would tell me this wasn't even close to being true.. however, my point by saying this is that the weekend was very special and unique in many ways, that I'd say it was better for you to have been there and see it with your own eyes and feel it with your own heart.
- As an artist, I'd have no problem in painting the picture for you.. but how about the ones of you who are curious see for yourself?
The whole weekend was filmed and can be found online, but even more so there are thousands of meetings in the future that will be held in the spirit of what happened this weekend. That's the picture I should really paint for you.
*
I arrived with NY temple late afternoon at our hotel.. just in time for a dip in the pool and dinner at an American diner. I headed with them to Hershey's that night for this weekend's first worships meeting and welcome of the cadets from training school.
My hotel room was a massive double room I had all to myself, and with a lovely view to the pool from a terrasse.
I also had a coffee machine in my room!
I also had a coffee machine in my room!
Below are pictures from the first meeting, on Friday night.
Here's a crazy bug in bed enjoying luxury for the first time in a long time.... !
Friends is on TV and Josephine is visiting ;)
The following day we got up early for the first 9 am meeting. I managed to find time for a dip in the pool before leaving! ;)
The day was structured with different sections of meetings. We had several guest speakers, and watched the artistic teams perform, including the staff band and the songsters. We stayed for lunch at the place and didn't get back until 11 pm that day!
Friends: Lieutenant Frenie and senior soldier Jasmin
Right: Everything that was being talked about during the day
was drawn on a big collage by an artist
Right: Questions about the theme of the day from the different preachers were twittered/facebooked/messaged to the conference and then some were chosen for the public board for discussion. I had a question up there! ;)
The freedom tower in the far distance,
finally emerging from our 4 hour road home!
The last Hershey's specialty we got to try on our way back... breadsticks with chocolate on, dipped in chocolate sauce.
*
So to the real reasons why I enjoyed this weekend...My favorite moment of this weekend was when everyone was called up one by one, commissioned from cadets to officers in the Salvation Army with the rank of Lieutenants. The room with more than a thousand in the audience was completely quiet and sacred, and the cadets walked up to the Commissioners Swansons either very quiet, teary eyed, or sobbing. Each face being priceless.
Each person being unique and beautiful. Each person making speaking more and more to me, as I thought through how brave this commitment and 'surrender of life' this was for them.
The thought being a bit intimidating, as scary as it seemed, but also being so endlessly fascinating and amazing.
Even more joyful was the moment later on in the afternoon when they were each given their first appointment somewhere in the Eastern territory of the United States. this was when their commitment was actually realized as the could return that evening, knowing where and what to pack their suitcases for.
However, my very favorite moment didn't have much to do with the new Lieutenants actually. My very favorite moment of the weekend was when Sue Swanson asked and allowed everyone of the people in the hall who felt called to be an officer in The Salvation Army.
Now some were older, and had known this decision for years maybe, just waiting to finish their university degree or a part of their parenting years, who knows... BUT the fact that I witnessed some people who just went up by an impulse from the chairs close to me, because they had been called by God in that moment, asked and felt in their hearts that favoring God in this way was a path ahead of them in life, was so touching. There are no words for this, because this is about how God works in you, in the moment.
*
So here's what I miss..I miss being in this community 24/7. The community that makes me get up early, sit through meetings with my stomach screaming for food, fails to give me time for practising song or dance, gives me something very near to claustrophobia when I have to find people through the big crowds or just make it to the bathroom...
... yet, behind all this (this obvious irony), I miss being in a community of people who believes, longs and rejoices in the spirit of Jesus, like I do in my heart. A community that makes me go beyond that whisper in my heart and dance it out with Josephine my neighbor at the worship meeting, come forth to the altar and cry it out next to someone who either does the same thing or lay their hands on my shoulder to pray for me.
I miss a community that wholeheartedly gives away a whole weekend in their lives for God.
It's not that I learnt a lot about my faith this weekend, but I miss being in the core of it. That's when I feel I can handle anything and be patient.
Today is that day in between this weekend's community and the regular life outside with all the other communities that doesn't include faith in that way.
Speaking to the Salvation Army officers (I know there are more than 5 who reads my blog) - you don't know how difficult it is to get back to the normal days, without this community.
I know for sure it's my job not to separate the two communities... however, when you are born and raised in this community, went to school with fellow cadets and work with them for the rest of your lives, I can imagine that there is less 'converting' to do, after such a weekend. If there is, I'm interested to hear about it..
I'm going back to a community that for a starter doesn't pray before meals or attend Sunday services.. so spending their day with Jesus is something they not only aren't interested in doing, also something they don't know how to do.
I feel it as a 'bubble' that is easier and easier to feel at the core of. It's like trying to feel the emotions after you play a dramatic character onstage, because being done with the play seems un-fulfilling when you could've said so much more.. when the scenes can't be felt as strongly, when you're not actually in them onstage... or it's like coming out of meditation and the lights are turned back on in yoga class... or stepping out of a sauna and into the cold air on a late night... or saying goodbye to your last guest from your birthday party.
Perhaps not. This is something everlasting that will never leave us, an experience that is always there.. a celebration that never ends.
It feels a bit the way I described though. But I don't doubt it will become easier as I grow in faith. Right?
*
So... for today, I have spent my time just resting in bed, reading a good book that I got in a Salvation Army store some months ago, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Lieutenant Frenie in her office at NY temple, while she wrote her paper and we listened to worship music together.
Women called to preach: selected from the whole world. And guess what familiar face is in it? My awesome grandma of course,
- who by the way just finished her Phd project, which I'm very proud of!
Tomorrow I am interested in seeing Lloyd Webber's musical 'Whistle down the wind' the original production at the performing arts library, for the first time. Or perhaps the musical 'Harmony', which is a dramatic love story set in the Jewish community, during the 2nd world war.
There's obviously more to come on this subject, I could say so much more... but let this to be what it is now.
I will pray for you, hope you will have a blessed week.
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