For three weekends, thirty-two other candidates and I were sequestered at the Buffalo Mountain Retreat Center. We came from all over the Holston Conference. This covers all of East Tennessee from just over the Georgia line to Kentucky with a bit of Alabama and western Virgina thrown in for good measure. There was one phone for all of us to share. Cell phone service was non-existent and I'm pretty sure the camp director never heard of internet service or television.
We were pushed beyond our comfort zones. Limits were tested, stretched and broken, repaired and stretched again. The day started at 7:30 am with breakfast and ended when we were finished - usually around 11:30 pm or later. Tough doesn't begin to describe it but it wound up being one of the best experiences of my life.
Last year I lost my favorite cousin to lukemia. It was almost exactly a year before the first day of licensing school. My sophomore year of high school I transferred into her school. We became close friends. She went out of her way to help me make the adjustment and was the first one to baby-sit my daughter. When she had marriage problems (and later reconciled) she talked to me. The anniversary of her death was hard. In no mood to mix and mingle, but grateful for the chance to attend licensing school, I pasted on my best fake smile and went.
Our Day 1 icebreaker was to get to know a randomly assigned candidate then make a report to the group. I was assigned to meet David who looked as nervous as I felt. Great.
What followed was the shock of my life.
Two years ahead of me he graduated from my first high school. But the real shocker was to find out that he is the youth pastor to my cousin's daughter! (Her other child is still too young to be in a youth group). He says that both kids are doing very well. -- It was a huge relief to hear that from an impartial observer!
There were 31 other people at the licensing school. I'm not a mathematician but I think the odds of us being paired up straight off of the bat were pretty slim. It was a very healing moment. Not all of the weight was taken off of my chest but it helped me to talk with him.
Licensing school was filled with suprises. This was only the first. I'm glad I went.
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