In less than two days, on Wednesday morning, I will be boarding a plane to Cincinnati, Ohio! Land of green grass, lightning bugs, and the Cone. It makes the Midwest part of my heart very happy. :) I'm going there to visit my best friend Molly. We have been friends since we met on the school bus in 2nd grade, when my family lived there in Cinci at the time. I haven't seen her in two years and I am stoked beyond belief to see her in two days!! :D
Over the weekend, Molly and I are going to gallivant into Chicago to enjoy the city life. It's both our fix of adventure for the summer before we both have to go back to work and (for Molly) school. So we're going to make the most of it. :)
Also, while in Chicago we will have several handsome young guides, two of which are Molly's cousins and one of which is the certain Mr. David Tollefsen. It's been several weeks since I've gotten to see him and it will be many many weeks before I get to see him again after that. So, I'm also super excited to spend time with him on his side of the country for a bit. ;)
I will update with stories of our adventures as they happen. Hopefully it will be as epic as Ferris Bueller's Day Off. :D
Monday, May 31, 2010
Pen Thieves, Marriage, Ritz Crackers, and Funny Faces
The majority of this summer I will be working in the Capital Assets office at NAU. I've been doing this job during school since I was a freshmen, so I know the ropes. However, while I am incredibly thankful for it, it can be mind numbingly boring. Answering phones, data entry, filing...all...day...long.
Things are looking up though because one of my best friends, Mr. Chris Huston, has started to work there for the summer as well. In just one week, I'm pretty sure I've laughed 'til I cried every single day.
Here are a few of the tales that I already have. I'm sure there will be plenty more where these came from.
Pen Thief: So one of the many jokes that Chris and I banter back and forth about is that he is a pen finder and I am a pen loser. I will explain this more another time, but essentially it means just that. Everywhere he goes he finds pens lying around and keeps them. Everywhere I go my pens disappear into thin air the way your socks do in the dryer. I always try to tease Chris that he is in fact a pen thief, but I've never really had sufficient ammunition until the other day.
Chris and I were walking out to the parking lot after work and he realized that he still had an office pen behind his ear! He had stolen it! "Pen thief! Pen thief!" I accused over and over. He then proceeded to threaten to stab me with the pen in order to silence me. I pointed out that it would be super ironic if I (a pen loser) died (the ultimate loss) by a pen. He also tried to trick me and Jenny Charvoz into taking the pen off his hands. No way was I going to become an accessory to his crime! We then made a deal that if he returned the pen the next day his slate would be clean and he would not be a pen thief.
He did return the pen the next day. However, he did end up participating in some rather "sketch" actions. I'm concerned that his pen thievery was just a gateway to worse behavior... ;)
Marriage: Friday I came into work wearing my brown Intervarsity shirt. I panicked for a moment when I walked in and noticed that Chris was wearing a shirt in a similar shade of brown. *sigh of relief* It wasn't the same one. However, Chris says "Woah, Rachel. I almost wore that same shirt today!" Weird.
Later, Chris and I are sitting at the front two desks and one of the carpenters asks us to make a purchase slip for him. Since Chris is new to this, I slide my chair over to help him. As we are working the carpenter says, "Hey are you two married to each other? I just noticed your rings." Chris has his actual wedding ring on, but all I'm wearing is a purity ring (though, granted it's on my left hand). Chris and I manage to remain calm and simply reply "No" and finish his purchase slip.
As soon as he's gone we look at each other and burst out laughing. "That was so awkward!!" Eventually we calm down, but a few minutes later Chris looks at me and says "What if we had been wearing the same shirt?? How incredibly awkward would that have been?!" Then we both completely cracked up again. Oh dear.
I think I'm going to have to wear my purity ring on my right hand now at work because this is the 3rd time I've had to awkwardly explain to people there that I'm not married. Or I could just see what crazy story happens next. :)
Ritz Crackers: One afternoon Chris was making small talk about how much he loves Ritz crackers. He said that they are his comfort food and he could eat a whole sleeve at once. I don't blame him, they are amazing. :)
Then he starts talking about how he had this one friend who made these desserts once with Ritz crackers...and peanut butter...and they were sooo good. But he couldn't remember who made them. I get a wicked grin on my face and ask "Did they have peanut butter in the middle?" "Yeah!" "And where they dipped in chocolate?" "Yeah, who made those? I bet it was Emily. It was Emily, right?" At this point all I can do is laugh and point at myself. Chris just says "What?"
