In which Florida rocks
Oh my goodness! Florida completely rocks. Here is my story . . .
Friday, March 11, 2:00 p.m.
I headed over to F-Hall and chilled with Beich while we waited for the rest to get there. Neimi was the only other person who got there by 2:30. Somehow, they didn't inform Beich, Neimi or myself that we weren't supposed to be there until 3:00. Everyone finally arrived and we got ourselves situated for the 26 hour ride to Florida. Oh my goodness! We had so much fun. We ended up taking a van and a car. I sat in the back of the van with Nikki. We had Andy, Jason, Ashley, Rachel, Nikki and myself in the van and Eric, Beich, (Ann) Riippa, Neimi, and Shannon in the car. Every so often I'd lean over to Nikki and say something like, "He has really pretty eyes." (He was driving -- I could see his eyes in the mirror.) I was really tired because I had had to write 10 papers that week, plus my concert and tests and stuff, so I wasn't talking and I looked like I was about to fall asleep. Andy said that if he couldn't sleep then I couldn't sleep and I said, "No problem -- I haven't slept in a car since I was like 14." They asked me if I was going to stay awake for the whole trip and I was like, "I don't know . . . maybe . . . " It turned out that I didn't fall asleep until about 1:00 a.m., after being in the car for 9 hours.
Dave called me to tell me that he passed his test and was officially graduated from that phase of his military training at about 9:00 p.m. Yay! He flew out to Luke the next morning.
The trip was totally fun. Miraculously, no one ended up fighting. We got to Panama City Beach and checked into our rooms. We stayed at Edgewater Beach Resort in condos. They had a balcony off the living room area, a kitchen with laundry facilities attached, a bedroom with two full-sized beds and a bathroom attached, and another bedroom with a king size bed and a bathroom attached. All 6 of us girls were in one condo and the 5 boys were in another one (after some rearranging) with a guy from New Mexico.
On this trip I did tons of things I've never done before. A list follows.
~Toasted bagels
~Ate a peach
~Played frisbee
~Sunscreen
~Capris
~Went out in public in a swimsuit
~Went in the Gulf of Mexico
~Beach evangelism
~Took (as my brother described it) a "three hour tour"
~Played the accomplice to crime
As you can see, it was tons of fun.
Please do not share the info in this paragraph with anyone from my school. If some people found out, it could be quite tragic for me. So, on Wednesday afternoon, Nikki K and Ashley and Rachel and I were chilling (quite literally) on the beach. We were chit-chatting and watching the ocean. Eric, Jason, Shannon and Beich were all throwing sand at each other and chasing each other around. For some reason, Eric stopped and sat down between Nikki and me and everyone kept throwing sand at us. Ashley and Rachel weren't touched. Nikki and I got sand all over us. We laughed it off. Ashley and Rachel flipped out and decided that the boys had to pay. (How does that work out?) They came up with this huge plan to get the boys back. They stole Andy's key from his backpack and they planned to get in and completely trash their condo. They were going to TP the whole place and seran wrap the toilet and I don't know what-all they were going to do. It was so messed up. I felt so bad about it because the boys were just being boys -- they didn't throw sand at us to see us suffer. It just happened to land on us. I thought about it for a while and after we went back to our rooms, I knocked on the boys' door. Jason answered and Andy came to the door too, and I said, "I'm on your side." They said, "Huh?" I told them the girls were plotting against them and I told them I couldn't really do anything to stop them, but I'd give them my key and they could do anything they wanted to in our room as long as they didn't break anything and as long as they didn't mess with our personal belongings. They said, "You rock, girl! It's a deal!!" (By the way, I knew I rock.) That night was the Men's and Women's times. The men had their meeting at 6:30 (or something -- I don't remember exactly), and after they left, the girls went to try to get into the boys' room. The key didn't work. I was working pretty hard to not laugh. They tried the patio doors and they found a note that said "nice try." The girls went upstairs again and complained and wondered how the boys knew. (Duh -- it was pretty obvious that the girls were planning something . . . ) It turned out that Andy figured out that someone had his key and he went to ask the people if they could get their lock and keys remagnitized. (Smart . . . The girls didn't understand this concept when the boys told us what they'd done.) Then we went to our meeting at 8. When we got back, the girls found the place a mess. Once again, I could barely contain my laughter. It was even worse when Jason brought their "peace offering" -- a candy necklace and a spider ring for each of us. (Oh my goodness! I thought I was going to die.) Timmy called me as we got back and I so wanted to tell him what happened but I couldn't because the girls would have killed me. Nikki, Shannon, and Ann were pretty cool about it. Nikki thought it was funny. Ashley and Rachel flipped out again. The girls had been so careful about locking doors and making sure we all had our keys. When they asked if we had our keys I said, "Accounted for" -- it wasn't on me but I knew exactly where it was. They asked the boys how they got in and they said, "It was magic . . . and Eric's soccer skills." Shannon told them that she wasn't going to talk to the boys again until they told us how they got in. Eric said, "The Lord does answer prayers after all." It was great. