i’m off. sunday i fly overnight to london heathrow, catch a bus to gatwick, and a puddle-jumper down to guernsey. guernsey is a small island nation off the coast of france. it’s part of the UK, but not part of england. it’s a funky little country — it’s the off-shore banking capitol for europe; so, while there’s a fairly small number of permemant residents, but there are more than 400 banks!

anyhow, i met paul and clare chambers through the yaconellis, at greenbelt, in 2001 or 2002. the following year, yac and i were flying over to the UK to speak at a YFC event, and had planned on taking a few extra days to go to scotland. but paul contacted us and said he’d cover airfare and house us if we would have lunch with the island youth workers, at les cotils, the retreat center where he is exec dir. we stayed in paul and clare’s home, and had an absolutely perfect time. i have two photos from that trip hanging in my office today — one of me and yac in front of a little diner, and another of a panoramic ocean view.

when i decided to take the month of august off this year, my wife suggested i take a week-long spiritual retreat connected to my UK trip. so i contacted paul to see if i could come over again. clare is expecting their second child in about two weeks, so i won’t be staying in their home this time — but staying at les cotils is probably more in-line with the purpose of my trip anyhow.

i expect to fill my five days with as much sleep, reading, thinking, resting, praying and laughing as i can fit in. i’ll likely find an internet cafe at some point and post something mindless.