"Me! It was me! I made the cookies!" I blurted out between laughing. Chris was like, "When?" "For your Super Bowl party" I responded. I still couldn't stop laughing.
Finally, Chris says "Rachel, it's not that funny." Then I remind him of a conversation we'd had about a month before about those same cookies. In that conversation, he didn't remember the cookies at all. In fact, I'd tried to explain them a few different ways and he still didn't remember them!! And now here he was blathering about how good they were to me and he doesn't even remember that I was the one who made them. Hilarious!
This best part though was he gets this look of recognition and embarassment on his face and says "Oh, yeah...I remember that conversation." Ha! Priceless. :D
The Face: So this story is harder to tell, because obviously you'd have to see the face for yourself. I think it's still worth a shot.
At the end of the day on Monday I was explaining to Chris and the other new student worker how to do their daily time sheets. It's pretty straight forward, but as I finish I look over at Chris and he has this incredibly exaggerated look of confusion and incredulation. It looked like a cartoon character trying to express "What?! You're kidding me. We have to do it this way? That's so tedious and weird that I'm insulted." I assumed that Chris was doing this to make fun of me, but it was literally the funniest face I've ever seen him make so I busted up laughing.
Chris changes his face to just plain confusion and says "Why are you laughing?" In between gasps of laughter I manage "Your face was priceless." Chris' responds with "What face?"
Now I'm pretty good at telling when Chris is joking and when he's dead serious, and at this moment he was dead serious. He didn't mean to make that face at all. So now I can't breathe and I'm wiping tears from my eyes because I'm laughing so hard.
Chris tries to defend himself by saying "I wasn't making a weird face!" And I say, "You wouldn't know, you weren't the one that saw it." He says "Well it was my face and I'm pretty sure I know what my own face does." My response. "Well obviously you don't because I saw it and it was ridiculous! So don't be salty." Haha, point for Rachel!! :)
So there ya go, tune in next time for more ridiculous stories from Capital Assets. :P
Things are looking up though because one of my best friends, Mr. Chris Huston, has started to work there for the summer as well. In just one week, I'm pretty sure I've laughed 'til I cried every single day.
Here are a few of the tales that I already have. I'm sure there will be plenty more where these came from.
Pen Thief: So one of the many jokes that Chris and I banter back and forth about is that he is a pen finder and I am a pen loser. I will explain this more another time, but essentially it means just that. Everywhere he goes he finds pens lying around and keeps them. Everywhere I go my pens disappear into thin air the way your socks do in the dryer. I always try to tease Chris that he is in fact a pen thief, but I've never really had sufficient ammunition until the other day.
Chris and I were walking out to the parking lot after work and he realized that he still had an office pen behind his ear! He had stolen it! "Pen thief! Pen thief!" I accused over and over. He then proceeded to threaten to stab me with the pen in order to silence me. I pointed out that it would be super ironic if I (a pen loser) died (the ultimate loss) by a pen. He also tried to trick me and Jenny Charvoz into taking the pen off his hands. No way was I going to become an accessory to his crime! We then made a deal that if he returned the pen the next day his slate would be clean and he would not be a pen thief.
He did return the pen the next day. However, he did end up participating in some rather "sketch" actions. I'm concerned that his pen thievery was just a gateway to worse behavior... ;)
Marriage: Friday I came into work wearing my brown Intervarsity shirt. I panicked for a moment when I walked in and noticed that Chris was wearing a shirt in a similar shade of brown. *sigh of relief* It wasn't the same one. However, Chris says "Woah, Rachel. I almost wore that same shirt today!" Weird.
Later, Chris and I are sitting at the front two desks and one of the carpenters asks us to make a purchase slip for him. Since Chris is new to this, I slide my chair over to help him. As we are working the carpenter says, "Hey are you two married to each other? I just noticed your rings." Chris has his actual wedding ring on, but all I'm wearing is a purity ring (though, granted it's on my left hand). Chris and I manage to remain calm and simply reply "No" and finish his purchase slip.