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The girls got it into their heads that the boys were going to do something worse and were prepping for it, so I went down to talk to the boys. I told them that the girls expected something more, and I told them they should do something. They said, "What can we do?" I told them they should do something nice for the girls because they're expecting SOMETHING, but not something nice. They said, "We spent $3 on the necklaces and rings -- what more do they want from us?" I said, "I know! You guys should write a song for the girls and then record it." They loved that idea. They began immediately and then they were like, "But you can't hear this -- go away!" So I made my exit and tried really hard not to giggle as I made my way back to my condo. A half hour later, the girls decided to invite the boys up to chat. When Riippa came back, she said, "They said they'd come in 10 minutes." The girls started to worry. They knew something was going down. (Uh-oh.) The boys came up and we talked and then I don't remember what-all went down, but eventually they left. That night was campus night and the girls decided to "kill 'em with kindness" and cook for the boys and be nice to them. (Good choice, girls. If they had done something worse, I would have had to get involved again.) Andy and Beich did the dishes which was completely sweet. Then we watched the video we'd made of the trip. The girls were very surprised to see the song. Nikki's reaction was the best: "First you trash our condo and then you write a song of apology that tells us that we're stupid!" The chorus went like this:
And we're sorry we're smarter than you
You tried to trick us but your plans fell through
And we tricked you instead
Or something like that. It was great.
One night, Beich, Neimi, Eric, Riippa, Andy and Shannon had a Chips-Ahoy Challenge -- a contest to see first, if they could each eat an entire package of Chips-Ahoy in an hour and secondly, to see who could finish theirs first. Andy won in 18 minutes and Beich got second in 19 minutes. It was sadly funny. Eric was hilarious. He was yelling at his stomach because he couldn't eat any more cookies. He was like, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Then he was laying on the floor and he said, "I want my mommy!" Shannon managed to eat hers in like 52 minutes but she felt so sick when she was done and she and Eric went outside and vomitted together. I'm not sure what to think about that except that they were so funny when they came back in. Riippa came so close -- she ate all but 3 cookies.
Andy and Beich wrote a song about corndogs and sang it for the girls. It was great. They also set the "Would you like to know God personally?" book to music and wrote the song for the girls.
Anyway . . . we had some incredible things happen. On the first night, there was a guy taking pictures for something and he got a picture of everyone on my left and then he got one of everyone on my right and there I was, not in either picture. I didn't care if I was in a picture or not. (Does it really matter?) I only felt like I wasn't part of the group and I found myself wondering why they had allowed me to go if they weren't going to include me in things. I sat down and began to ponder. I thought to myself, "Ok. We can do this. God, if it has to be just you and me this week, it's ok. I'm not saying that I like it, but I'll survive." I didn't pout or cry. I was just like, "Ok. I don't like it, but I'm not going to let it ruin anything." Later during that meeting, we were supposed to go into small groups to discuss questions and Shannon and Jason were like, "MJ, be in our group!" That was awesome. They wanted me to go with them on the prayer walk too and that was cool. That made me feel much better.
At another meeting, the speaker was talking about the Armor of God. She talked about each piece and what it does for you. The last one she talked about was the Shield of Faith and explained that the Shield of Faith protects us from Satan's Fiery Darts. She said that the Fiery Darts are those thoughts and words that make us feel bad about ourselves. It's anything that we think or say about ourselves that is not of God. It's anything that we hear from other people (or think they might be saying) about us that is not from God. It's not from God when it's something that God would never tell us. For example, "You're ugly." God made us perfect and He is honored no matter what we look like. If God wouldn't say it to us, then it's one of Satan's Fiery Darts. At the end of the talk, she said, "We're going to take some time to deal with these fiery darts tonight." Three years ago, I would have cried. Three months ago, I would have as well. But that night, I realized that all the lies people have been trying to feed me all my life aren't part of my life anymore. I don't know when I quit caring. I just decided at some point in the past few months that it doesn't matter. If people hate me, that's their problem. If they tell me I'm stupid, they can just deal with it, because I'm perfect in God's eyes. At some point, I began to look at things from another perspective: I know I have worth in God's eyes and as long as God loves me, nothing else matters. Whee! It was so cool!
