EMERGE WEEKEND
And here's a little update about this amazing weekend I had...
Friday - Woke at 6:30 to the doorbell being rung by Dave with breakfast for him and I! What a cute surprise. Then I went to school, shot more for Star Wars and took a math test (which I got an 87%!). And then I left to go home back, shower, and nap. Dave and Alyssa picked me up around 3:30 and we headed up to Northridge. The bus left around 5:30, and it was a good bus ride due to the fact we watched "The Princess Bride". Dave and I combined know like every good line to that movie. But who doesn't? lol. We didn't get to the camp till like 9:00. We had dinner, and worshiped. At worship, we played this kinda scavenger game with our small groups, and mine won! We got this amazing cake that was a leprechaun but it SO looked like Jesus. Dave and I explored when we had a little bit of free time.During this time, I was tricked into giving Kevin my pod. Kinda bothered me the whole weekend, because no were in the rules did it specify that you couldn't have any electronics, but I guess I didn't need to sleep like I thought I would. After all that, all the girls tried to go bed.
I didn't get much sleep due to chit chat with all of the girls and snoring by one of the leaders. haha.
Saturday - Woke up at 6:30 (out of habit), so I showered and got ready for the day. I watched a bit of Ferris Beuller on the portable DVD player that I managed not to get taken on the bus ride up. Next we had breakfast and a bit of free time. Again, Dave and I explored because the whole camp looked so much different in the day light. We went to worship, then we had like a 5 hour period of free time. We played the 3 versus 3 basketball tournament which Dave, Chris (a freshman basketball player from Churchill), and I won. Then I'd been really excited to try the Zip line and so Dave and I did that a couple times. Then we played in the volleyball tournament. That was fun. Finally we played on all of the playgrounds, and walked on the dock to the lake, that was a pretty sight. Next we played some ping pong and Yahtzee. Dinner and an almost 4 hour worship started. Dave volunteered me for the worst thing ever, earlier we had found what we thought was ice cream in the freezer so we were like oooohhh... Sundae eating contest! But no, it was 4 day old mayonnaise that had been in the freezer. Cool. I took a huge mouth full of that and then found out what it really was. I threw up about 15 minutes later. It became a so much better night after that, I have never prayed out loud until that night. I have never felt closer to God in my entire life. We broke up in our small groups and each one of us got in to the middle and asked what we wanted to be prayed for. I could just feel God in the room that night. It was one of the most amazing experiences ever. We got blind folded and so we could do whatever we wanted, and no one could be embarrassed. Then Jimmy, the lead singer opened up the stage for people to come up and just talk about how God and this weekend has changed them. I went up. I actually went up in front of a huge group of people and said how selfish I have been my entire life, and how I've been having a rough period due to friends... and that I didn't want to be that girl anymore who was selfish and scared. I was so proud of myself for taking that risk and putting myself out there. Dave and Alyssa went up there too. You should have seen all of these teenagers just putting everything out there for us to see. It was beautiful. Jeez. I'm still on a huge emotional and spiritual high from that night. Since we were in worship for so long, capture the flag was canceled and dodge ball was put in it's place. I decided to skip out on that because I was tired from playing basketball earlier. Dave played a couple games, but I hung out with a lot of the girls. I fell fast asleep last night, which is great because I couldn't handle another long night. I need my sleep. I don't know what I'm gonna do at Grand Valley State University if I don't sleep much. Maybe nap, or maybe beat some loud kids up. hahaha.
Sunday - Woke up at 7:00, showered and got ready. Finished packing and went to breakfast. Walked around a few more times just to really make a memory of the place. Next we had worship, and left right after. The buses on the way home were a whole lot nicer than the one's the first time. But we watched "Fat Albert" and "The Corpse Bride", so Dave and I slept pretty much the entire ride home. We stopped for TACO BELL on the way home right past Birch Run. Too bad we couldn't have gone shopping or anything... haha. Once we got to Northridge, I got my pod back and Dave, Alyssa, and I drove home. I unpacked and rested for a bit then I had to go to work for a meeting about this weekend's furniture sale. Woo. haha. Not really. I'm gonna be getting like 15 hours, so that's good because I haven't worked in two weeks. I love it. Dave picked me up for Velocity, and so we were able to hang out with all the great people we had met.
I'm so glad I went and to have met a ton of people, so that Dave and I do not have to sit alone at velocity anymore. I mean it was nice just hanging out with him but it's cool too now that we're almost apart of that "clique" now, or that we just fit in and\or know people. You kinda need to go on those retreats to make bonds and meet people. Both Dave and I have said that we were so happy to share this experience together because it has brought us so much closer. You need to be close to those you love spiritually as well as emotionally, physically, and mentally. I'm going to try really hard to stick with the commitment I made at Emerge for example, having quiet time everyday just for me to read my bible and connect to God. I did it today and it was just really peaceful. I just really need to connect with him daily, I need him in my life to give me the strength to be that person he and I both want to have me become. Well, I must be off to get ready for the new episode of 24! :)
ps. here's a couple of countdowns for ya!
CATHOLIC CENTRAL PROM - 59 DAYS
CHURCHILL PROM - 73 DAYS
CHURCHILL GRADUATION - 78 DAYS