As soon as he's gone we look at each other and burst out laughing. "That was so awkward!!" Eventually we calm down, but a few minutes later Chris looks at me and says "What if we had been wearing the same shirt?? How incredibly awkward would that have been?!" Then we both completely cracked up again. Oh dear.
I think I'm going to have to wear my purity ring on my right hand now at work because this is the 3rd time I've had to awkwardly explain to people there that I'm not married. Or I could just see what crazy story happens next. :)
Ritz Crackers: One afternoon Chris was making small talk about how much he loves Ritz crackers. He said that they are his comfort food and he could eat a whole sleeve at once. I don't blame him, they are amazing. :)
Then he starts talking about how he had this one friend who made these desserts once with Ritz crackers...and peanut butter...and they were sooo good. But he couldn't remember who made them. I get a wicked grin on my face and ask "Did they have peanut butter in the middle?" "Yeah!" "And where they dipped in chocolate?" "Yeah, who made those? I bet it was Emily. It was Emily, right?" At this point all I can do is laugh and point at myself. Chris just says "What?"
"Me! It was me! I made the cookies!" I blurted out between laughing. Chris was like, "When?" "For your Super Bowl party" I responded. I still couldn't stop laughing.
Finally, Chris says "Rachel, it's not that funny." Then I remind him of a conversation we'd had about a month before about those same cookies. In that conversation, he didn't remember the cookies at all. In fact, I'd tried to explain them a few different ways and he still didn't remember them!! And now here he was blathering about how good they were to me and he doesn't even remember that I was the one who made them. Hilarious!
This best part though was he gets this look of recognition and embarassment on his face and says "Oh, yeah...I remember that conversation." Ha! Priceless. :D
The Face: So this story is harder to tell, because obviously you'd have to see the face for yourself. I think it's still worth a shot.
At the end of the day on Monday I was explaining to Chris and the other new student worker how to do their daily time sheets. It's pretty straight forward, but as I finish I look over at Chris and he has this incredibly exaggerated look of confusion and incredulation. It looked like a cartoon character trying to express "What?! You're kidding me. We have to do it this way? That's so tedious and weird that I'm insulted." I assumed that Chris was doing this to make fun of me, but it was literally the funniest face I've ever seen him make so I busted up laughing.
Chris changes his face to just plain confusion and says "Why are you laughing?" In between gasps of laughter I manage "Your face was priceless." Chris' responds with "What face?"
Now I'm pretty good at telling when Chris is joking and when he's dead serious, and at this moment he was dead serious. He didn't mean to make that face at all. So now I can't breathe and I'm wiping tears from my eyes because I'm laughing so hard.
Chris tries to defend himself by saying "I wasn't making a weird face!" And I say, "You wouldn't know, you weren't the one that saw it." He says "Well it was my face and I'm pretty sure I know what my own face does." My response. "Well obviously you don't because I saw it and it was ridiculous! So don't be salty." Haha, point for Rachel!! :)
So there ya go, tune in next time for more ridiculous stories from Capital Assets. :P
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Common Oddities
So at the beginning of our drive back from Colorado Springs to Flagstaff, I saw a very fat Chihuahua curled up sleeping behind the neck of a driver. At that moment I knew it was going to be a very strange trip and began to keep a list of weird things we saw. Here are the results.
Common Oddities:
Common Oddities:
- Fat Chihuahua curled up sleeping behind driver's neck
- Llamas!
- 2nd Chihuahua sitting on its driver's lap
- A three man band playing on the access road running parallell to the highway. It was in the middle of nowhere and there was no audience.
- A moose with wings on a truck mudflap
- Flashing signs in New Mexico that said: Superblitz! Cinco De Mayo. Cops everywhere!
- A cow that turned its head to watch us as we passed by
- A herd of broken down vans clustered in the woods
- A cresent moon (I think that's the proper term) that appeared to eclipse. It was in fact only a fake eclipse (fauxclipse), but we still don't know what obscured it from vision.