It almost seemed as if my giving my key to the boys was something that God wanted me to do. I know that seems weird, but I really believe that God used it. One of the girls was very upset about it and after we cleaned up, she broke down and told us that she needed help dealing with some issues in her life. She explained some of the things and the other girls told her to talk to Andy about it. I tried to tell her that she could talk to me because I completely understand the feelings she's dealing with (I haven't gone through the same situations but I have had to deal with the same feelings and insecurities), but there was too much interferance and she didn't get the message. She talked to Andy who scheduled a talk with him. That night, I knocked on the boys' door and I asked Andy if I could talk to him. He came outside and I told him that I thought that she should be referred to another girl and I explained that if he was the person she went to for help, it would be necessary for them to DTR. (Define the relationship.) The look on his face was priceless. I said, "No, no -- it's just that I've dealt with the same feelings and it leaves girls very vulnerable. If you're the person she talks to, she's going to read much more into it than you want her to." I told him that he could refer her to me if he wanted to because I know exactly what she's dealing with and I've been able to deal with it and I've come out ok in the end. He sincerely thanked me for letting him know and he said he'd tell her to talk to me. (Whee!)
After we cooked for the boys, Andy and Beich were doing the dishes. I was going to help them but Andy told me to sit down and let them do the dishes. I was like, "No!" But I did anyway and then I got up to help again and Andy scolded me but I just kept working away. Later, I felt really bad about it. I don't like it when people tell me what to do, but I realized that Andy was taking a leadership role -- he was telling me what to do, but he was doing it in a nice way. He only wanted for me to not have to work; he wanted it to be special for all the girls. Not only Shannon and Ann and Ashley and Rachel, but for ME too. I felt really bad. So, when I was talking with him, I said, "Andy, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you when you told me to sit down and let you clean up. I know I don't answer to you or anything, but I realize that you were trying to take that role of leadership and trying to make it a nice evening for us and I'm sorry I didn't listen to you." I don't remember what he said but it was completely sweet.
The whole point of going to Florida was to do beach evangelism. We did some training in our meetings and then we went out on the beach and talked to people about Jesus. The first day, I went with Eric and Jason, our football dudes. I was so shy. Jason talked to someone first, and then Eric did, and then it was my turn. I was like, "NO!" But Eric said that we had to keep our system up and he and Jason couldn't talk to anyone until I did. I love those boys -- they're awesome. I talked to a girl who said that she would read the little book we had but she didn't want to go through it with us. I love Jason's evangelism tool -- he went without a shirt. Hahaha -- he's got some nice muscles and the girls would listen to anything he said to them. It was sadly funny. Anyway, later in the week, a whole bunch of us were talking to a guy and we didn't have our "tools" (a survey and different books) with us, so we had to kinda make things up as we went along. It was totally cool. Eric was trying to make a point and he didn't know how to say what he was trying to say, so he drew a picture in the sand. He said that we have this little problem, and it looks like this:
God -------
Us -------
Eric explained that there's a huge gap between God and us, and that gap is caused by sin. Then he stooped down and drew again:
------- God
----- Jesus
------- Us
He said that Jesus is the bridge between us and God and that to get to God, you have to go through the "bridge." He asked the guy if he wanted to do that, and he looked at us and said, "Yeah. That would be great." We prayed with him and swapped contact info. It was so great!
On our first beach outreach day, I was wearing my pink flip-flops. We were walking by the ocean and there were tons of big waves. One of them was seriously up to my knees and my flip-flops came off my feet and went into the Gulf. I thought I had lost them forever but Shannon rescued one and a random guy rescued the other one and everything was ok.
There were photographers who took pictures of each campus. We did a nice picture and then we did a crazy picture. They had a contest with the crazy pictures. We buried the boys in the sand and then we put clothes where their bodies would have been had they not been buried. Then the girls lined up behind them and made funny faces and stuff. They showed all the campus pictures that night and revealed the winners. There were like 50 campuses from all over the U.S. and SMSU got SECOND PLACE! We rock!
The boys cooked breakfast for us on Friday, but they sang the corndog song for us before we could eat. That made me giggle. Then they did a raffle with a prize for everyone -- they had taken something from our condo every day and the prizes were the things they had taken. Our boys are so goofy -- but totally sweet, regardless.
