Family is Here!

Mary Ann and Wesley showed up yesterday! Praise God that they arrived safely. It's nice to have them here. I've got less than a week left, which is amazing; it feels as though I just got here.

The training has continued to be quite interesting. The last two days we have learned "Critical Incident Stress Management" training. In other words, we are learning counseling skills for critical incidents- such as a natural disaster, or an Oklahoma Bombing type situation. It was, once again, intense. The session began with some video- very graphic- of combat in Vietnam, and medical procedure in the field in Vietnam, as well as video from the Oklahoma City bombing moments after it happened. It was hard to watch- especially the kids. But the training is designed to prepared us to do a few different levels of counseling with people involved in these incidents, and it has all been very helpful. We had pastoral counseling classes in seminary, but this supplements and enhances it those classes, taking them to a more applicable level. It was official teaching from the ICISF, so we are now able to get certificates, and continue with more training if we choose.

PT (physical training) was a unique experience this morning...after I got attacked by Fire Ants. I was doing Prone Rows, laying face first on the ground, and all of a sudden it felt like my left arm was on fire (hence the name), and pretty soon I had welts all over my forearm. Fun stuff.

Today, I believe, we begin getting training with PREP- which is a marital enhancement training course, for which we will also be certified. It will be interesting to see how it compares with what I already do with couples.