- The tuxedoed gentleman in the parking lot when we dropped off Dahlia:
Tuxedo man: "Did you guys just come back from a trip?"
Dahlia: "Yeah, we just got back from camp in Colorado Springs."
Tuxedo man: "That's cool."
Dahlia: "Where are you off to?" (referring to his garb)
Tuxedo man: "Oh I don't really know. My life is an adventure right now. I don't really know where I'm headed next. "
Dahlia: "So you're just dressed in a tuxedo for no reason?"
Tuxedo man: "No, I was a groomsman in a wedding earlier today. Hopefully I can find my friend now."
Dahlia: "Oh, good luck with that."
Tuxedo man: "Thanks" (he walks off into the night)
Krista (to Dahlia): "Do you know him?"
Dahlia: "No."
It was an interesting trip indeed. :)
Moseses and Joshuas
So after all that there was still one more full day left!
Friday, we spent learning about Moseses (Mosi? Mosen?) and Joshuas. Joshua was sort of Moses' apprentice. When Moses lead the Isrealites, Joshua followed him around and learned what to do. As a result, after Moses' death when Joshua became leader of the Isrealites, Joshua was a certain kind of leader because of the lessons he'd learned from Moses.
As we studied Joshua, I saw how different he and his generation were from Moses and the Isrealites of Moses' generation. In his "burning bush moment" right before the defeat of Jericho, Joshua doesn't hesitate in saying yes. Also, the people follow his crazy intructions about marching around Jericho without any recorded complaining. It was also Joshua's generation that got to taste the fruit of the Promise Land. They got to be a part of God fulfilling His promise.
Lately, I've been having conversations with people my age about how I feel that our generation is different from our parent's generation. I've met so many people from my generation who came from nominally Christian homes. Their parents have lived somewhere between quiet and fake Christian lives. But God is calling them as students to radical sacraficial lives to change the world in big ways. And they are saying yes. I saw my generation in the story of Joshua's generation.
We have tasted the fruit of the Promised Land and we can never go back.
As I was thinking about it, that made me realize that I think my mom has been a Moses in my life. She comes from the generation before me. She is the one who is largely responsible for my becoming a Christian at a young age, the one who taught me out to study Scripture, and (in her own way) the one who has supported my choices to sacrafice my whole life to follow after Jesus. She told me once that she has always believed that my life was meant for something radically significant and special. However, I want so much more than the life my mom has had: if I get married and have a family I want God to be at the center of that and I want to see the world change. This was a cool realization for me, because I've been frustrated with feeling like my gratefulness for and discontent with my family's spritual influence were irreconcilable. Turns out they both fit perfectly together in the example of Moses and Joshua. I have peace now in thanking my mom for how much value she's had in my life and running after something even greater.
This week also meant a lot to me because I got to see a lot of my "Joshua's" really step up and take on the challenge of saying yes to God. I was so proud of all of them!! And I just can't express how much it meant to me to see the fruit of the time and effort I've poured into their lives over the past four years. And I feel like I'm leaving the chapter in more than good hands. I have confidence that they will even surpass what was done in my time, which is exactly what I want. The joy of that gave me so much fuel to move forward.
Overall, everthing just gave me a sense of completion. Everything had ended so well and has all been handed off. Steven gave me the honor of praying over the Ebenezer rocks on our last morning, and it just felt like I was sealing my time as a student in Intervarsity. The old has been completed and I have been equipped with what I need for the new to begin.
If this is how it started how will it end up? :)
The time has come to dream again.
Friday, we spent learning about Moseses (Mosi? Mosen?) and Joshuas. Joshua was sort of Moses' apprentice. When Moses lead the Isrealites, Joshua followed him around and learned what to do. As a result, after Moses' death when Joshua became leader of the Isrealites, Joshua was a certain kind of leader because of the lessons he'd learned from Moses.
As we studied Joshua, I saw how different he and his generation were from Moses and the Isrealites of Moses' generation. In his "burning bush moment" right before the defeat of Jericho, Joshua doesn't hesitate in saying yes. Also, the people follow his crazy intructions about marching around Jericho without any recorded complaining. It was also Joshua's generation that got to taste the fruit of the Promise Land. They got to be a part of God fulfilling His promise.