We watched the sun rise on Friday morning. We got up at 5:15. Ashley shook me and I was in the middle of a dream. She said "Wake up!" In the dream, I was talking to someone and I said, "But I'm not sleeping!" The sunrise was beautiful but it was freezing and we went back to our rooms and went back to bed, but not before we sighted some dolphins frollicking in the Gulf. It was completely amazing.
The three hour tour . . . We took a boat to Shell Island where we walked around and collected shells. That's where I went in the Gulf. I didn't want to go in because there were people around and I was too shy. Jason said he'd go in with me and I said I wanted Shannon to go in. He said, "I'll take her in too, if you want." I told him that it was ok -- I needed to be true to my gender, and I didn't want him to mess with the girls. He laughed. There were lots of waves and I don't know how to swim. I told my friends that I'd go in if no one looked at me and then I said, "What if I drown?" Andy said that if anything happened, he'd rescue me. (How sweet . . . ) So I went in. It was SO cold. Ashley and I ran in and I screamed because it was cold. Wow -- it was awesome. After a minute, the people on shore told me to walk somewhere else and I was like, "Why?" But I had learned my lesson with the thing with Andy and I went. I felt something soft and alive by my feet. When I got out of the water, they told me that there had been a jellyfish by my feet and that if I hadn't moved, I would have been stung. Oh my goodness. That is awesome! After I got out of the water, I was chilling on the beach (quite literally) with Jason and Shannon and I said, "Going in the Gulf was a bonding experience for me." They asked why and I said, "Everyone saw me like . . . half naked!" I could tell Jason was trying really hard to not laugh, but he wasn't succeeding. Finally, he choked out, "If you're half naked then I'm 3/4 naked." Shannon chimed in with, "If that's the case then I must be almost completely naked!"
We had to leave on Friday night. It was so sad! I felt like I was leaving the only home I'd ever had and I wanted to cry. I felt like I came away with 5 new brothers and 5 new sisters, which was great. We had adventures that night. We encountered two accidents in Alabama and we decided to find a hotel and call it a night. We stopped at one and it was full. We stopped at the next town and they only had singles left and they told us that if we wanted a place, we should take the singles because there was a conference going on in Nashville and all the hotels between Nashville and the middle of Alabama were completely booked. We had 6 girls in a single and 5 guys in another single. Andy said that he and Neimi were going to snuggle. It was way too fun. Oh my goodness! It was sad for the girls though because one of the girls wouldn't sleep on the floor but she wouldn't share the bed with anyone either. It was mean . . . So, Riippa and I were next to each other on the floor and Ashley was by me and Nikki's head was by mine and Shannon's feet were by Nikki's feet. I told Nikki that I wanted a cuddle-buddy like the boys had and then I fell asleep right away and didn't care anymore. When I woke up, I said, "For a minute there, I thought maybe Riippa and I were going to have to DTR but then I realized that there was a good 6 inches between us all night so it was ok." The boys knocked on the door and told us we needed to get going.
On Saturday, we had a boring day, rather. We stopped at the Arch in St. Louis which was pretty cool. Andy's guitar was by me for most of the trip and I told him that his guitar and I were cuddling. He said that he has spent many a lonely night cuddling with it too. We got to Kansas City late in the afternoon and I saw the sign for the airport. It said "KCI Airport" but the I looked like an l and I was like, "Dude! It's Potassium Chloride airport!" Rachel made it clear that she thought I was stupid because it was KCI, not KCl and I was like, "Dude, I'm just trying to be funny!" Andy told her to leave me alone -- I guess it must have been impressive that I actually knew that KCl is potassium choloride because Rachel was like, "I knew that too -- I took chemistry with Sanow . . . " Well, I took it with the hardest professor on this campus, so there. Ha! And I'm pretty sure that my TWO semesters of higher-level introductory chemistry were much harder than her one semester of lower-level introductory chemistry. For serious.
We had two-way radios with us and the people in the car asked us what our pet peeves were. I said that mine is girls. They informed me that I AM a girl and I said, "I hadn't noticed . . . " Hahaha I can't handle all the drama when it comes to girls. They just need to chill . . .
I don't know if I mentioned, but we managed to get back to school without anyone hating each other. I suppose I should probably say that no one bothered to mention anything about hating Rachel. Most of us were pretty annoyed with her by the time we got back.
I have to mention how much I appreciate our boys. Eric, (Nate) Beich, Andy, (Andy) Neimi and Jason like to have fun and they do like to pull pranks on the girls but in the end, it's very obvious that they have a lot of respect for us and that they would do just about anything for us. I felt very protected, loved and respected by our boys. It was great. Kudos to our boys! :-)
~MK
Friday, March 11, 2:00 p.m.
