Friday April 16 brought a renewed sense of God’s might and power as news services began advising of the ash cloud being spewed from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. Not only was there a reminder of God’s power, but of man’s dependence on Him. In a matter of hours the airspace over much of Europe was closed, cancelling the Saturday departures of the Session #1 Short -term Workers. For several days it was a matter of rebooking travel more than once as the airspace closures were extended. On Wednesday travel began to open up and a few people were able to depart on Wednesday and a few more on Thursday. On Saturday—a full week later—the last couple was finally able to travel.

In addition to the volcano ash disrupting travel for the Short-term Workers, it also affected travel for some of the professors. Robert Douglas, who was scheduled to teach in Belarus, was unable to depart from the U.S. and his class had to be cancelled. John Turner, who was already at Haus Edelweiss, was scheduled to travel to Central Asia on Saturday but was delayed and unable to travel until Tuesday. Because he had scheduled an extra day in Central Asia he was able to complete the class.  Myron Williams, who had been teaching in Omsk, Russia was to travel to Warsaw to teach. He made it as far as Moscow, Russia and was told it would be Wednesday at the earliest before a flight would depart again. With the help of Alexey Fedichkin, the TCM National Director for Russia, Myron was able to obtain a train ticket and a hotel room for a night. With only a one day delay (and 21 hours on the train) he arrived in Warsaw on Monday afternoon and was in the classroom on Tuesday morning.