Lately, I've been having conversations with people my age about how I feel that our generation is different from our parent's generation. I've met so many people from my generation who came from nominally Christian homes. Their parents have lived somewhere between quiet and fake Christian lives. But God is calling them as students to radical sacraficial lives to change the world in big ways. And they are saying yes. I saw my generation in the story of Joshua's generation.
We have tasted the fruit of the Promised Land and we can never go back.
As I was thinking about it, that made me realize that I think my mom has been a Moses in my life. She comes from the generation before me. She is the one who is largely responsible for my becoming a Christian at a young age, the one who taught me out to study Scripture, and (in her own way) the one who has supported my choices to sacrafice my whole life to follow after Jesus. She told me once that she has always believed that my life was meant for something radically significant and special. However, I want so much more than the life my mom has had: if I get married and have a family I want God to be at the center of that and I want to see the world change. This was a cool realization for me, because I've been frustrated with feeling like my gratefulness for and discontent with my family's spritual influence were irreconcilable. Turns out they both fit perfectly together in the example of Moses and Joshua. I have peace now in thanking my mom for how much value she's had in my life and running after something even greater.
This week also meant a lot to me because I got to see a lot of my "Joshua's" really step up and take on the challenge of saying yes to God. I was so proud of all of them!! And I just can't express how much it meant to me to see the fruit of the time and effort I've poured into their lives over the past four years. And I feel like I'm leaving the chapter in more than good hands. I have confidence that they will even surpass what was done in my time, which is exactly what I want. The joy of that gave me so much fuel to move forward.
Overall, everthing just gave me a sense of completion. Everything had ended so well and has all been handed off. Steven gave me the honor of praying over the Ebenezer rocks on our last morning, and it just felt like I was sealing my time as a student in Intervarsity. The old has been completed and I have been equipped with what I need for the new to begin.
If this is how it started how will it end up? :)
The time has come to dream again.
Pillar of Cloud
The sense of anticipation for what God was up to only continued to grow as the week progressed.
In my past experiences with camp, conferences, or even missions trips it takes half the time to press in before anything really significant happens. Usually, stuff that's in the way has to be broken down or people's hearts have to be prepared before they're ready to let God enter in and and move among them.
Not this time.
We steeped in the life of Moses for the week, studying Exodus 3-4:20, Exodus 33, Numbers 11, and Joshua 5:10-6:20. The central question was: Will you change the world?
Aslan was one the move from the beginning. Before the end of the first full day of camp I was already having conversations with people who were telling me about what God was teaching them or calling them to. On Wednesday night we prayed together as a chapter for the NAU campus. I heard both upper and underclassmen pray big, bold, strong prayers for our campus. I coud feel God's presence in the room with us. I kept thinking, "If this is how it starts, what is gonna happen by the end?"
The weather that week was freezing and a couple times we got a layer of snow. Most days though camp was just covered in dense fog and mist. As we were studying Exodus, I couldn't help but think it was if God had come down in a pillar of cloud to meet with us that week.
I saw Him do the biggest thing on Thursday night, both for me personally and for our community. Steven spoke on "Will you change the world even when it's hard?" He talked about the 3 walls that world changers always hit when they reach the point of wanting to quit.
The Walls:
In my past experiences with camp, conferences, or even missions trips it takes half the time to press in before anything really significant happens. Usually, stuff that's in the way has to be broken down or people's hearts have to be prepared before they're ready to let God enter in and and move among them.
Not this time.
We steeped in the life of Moses for the week, studying Exodus 3-4:20, Exodus 33, Numbers 11, and Joshua 5:10-6:20. The central question was: Will you change the world?
Aslan was one the move from the beginning. Before the end of the first full day of camp I was already having conversations with people who were telling me about what God was teaching them or calling them to. On Wednesday night we prayed together as a chapter for the NAU campus. I heard both upper and underclassmen pray big, bold, strong prayers for our campus. I coud feel God's presence in the room with us. I kept thinking, "If this is how it starts, what is gonna happen by the end?"