I headed over to F-Hall and chilled with Beich while we waited for the rest to get there. Neimi was the only other person who got there by 2:30. Somehow, they didn't inform Beich, Neimi or myself that we weren't supposed to be there until 3:00. Everyone finally arrived and we got ourselves situated for the 26 hour ride to Florida. Oh my goodness! We had so much fun. We ended up taking a van and a car. I sat in the back of the van with Nikki. We had Andy, Jason, Ashley, Rachel, Nikki and myself in the van and Eric, Beich, (Ann) Riippa, Neimi, and Shannon in the car. Every so often I'd lean over to Nikki and say something like, "He has really pretty eyes." (He was driving -- I could see his eyes in the mirror.) I was really tired because I had had to write 10 papers that week, plus my concert and tests and stuff, so I wasn't talking and I looked like I was about to fall asleep. Andy said that if he couldn't sleep then I couldn't sleep and I said, "No problem -- I haven't slept in a car since I was like 14." They asked me if I was going to stay awake for the whole trip and I was like, "I don't know . . . maybe . . . " It turned out that I didn't fall asleep until about 1:00 a.m., after being in the car for 9 hours.
Dave called me to tell me that he passed his test and was officially graduated from that phase of his military training at about 9:00 p.m. Yay! He flew out to Luke the next morning.
The trip was totally fun. Miraculously, no one ended up fighting. We got to Panama City Beach and checked into our rooms. We stayed at Edgewater Beach Resort in condos. They had a balcony off the living room area, a kitchen with laundry facilities attached, a bedroom with two full-sized beds and a bathroom attached, and another bedroom with a king size bed and a bathroom attached. All 6 of us girls were in one condo and the 5 boys were in another one (after some rearranging) with a guy from New Mexico.
On this trip I did tons of things I've never done before. A list follows.
~Toasted bagels
~Ate a peach
~Played frisbee
~Sunscreen
~Capris
~Went out in public in a swimsuit
~Went in the Gulf of Mexico
~Beach evangelism
~Took (as my brother described it) a "three hour tour"
~Played the accomplice to crime
As you can see, it was tons of fun.
Please do not share the info in this paragraph with anyone from my school. If some people found out, it could be quite tragic for me. So, on Wednesday afternoon, Nikki K and Ashley and Rachel and I were chilling (quite literally) on the beach. We were chit-chatting and watching the ocean. Eric, Jason, Shannon and Beich were all throwing sand at each other and chasing each other around. For some reason, Eric stopped and sat down between Nikki and me and everyone kept throwing sand at us. Ashley and Rachel weren't touched. Nikki and I got sand all over us. We laughed it off. Ashley and Rachel flipped out and decided that the boys had to pay. (How does that work out?) They came up with this huge plan to get the boys back. They stole Andy's key from his backpack and they planned to get in and completely trash their condo. They were going to TP the whole place and seran wrap the toilet and I don't know what-all they were going to do. It was so messed up. I felt so bad about it because the boys were just being boys -- they didn't throw sand at us to see us suffer. It just happened to land on us. I thought about it for a while and after we went back to our rooms, I knocked on the boys' door. Jason answered and Andy came to the door too, and I said, "I'm on your side." They said, "Huh?" I told them the girls were plotting against them and I told them I couldn't really do anything to stop them, but I'd give them my key and they could do anything they wanted to in our room as long as they didn't break anything and as long as they didn't mess with our personal belongings. They said, "You rock, girl! It's a deal!!" (By the way, I knew I rock.) That night was the Men's and Women's times. The men had their meeting at 6:30 (or something -- I don't remember exactly), and after they left, the girls went to try to get into the boys' room. The key didn't work. I was working pretty hard to not laugh. They tried the patio doors and they found a note that said "nice try." The girls went upstairs again and complained and wondered how the boys knew. (Duh -- it was pretty obvious that the girls were planning something . . . ) It turned out that Andy figured out that someone had his key and he went to ask the people if they could get their lock and keys remagnitized. (Smart . . . The girls didn't understand this concept when the boys told us what they'd done.) Then we went to our meeting at 8. When we got back, the girls found the place a mess. Once again, I could barely contain my laughter. It was even worse when Jason brought their "peace offering" -- a candy necklace and a spider ring for each of us. (Oh my goodness! I thought I was going to die.) Timmy called me as we got back and I so wanted to tell him what happened but I couldn't because the girls would have killed me. Nikki, Shannon, and Ann were pretty cool about it. Nikki thought it was funny. Ashley and Rachel flipped out again. The girls had been so careful about locking doors and making sure we all had our keys. When they asked if we had our keys I said, "Accounted for" -- it wasn't on me but I knew exactly where it was. They asked the boys how they got in and they said, "It was magic . . . and Eric's soccer skills." Shannon told them that she wasn't going to talk to the boys again until they told us how they got in. Eric said, "The Lord does answer prayers after all." It was great. