I am sitting on my porch the night after our school the "18 inch Journey" ended. I feel super emotional...I keep reflecting on a moment I had with Cadence, my 8 year old son last night...we were at our house eating freshly made pound cake, with a lemon glaze sauce drinking coffee and getting ready to do our last night of encouraging each other. By that I mean we were sitting around one by one telling each other the things that we love about one another and speaking life into each others hearts. You don't realize how much you crave encouragement until your sitting in that chair. Cadence asked to stay up and I said no its time for bed, he called me into the pantry closed the door and said, "Please mom." I started to say no again...but I quickly saw tears streaming down his face. He looked me in the eyes in a way he never has before and said, "why does it have to go by so fast, it was like a flash of lighting. I am going to miss the students so much." In that moment I realized that my little 8 year old son had received a revelation from heaven. He really felt the pain of love. He began to tell me that all day he had thoughts of the first day they arrived, he remembered waking up and being so excited to go down to the farm and meet them all. His new family for 2 months. So many memories he said as he uncontrollably cried in my arms. I know it would seem that I am exaggerating the moment but it was so intense I cried and cried with him, not knowing what to say. I realized in that moment that my 8 year old was really learning how to love. They tamed him and the color of the wheat was different. [taken from the Little Prince a children's book we read this summer] We sat in our living room all 25 of us circled up one by one loving on one another, and Cadence Zion laid down in the center and fell asleep surrounded by love. For all of you who don't really know what we do in the summer...Here is a simple picture. We have a school in June and July for 60 days. Where we have about 15 students and 10 staff and a lot of the Holy Spirit. In this school we don't teach them how to be amazing worship leaders or incredible artists we don't even teach them how to do ministry really well. We teach them how to love...love each other, love the Lord and love themselves. We teach them how to live lives of extravagance and give themselves to the dream of God over their life. Yep in the middle of no where in Sophia, NC we took twenty-five, 18-25 year olds on a journey, an 18 inch journey, to be exact. The longest journey we ever make is the journey from our heads to our hearts. I could blog all day and all night about the little moments that made up the journey but I would subject myself to a lot of tears and I think I have run out. I cry because I am alive. And tonight I am swimming in a river of thanksgiving for the overwhelming love of the father. He came so intentionally this summer and I can't believe it is over.
Melissa Helser