The weather that week was freezing and a couple times we got a layer of snow. Most days though camp was just covered in dense fog and mist. As we were studying Exodus, I couldn't help but think it was if God had come down in a pillar of cloud to meet with us that week.
I saw Him do the biggest thing on Thursday night, both for me personally and for our community. Steven spoke on "Will you change the world even when it's hard?" He talked about the 3 walls that world changers always hit when they reach the point of wanting to quit.
The Walls:
- Feeling the pull of the "good life" or "comfortable life" that you gave up.
- Feeling alone and abandoned.
- Feeling crushed by the burdens of the people you're leading or just the darkness of the world.
So my brain was exploding. Let me explain why. Even though this past had been the happiest one of my college life there had been a few days at the end (Fridays specifically) where I would feel anxious, sad, and lonely for no identifiable reason. But now, here was Steven articulating for me what I had been feeling! I had been anxious, sad, and lonely because I was facing the reality that I will hit these walls as I enter into the life of a world changer. I was so happy just to have an explanation for the crummy way I had been feeling!!
Then, Steven articulated the promises of HOPE that are attached to these walls when they come.
The Hope and Joy
- Perseverance is possible because God will always provide what you need.
- You will never be alone. God will go with you and He will always provide you with the people you need. You will always be led! (Isn't that crazy awesome!?)
- God will never abandon you to carry the burdens of the darkness of the world or the brokeness of people. The Holy Spirit will always give you the comfort you need and carry the burdens for you.
I couldn't believe it! God had given me the exact joy and hope I needed to step into the next stage of my life as a world changer!
Steven said that he was going to ask people to stand if they wanted to say yes to being a world changer even when it's hard. I was literally bouncing on the edge of my seat, eager to stand and say yes. However, I didn't expected more than half the room to stand. By this point in the week, and especially after that talk, we were understanding that saying yes to God meant laying your whole life on the altar. It's a yes that is almost as significant as becoming a Christian. I felt the only reason I was so ready to say yes was because God had been working on me for the past 4 years. But oh boy, did I under estimate was God was doing in that room.
Steven asks us to stand if we want to say yes and...
The whole room stood without hesitation.
Every single student stood up at the same moment that I did (the girl who was on the edge of her seat!).
I literally couldn't contain the joy inside me at that moment. And the joy just kept growing as I heard the stories from my own chapter of what they had said yes to and what God was calling them to. I want to remember that night forever as a holy moment. God is going to use the people that were in that room to do BIG CRAZY SCARY things for the Kingdom of Heaven. And I got to be there in the moment when they said yes.
Healing
I anticipated that God would do miracles at camp, but I never expected that I would get to be part of one.
The night before I was supposed to leave for Chapter Camp (Saturday night) I spent a lot of quality time with my toilet puking my guts out. I still don't know what I had; it must have been either food poisoning or some weird virus. Either way, I'm sure it was only compounded by the stress of the week I had just finished. After a bottle of Pepto-Bismol I stopped puking, but I was still feeling super sick. Thankfully, I was able to catch a late ride to camp the next day. I slept like a rock for almost the entire 12 hr. drive.
The first two days (Monday and Tuesday) I was still nauseous but able to participate as long as I slept all through free time and ate only granola bars. Tuesday night I finally got hungry enough to try eating dinner (even though the idea of food scared me). I felt like a million bucks after I ate and I thought it was finally over!
Next day, Wednesday, I ate breakfast. That turned out to be a big mistake. We do manuscript Bible study right after breakfast and during the study my stomach just locked up. It hurt like crazy, but logically I said to myself "This is the way it felt the first night. Just go throw up and you'll feel better." So I slipped off to my cabin to try that.
But I couldn't throw up and the pain got worse. I curled up on the foot of my bed. I couldn't really breathe or think. Something was wrong and I started to panic. I just started praying that someone would come find me.
Thankfully, Stacy Roome came to my rescue. I scared her to death though, poor thing. Neither of us knew what to do. The only thing that kept running through my mind was that I needed someone to pray for me and the only name that kept coming to mind was Jon Watson. So I told Stacy, go tell Jon Watson to come pray for me.