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The girls got it into their heads that the boys were going to do something worse and were prepping for it, so I went down to talk to the boys. I told them that the girls expected something more, and I told them they should do something. They said, "What can we do?" I told them they should do something nice for the girls because they're expecting SOMETHING, but not something nice. They said, "We spent $3 on the necklaces and rings -- what more do they want from us?" I said, "I know! You guys should write a song for the girls and then record it." They loved that idea. They began immediately and then they were like, "But you can't hear this -- go away!" So I made my exit and tried really hard not to giggle as I made my way back to my condo. A half hour later, the girls decided to invite the boys up to chat. When Riippa came back, she said, "They said they'd come in 10 minutes." The girls started to worry. They knew something was going down. (Uh-oh.) The boys came up and we talked and then I don't remember what-all went down, but eventually they left. That night was campus night and the girls decided to "kill 'em with kindness" and cook for the boys and be nice to them. (Good choice, girls. If they had done something worse, I would have had to get involved again.) Andy and Beich did the dishes which was completely sweet. Then we watched the video we'd made of the trip. The girls were very surprised to see the song. Nikki's reaction was the best: "First you trash our condo and then you write a song of apology that tells us that we're stupid!" The chorus went like this:
And we're sorry we're smarter than you
You tried to trick us but your plans fell through
And we tricked you instead
Or something like that. It was great.
One night, Beich, Neimi, Eric, Riippa, Andy and Shannon had a Chips-Ahoy Challenge -- a contest to see first, if they could each eat an entire package of Chips-Ahoy in an hour and secondly, to see who could finish theirs first. Andy won in 18 minutes and Beich got second in 19 minutes. It was sadly funny. Eric was hilarious. He was yelling at his stomach because he couldn't eat any more cookies. He was like, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Then he was laying on the floor and he said, "I want my mommy!" Shannon managed to eat hers in like 52 minutes but she felt so sick when she was done and she and Eric went outside and vomitted together. I'm not sure what to think about that except that they were so funny when they came back in. Riippa came so close -- she ate all but 3 cookies.
Andy and Beich wrote a song about corndogs and sang it for the girls. It was great. They also set the "Would you like to know God personally?" book to music and wrote the song for the girls.
Anyway . . . we had some incredible things happen. On the first night, there was a guy taking pictures for something and he got a picture of everyone on my left and then he got one of everyone on my right and there I was, not in either picture. I didn't care if I was in a picture or not. (Does it really matter?) I only felt like I wasn't part of the group and I found myself wondering why they had allowed me to go if they weren't going to include me in things. I sat down and began to ponder. I thought to myself, "Ok. We can do this. God, if it has to be just you and me this week, it's ok. I'm not saying that I like it, but I'll survive." I didn't pout or cry. I was just like, "Ok. I don't like it, but I'm not going to let it ruin anything." Later during that meeting, we were supposed to go into small groups to discuss questions and Shannon and Jason were like, "MJ, be in our group!" That was awesome. They wanted me to go with them on the prayer walk too and that was cool. That made me feel much better.
At another meeting, the speaker was talking about the Armor of God. She talked about each piece and what it does for you. The last one she talked about was the Shield of Faith and explained that the Shield of Faith protects us from Satan's Fiery Darts. She said that the Fiery Darts are those thoughts and words that make us feel bad about ourselves. It's anything that we think or say about ourselves that is not of God. It's anything that we hear from other people (or think they might be saying) about us that is not from God. It's not from God when it's something that God would never tell us. For example, "You're ugly." God made us perfect and He is honored no matter what we look like. If God wouldn't say it to us, then it's one of Satan's Fiery Darts. At the end of the talk, she said, "We're going to take some time to deal with these fiery darts tonight." Three years ago, I would have cried. Three months ago, I would have as well. But that night, I realized that all the lies people have been trying to feed me all my life aren't part of my life anymore. I don't know when I quit caring. I just decided at some point in the past few months that it doesn't matter. If people hate me, that's their problem. If they tell me I'm stupid, they can just deal with it, because I'm perfect in God's eyes. At some point, I began to look at things from another perspective: I know I have worth in God's eyes and as long as God loves me, nothing else matters. Whee! It was so cool!
