These last few weeks seem to have flown by extremely fast and they have also been pretty busy for me. Since it is getting closer to summer we are having lots of prospective volunteers visiting CAP, as well as our volunteer house. So for the last few weeks we seem to have had at least one prospective volunteer with us each week, which can be crazy at times, trying to coordinate where they are going and who they are going to see, but its also awesome to see the excitement on their faces and to get a chance to meet people from all around.

In addition to it being busy at the volunteer house, the Housing program has also been busy as well. We are still trying to finish up all of our WorkFest jobs, and it seems we are starting to get closer to finishing up a couple of our jobs. Our participant's house that we are working on now is getting a whole new kitchen, which we are all almost finished with. But after we finish her kitchen we still have some other minor projects to do such as a new door and a back stoop, as well as a little siding. As of right now our participant is currently in the hospital and has been for the past week, so I ask you to keep her in your prayers and that she has a speedy recovery and the doctors figure out what is making her so sick. I know she is looking forward to seeing her kitchen finished and she was delighted to see the few cabinets we did get up before she had to leave for the hospital.

So with all this busyness going on, us volunteers got a chance to go on a retreat this past weekend. Every year CAP has two retreats for their volunteers, one in the spring and one in the fall. It's really a great time for everyone to get together and to relax and reflect. We had our retreat at Camp AJ which is one of CAP's summer camps and we had some great weather and the scenery was also amazing. The theme of this retreat was about transformation and thinking about your life in the past, present and future and how you transition from CAP to wherever you are going next. It was a great time to discern the time that I have spent so far at CAP and to think about my future with CAP. I think my favorite part of the retreat was when we spent an hour in silence. We finished the morning talk and from the end of that talk until we came back for the afternoon talk we were to be silent. So we all ate lunch in silence and it also allowed us some time to either walk or just sit in silence and reflect. I really enjoyed this retreat and I think it was one of my favorite retreats that I've been on because the talks were engaging and we had group discussions as well as time to ourselves. So all in all it was an excellent weekend and a much needed retreat that has definitely impacted my life and how I will go about my future.

One of my favorite quotes from this weekend: "Vocation is that place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need." -Frederick Buechner

Kate Stefanowicz is a long-term volunteer in CAP's Housing program. She lives in Floyd Volunteer House.