I Have a Tendency to Make Myself Laugh

Sunday: You know how Sundays go… it’s time to bring the heat! So this Sunday I had to get up extra early to pick up a multitude of people who did not feel like leaving their cars at church over night; and who would prefer that I leave my car over night because lets face it… I’m ridiculously brave... that and I offered to pick them up. Anyway, when I said a multitude I met a few and by a few I mean Arlecier and Vincent… so I woke up early, got myself all ready for church, and set out on my quest to be the best car pool driver ever! We got to church and did our “get ready for church” deal (if you ever read this blog you know what that entails). Church was good as always. We had some player (you know I don’t know my football like that) from the Seahawks come and give a testimony. It was a good word; after he was done Bishop came and preached part 3 of “The Heart of a Passionate Giver”. I love this word because it’s not a: “This is Why We Tithe and Give Offerings” word. Or a: “We Need Your Money” word. It is rather a: “This is Another Way You Can Worship God Further” word.

Side Note: I love how my Bishop preaches. He has a way of communicating that can transcend all age, race, and social class barriers. Our church is quickly becoming the church that God desires. One that has the rich and the poor, the young and the old and the light and the dark all mixed together. God is doing big things at SIC. If you don’t believe me sit back and wait. God’s gonna blow your mind!

Back to Sunday: After church I left immediately (Vincent and I only had about an hour and 15 minutes to eat and get back). So after a bit of drama on the fourth floor of Terry Hall we were back at church, on the bus, and off to Snoqualmie Pass!

The bus was fun, I was quiet, but I always am on the bus. Once we got to the lodge and got in our rooms I spent some time with my girls. Out of all the people at the retreat I got the girls who… well lets say they’re a lot of fun… and a lot of attitude… in a good way. We had some interesting conversation until dinner then we headed up to eat. After dinner we had mic check and pre-service prayer. During prayer I began to cry out to God. I could just tell that the majority of the kids weren’t there to get more of God; but were simply there to play in the snow. The more I began to cry out to God the more He let me feel how He was feeling. I began to weep as He revealed to me the hurt and pain He was experiencing because His children wanted nothing to do with Him.

Side Note 2: For those of you who have an absent parent in your life you may be able to relate to this. God loves His children so much… and a lot of times we as His children love Him, but take Him for granted. I liken it to the feeling a child gets when their absent father or mother doesn’t wish them a happy birthday. Can you imagine walking into the presence of someone you love and they totally ignore you. That’s how God feels about us sometimes. He is everywhere, all around, and sometimes we will go days without really, truly acknowledging His presence. Yeah, us Christians like to think that our little 30-second prayers we make all throughout the day equals a good strong relationship with Him. When in all actuality God is looking for some seriously focused time. When are we going to get excited for God again? To be honest I don’t like the song “Light the Fire in my Heart Again”. Why does the fire need to be relit? I know I can be practical and say that every relationship has it’s ups and downs, highs and lows and with God there’s no exception…. But our God isn’t a practical God. He is supernatural! I believe that it is possible to always have a strong, powerful, passionate relationship with God. It is only when our flesh gets in the way that we lose our “fire”. Wow… that was a whole lot of stuff that I didn’t intend to say… back to Sunday.

Back to Sunday: Pre-service prayer was powerful. Vincent spoke under the anointing of God. God was revealing things to me as he was talking and really confirming things in my spirit. As praise and worship started it was as if I was going into battle (as it often is in praise and worship). This time I knew that there were a lot of spirits and things that needed to die! We pressed and pressed into God’s presence. Some kids got it… some didn’t, but overall there was a shifting. Pastor LaTonya grabbed the mic towards the end and flowed in the same vain both Vincent and I were in. God was trying to tell His children something and He was going to say it over and over again until they got it. Then Ramon came up and confirmed everything that was said before him. God was really hitting it hard with these kids. By the time Pastor Darnell got up to preach we were all spiritually, physically, and mentally exhausted. He preached out of Ezekiel about the dry bones and how they came back to life. God’s desire for Nu Image was to breath live into their spirits again. Just like in prayer and praise and worship, some got it, some didn’t; but everyone had the opportunity to receive. After service my girls and I hung out and went to sleep. They were so well behaved and within an hour of lights out we were all asleep.