It almost seemed as if my giving my key to the boys was something that God wanted me to do. I know that seems weird, but I really believe that God used it. One of the girls was very upset about it and after we cleaned up, she broke down and told us that she needed help dealing with some issues in her life. She explained some of the things and the other girls told her to talk to Andy about it. I tried to tell her that she could talk to me because I completely understand the feelings she's dealing with (I haven't gone through the same situations but I have had to deal with the same feelings and insecurities), but there was too much interferance and she didn't get the message. She talked to Andy who scheduled a talk with him. That night, I knocked on the boys' door and I asked Andy if I could talk to him. He came outside and I told him that I thought that she should be referred to another girl and I explained that if he was the person she went to for help, it would be necessary for them to DTR. (Define the relationship.) The look on his face was priceless. I said, "No, no -- it's just that I've dealt with the same feelings and it leaves girls very vulnerable. If you're the person she talks to, she's going to read much more into it than you want her to." I told him that he could refer her to me if he wanted to because I know exactly what she's dealing with and I've been able to deal with it and I've come out ok in the end. He sincerely thanked me for letting him know and he said he'd tell her to talk to me. (Whee!)
After we cooked for the boys, Andy and Beich were doing the dishes. I was going to help them but Andy told me to sit down and let them do the dishes. I was like, "No!" But I did anyway and then I got up to help again and Andy scolded me but I just kept working away. Later, I felt really bad about it. I don't like it when people tell me what to do, but I realized that Andy was taking a leadership role -- he was telling me what to do, but he was doing it in a nice way. He only wanted for me to not have to work; he wanted it to be special for all the girls. Not only Shannon and Ann and Ashley and Rachel, but for ME too. I felt really bad. So, when I was talking with him, I said, "Andy, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you when you told me to sit down and let you clean up. I know I don't answer to you or anything, but I realize that you were trying to take that role of leadership and trying to make it a nice evening for us and I'm sorry I didn't listen to you." I don't remember what he said but it was completely sweet.
The whole point of going to Florida was to do beach evangelism. We did some training in our meetings and then we went out on the beach and talked to people about Jesus. The first day, I went with Eric and Jason, our football dudes. I was so shy. Jason talked to someone first, and then Eric did, and then it was my turn. I was like, "NO!" But Eric said that we had to keep our system up and he and Jason couldn't talk to anyone until I did. I love those boys -- they're awesome. I talked to a girl who said that she would read the little book we had but she didn't want to go through it with us. I love Jason's evangelism tool -- he went without a shirt. Hahaha -- he's got some nice muscles and the girls would listen to anything he said to them. It was sadly funny. Anyway, later in the week, a whole bunch of us were talking to a guy and we didn't have our "tools" (a survey and different books) with us, so we had to kinda make things up as we went along. It was totally cool. Eric was trying to make a point and he didn't know how to say what he was trying to say, so he drew a picture in the sand. He said that we have this little problem, and it looks like this:
God -------
Us -------
Eric explained that there's a huge gap between God and us, and that gap is caused by sin. Then he stooped down and drew again:
------- God
----- Jesus
------- Us
He said that Jesus is the bridge between us and God and that to get to God, you have to go through the "bridge." He asked the guy if he wanted to do that, and he looked at us and said, "Yeah. That would be great." We prayed with him and swapped contact info. It was so great!
On our first beach outreach day, I was wearing my pink flip-flops. We were walking by the ocean and there were tons of big waves. One of them was seriously up to my knees and my flip-flops came off my feet and went into the Gulf. I thought I had lost them forever but Shannon rescued one and a random guy rescued the other one and everything was ok.
There were photographers who took pictures of each campus. We did a nice picture and then we did a crazy picture. They had a contest with the crazy pictures. We buried the boys in the sand and then we put clothes where their bodies would have been had they not been buried. Then the girls lined up behind them and made funny faces and stuff. They showed all the campus pictures that night and revealed the winners. There were like 50 campuses from all over the U.S. and SMSU got SECOND PLACE! We rock!
The boys cooked breakfast for us on Friday, but they sang the corndog song for us before we could eat. That made me giggle. Then they did a raffle with a prize for everyone -- they had taken something from our condo every day and the prizes were the things they had taken. Our boys are so goofy -- but totally sweet, regardless.
We watched the sun rise on Friday morning. We got up at 5:15. Ashley shook me and I was in the middle of a dream. She said "Wake up!" In the dream, I was talking to someone and I said, "But I'm not sleeping!" The sunrise was beautiful but it was freezing and we went back to our rooms and went back to bed, but not before we sighted some dolphins frollicking in the Gulf. It was completely amazing.