Jon came and asked what was wrong. He started praying that God would heal me. The panic and fear washed away and I felt at peace. I suddenly believed everything was going to be ok, even though the pain was still so strong.
I told Jon and he prayed for me again. He prayed all of the reasons why I needed to be better in order to be able to participate and serve at camp. And the pain went away. The pain stopped! It was gone!!
Jon and I both laughed out of relief and joy. Jon prayed one more time, praising God and asking that the intense nausea would stop and that I would be fully healed. When he finished I felt the same level of healthy that I had the day before. I just felt exhausted, as if I had played an entire soccer game.
I took it easy the rest of the day, but I ate dinner that night. Thursday and Friday I ate 3 meals and stayed awake all day. I haven't gotten sick since then.
Isn't that incredible?! It explodes my brain. God used my sickness and pain for His Glory and completely healed me when I was in trouble. I think He also used it to confirm to Jon that he has been given the spiritual gift of healing and that God is calling him to use it.
My God is mighty to save! Praise Him in the highest!
The night before I was supposed to leave for Chapter Camp (Saturday night) I spent a lot of quality time with my toilet puking my guts out. I still don't know what I had; it must have been either food poisoning or some weird virus. Either way, I'm sure it was only compounded by the stress of the week I had just finished. After a bottle of Pepto-Bismol I stopped puking, but I was still feeling super sick. Thankfully, I was able to catch a late ride to camp the next day. I slept like a rock for almost the entire 12 hr. drive.
The first two days (Monday and Tuesday) I was still nauseous but able to participate as long as I slept all through free time and ate only granola bars. Tuesday night I finally got hungry enough to try eating dinner (even though the idea of food scared me). I felt like a million bucks after I ate and I thought it was finally over!
Next day, Wednesday, I ate breakfast. That turned out to be a big mistake. We do manuscript Bible study right after breakfast and during the study my stomach just locked up. It hurt like crazy, but logically I said to myself "This is the way it felt the first night. Just go throw up and you'll feel better." So I slipped off to my cabin to try that.
But I couldn't throw up and the pain got worse. I curled up on the foot of my bed. I couldn't really breathe or think. Something was wrong and I started to panic. I just started praying that someone would come find me.
Thankfully, Stacy Roome came to my rescue. I scared her to death though, poor thing. Neither of us knew what to do. The only thing that kept running through my mind was that I needed someone to pray for me and the only name that kept coming to mind was Jon Watson. So I told Stacy, go tell Jon Watson to come pray for me.
Jon came and asked what was wrong. He started praying that God would heal me. The panic and fear washed away and I felt at peace. I suddenly believed everything was going to be ok, even though the pain was still so strong.
I told Jon and he prayed for me again. He prayed all of the reasons why I needed to be better in order to be able to participate and serve at camp. And the pain went away. The pain stopped! It was gone!!
Jon and I both laughed out of relief and joy. Jon prayed one more time, praising God and asking that the intense nausea would stop and that I would be fully healed. When he finished I felt the same level of healthy that I had the day before. I just felt exhausted, as if I had played an entire soccer game.
I took it easy the rest of the day, but I ate dinner that night. Thursday and Friday I ate 3 meals and stayed awake all day. I haven't gotten sick since then.
Isn't that incredible?! It explodes my brain. God used my sickness and pain for His Glory and completely healed me when I was in trouble. I think He also used it to confirm to Jon that he has been given the spiritual gift of healing and that God is calling him to use it.
My God is mighty to save! Praise Him in the highest!
Chapter Camp: Intro
I spent this past week at 9,000 ft. at Bear Trap Ranch in the breathtaking Colorado Rockies for Chapter Camp. It was a week of Scripture study and leadership training with half the Intervarsity chapters from the Rocky Mountain Region.
Now I had anticipated that God would do something awesome in this place and time. However, He moved in an even more AWESOME and HUGER way than I could ever have expected.
I wanted to record a few of the stories here, so I've broken them down into a few different posts. Enjoy!
Now I had anticipated that God would do something awesome in this place and time. However, He moved in an even more AWESOME and HUGER way than I could ever have expected.
I wanted to record a few of the stories here, so I've broken them down into a few different posts. Enjoy!
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