Wednesday morning I’ll leave at the crack of dawn to fly to Connecticut for the last week of what I laughingly (and lovingly) call Prayer Camp. 

Its official name is Davvenin’ Leadership Training Institute (DLTI) and I’m part of the sixth cohort.  I entered into it with great trepidation (see my first post about it, called DLTI – What Was I Thinking??). 

It’s instructive to read what I said a year and a half ago, especially how I ended the post:

There’s no going back now.  It’s paid for, I have my airline ticket, and I’m just going to have to suck it up and learn to let go a little.  As long as they don’t try to make me let go a lot, it should be OK.

So what happened?  They didn’t have to try.  I learned how to let go – not a lot, but not as little as I’d planned.  I found my safety zone as a service leader; how to engage my body in prayer without feeling silly, how to use silence without getting nervous, how to create an atmosphere of interconnectedness and joy without embarrassment.

And I learned how to delve into the traditional liturgy and confront the parts that made me uncomfortable, rather than skim over them. 

The result is that I achieved my goal of becoming a better service leader.  It’s been a wonderful journey, and I’m looking forward to the last stage.