The three hour tour . . . We took a boat to Shell Island where we walked around and collected shells. That's where I went in the Gulf. I didn't want to go in because there were people around and I was too shy. Jason said he'd go in with me and I said I wanted Shannon to go in. He said, "I'll take her in too, if you want." I told him that it was ok -- I needed to be true to my gender, and I didn't want him to mess with the girls. He laughed. There were lots of waves and I don't know how to swim. I told my friends that I'd go in if no one looked at me and then I said, "What if I drown?" Andy said that if anything happened, he'd rescue me. (How sweet . . . ) So I went in. It was SO cold. Ashley and I ran in and I screamed because it was cold. Wow -- it was awesome. After a minute, the people on shore told me to walk somewhere else and I was like, "Why?" But I had learned my lesson with the thing with Andy and I went. I felt something soft and alive by my feet. When I got out of the water, they told me that there had been a jellyfish by my feet and that if I hadn't moved, I would have been stung. Oh my goodness. That is awesome! After I got out of the water, I was chilling on the beach (quite literally) with Jason and Shannon and I said, "Going in the Gulf was a bonding experience for me." They asked why and I said, "Everyone saw me like . . . half naked!" I could tell Jason was trying really hard to not laugh, but he wasn't succeeding. Finally, he choked out, "If you're half naked then I'm 3/4 naked." Shannon chimed in with, "If that's the case then I must be almost completely naked!"
We had to leave on Friday night. It was so sad! I felt like I was leaving the only home I'd ever had and I wanted to cry. I felt like I came away with 5 new brothers and 5 new sisters, which was great. We had adventures that night. We encountered two accidents in Alabama and we decided to find a hotel and call it a night. We stopped at one and it was full. We stopped at the next town and they only had singles left and they told us that if we wanted a place, we should take the singles because there was a conference going on in Nashville and all the hotels between Nashville and the middle of Alabama were completely booked. We had 6 girls in a single and 5 guys in another single. Andy said that he and Neimi were going to snuggle. It was way too fun. Oh my goodness! It was sad for the girls though because one of the girls wouldn't sleep on the floor but she wouldn't share the bed with anyone either. It was mean . . . So, Riippa and I were next to each other on the floor and Ashley was by me and Nikki's head was by mine and Shannon's feet were by Nikki's feet. I told Nikki that I wanted a cuddle-buddy like the boys had and then I fell asleep right away and didn't care anymore. When I woke up, I said, "For a minute there, I thought maybe Riippa and I were going to have to DTR but then I realized that there was a good 6 inches between us all night so it was ok." The boys knocked on the door and told us we needed to get going.
On Saturday, we had a boring day, rather. We stopped at the Arch in St. Louis which was pretty cool. Andy's guitar was by me for most of the trip and I told him that his guitar and I were cuddling. He said that he has spent many a lonely night cuddling with it too. We got to Kansas City late in the afternoon and I saw the sign for the airport. It said "KCI Airport" but the I looked like an l and I was like, "Dude! It's Potassium Chloride airport!" Rachel made it clear that she thought I was stupid because it was KCI, not KCl and I was like, "Dude, I'm just trying to be funny!" Andy told her to leave me alone -- I guess it must have been impressive that I actually knew that KCl is potassium choloride because Rachel was like, "I knew that too -- I took chemistry with Sanow . . . " Well, I took it with the hardest professor on this campus, so there. Ha! And I'm pretty sure that my TWO semesters of higher-level introductory chemistry were much harder than her one semester of lower-level introductory chemistry. For serious.
We had two-way radios with us and the people in the car asked us what our pet peeves were. I said that mine is girls. They informed me that I AM a girl and I said, "I hadn't noticed . . . " Hahaha I can't handle all the drama when it comes to girls. They just need to chill . . .
I don't know if I mentioned, but we managed to get back to school without anyone hating each other. I suppose I should probably say that no one bothered to mention anything about hating Rachel. Most of us were pretty annoyed with her by the time we got back.
I have to mention how much I appreciate our boys. Eric, (Nate) Beich, Andy, (Andy) Neimi and Jason like to have fun and they do like to pull pranks on the girls but in the end, it's very obvious that they have a lot of respect for us and that they would do just about anything for us. I felt very protected, loved and respected by our boys. It was great. Kudos to our boys! :-)
~MK
posted by Mari Kate @ 8:12 PM
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