Monday: We all woke up bright and early to stay on schedule. We had our devotion time (Which was about feeling numb).

Side Note: We have a tendency to go through life numb. We are creatures of habit and routine. We wake up, get ready, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch TV, go to sleep, wake up… Life becomes so monotonous. God wants us to “wake up [every morning] and shout for joy” (Isaiah 26:19). He has a plan and a purpose for everyday. Our days are not meant to be forgotten and all blurred together; but God has new mercies stored up for you every morning.

Back to Monday: After devotion we got all dressed to go out to the mountain and waited in the lobby for everyone to assemble.

Side Note 2: My room was so great. They were dressed, ready and waiting 5 minutes before we all had to be out there. All the other rooms were late!

Back to Monday 2: So we finally got to the mountain and WU and I got our skis and headed out. We took the class… for about 15 minutes and then decided that we could figure it out on our own… and sure enough we did. I turns out that I’m actually pretty good at skiing… who knew? We were out for a few hours and I only fell once (due to the fact that I didn’t have any goggles and I couldn’t see)! I even went on the lift (heights are definitely not my thing). The whole time (at least the first time) I didn’t let Vincent move at all! Eventually I got over it… though I think it will always scare me a bit! After we skied for a while we headed back to the lodge and ate lunch. Then it was back out for some tubing (they needed people to go cuz they had extra tickets). The actual process of getting to the tubing was quite enjoyable. We took the shuttle bus up there and it was so warm and relaxing I could have stayed there for hours… but then I would never have gone tubing! When we finally got there Vincent thought it would be a good idea to tackle me. Now please keep in mind I am a lady, and a bit of a girly girl in the sense that I don’t play sports that involve you getting hurt. I don’t enjoy falling much and I like to stay on my feet. Needless to say, I had never been tackled. Now of course Vincent was gentle (gentle for tackling me that is), but then he encouraged my brother to get in on the action. So Wiley grabs me and slams me onto the ground, knocks the wind out of me and gives me a bump on my head. Of course he and Vincent think its funny so I just brush it off and walk away. They kept encouraging me to tackle them back but… I’m a lady and I don’t care to tackle. Plus I’d probably end up hurting myself in the process and I don’t care to do that. So I just let it go. Tubing was tons of fun; because I’m so small I would go really, really fast! We thought it would be fun to go one after another and run into each other… it was a fun idea but really we needed to have some strategy. However, we all got so into it that we just went for it. Vincent first, then Wiley, then Michael, then me… now Michael is a big guy. He’s tall and… well he’s just a really big guy (height and weight I cant really guess but just take my word for it). So not only did he go slower then me, but he also stopped way sooner than me. So here I am speeding after him. I was going so fast that I couldn’t really see much then CRASH! I ram into his tube. He didn’t move… I didn’t bounce off. It was like hitting a brick wall, like getting into a car accident, I was injured. I mean I didn’t cry or really get seriously hurt… just a bit injured… and today (and yesterday too) I feel it. We ended up getting into a bit of trouble for doing that so we decided it was time to leave. Once we got back to the lodge we found out that the freeway was closed and that our bus was going to be late. Really late! It wasn’t so great because we had to call all the parents and let them know; and we were already checked out of the lodge so we were stuck. Thank God they let us use their conference room to hang out in. The conference room, however, was to be avoided by all things female. The guys thought it would be fun to play football in there (and I’m sure it was fun)… but eventually they got hot, the layers started to come off, then the shoes, then entered the smell of nasty, sweaty, gross boy. So the majority of people who liked to breath through their nose hung out in the lobby. Eventually our bus got to the lodge and we were set to go home. It didn’t take us too long (because they took the time to clear the freeways) to get home which was great. Then, however, we ran into another problem. We couldn’t find my car keys. Between Vincent and I they were misplaced. We don’t know if it was at the church, on the bus, or at the lodge. Regardless I am currently sans my original car keys. Thank God I have a spare but I will eventually need my originals to get gas (though I am calling Ford today to see if they can make me a new gas tank key). Bottom line yesterday was a busy, busy day; so busy in fact that I forgot all my stuff in Vincent’s car.