If you asked most of the Fellows in class XIV if we thought we would end up in Pine Mountain, Georgia, the majority of us would have met your question with a laugh or an understandable “Where?” but here we are.
August 23 was a day marked on the calendar that had seemed so far away until, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, it was here. All of a sudden it was time to say goodbye to our beloved family and friends and headed to a new “home.” We were met with friendly faces, eager to help us move into our new lives with the boxes that held our worlds. Driving onto the campus we were welcomed with an ecstatic crew of staff and alumni greeting us like family. They had us drive our cars to our new home Legacy Student Housing, and there they carefully brought together to separate worlds. Moving is always a strange thing, but when you are able to have the help of the people you love so much and also the help of ones who love you, it makes everything a little easier.
We were officially welcomed to our new home and watched our old homes get left behind. This new season of life we all have entered is exciting, scary, and everything in between.
Move-in-day and Welcome Week has given us a glimpse into what the next nine months will hold for us. We have seen and felt so much in a short time. This week has been jam-packed with learning, worshipping, and communicating together. Now we are experiencing a Christ-centered community firsthand. We live with strangers, who don’t feel entirely like strangers. We have been prayed for, and over, and it is evident in the comfort in the uncomfortable times that I believe is within this class as we transition. The overwhelming sense of community that the Fellows program facilitates is indescribable. Soon, all of us will feel like family, but for now, we are loving getting to meet and know each other. From ice-breaker games that allow for intense vulnerability, to sitting in a classroom, roleplaying scenarios so we can practice sharing our faith, we are learning so much about each other
I am not exactly sure what I expected going into this program, but my expectations are continuing to be stretched and surpassed. I will be honest. I didn’t know in those first few days that this was where God wanted me to be, but as the week has gone on and I have met people and felt the work that God is doing here, I know I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Getting to see all that the Lord is doing in us already is amazing; I cannot wait to see what the next nine months hold. I am encouraged by my fellow classmates to take on the role I am meant to have in this intentional community we are creating.
We are just starting on our journey together and yet I know that these people will challenge me to be better and stronger not just in my faith or in my studies, but as a whole. We all play such a vital role here, no one is insignificant, we are all a part of the plan the Lord has crafted for the Fellows Class XIV.
