I'm Back!

Warning: Really... long... post...

Well, I'm back. After 4 days, 3 nights (none of which did we get into bed before 12:30 am, and woke up at 7-8) we are spiritually, physically, and mentally stronger, as well as TIRED in all of those areas!

The ride up was pretty fun. I had our Children's Minister and his wife driving, and they're awesome. A girl from my youth group was in the seat next to me. The band who was playing for the 3 services (they don't have a name) were in the back seat. Now, the back-up singer/guitar player is not the smallest guy around (his name is Brandon, btw). He sat in the middle. Then the main vocalist (David) and the drummer (Brett) sat beside him. All three of them were put in the backseat of a normal-sized minivan. When we got out to stop for breakfast and to use the bathroom, we asked them if they wanted to somehow make it so that all 3 of them wouldn't be in the backseat together. Their response? "No, we're good. We're having this whole bonding thing. It's cool."

However, on the last hour, we heard nothing but "Are we there yet?", "How much longer?", "Are we ever going to get there?", and my personal favorite, "Dude, I have absolutely NO footroom. You're hogging it all. MOVE!!" It was great. However, they were really nice, and everybody enjoyed their music.

So the trip up was fairly uneventful. Once we got there, we got settled into our rooms, and went to get something to eat. Then we came back and watched TV until we went to the service. The message was about Samson. How God had a plan for his life, but Samson didn't end up following it. (As the pastor put it, his elevator didn't quite make it to the top.) We learned that you can follow God's plan for your life by being yourself. If you aren't happy with yourself, and you try to be like somebody else, you will set yourself up for failure. Why? Because God has a plan for that person't life, and if you are trying to be like them, you are following God's plan for their life, not yours. Interesting, right?

Finally, Monday arrived. We woke up at 7:00 to get showers, eat breakfast, and get our ski stuff together. We left the lodge at 8:30 and drove the 1/2 hour to the ski resort. We had gotten our boots and skis the previous night, so we just had to go out on the slopes. Kevin (our youth pastor) helped me get my skis and boots on, and gave me some basic pointers for skiing. From there, we were on our own.

After doing the bunny slope 10 times, my friend Tori and I decided to try a larger slope. We rode halfway up the main slope, and got off there. We made it down alive, and then I was determined to master that. I did the 1/2 slope two more times, and the third time made it down without falling at all.

My fourth time was the worst. I ran into somebody. I was going too fast, and I couldn't get myself stopped, so I basically had to make it down the mountain going at insane speed. I yelled at a guy in front of me "On your left", but he swerved left. So, I ran into him. He managed to stay on his feet, but I fell into the ditch on the side of the slope. He just stood there, and told me "You might want to take your skis off." Finally, I get them off, and he says "Young lady, if you would just yell, we'd all live a lot longer." There went my day. After that, I was afraid to do anything but the bunny slope. It was awful.

We went back to the lodge and later on watched the Clemson-Auburn game. Then we went to service. We learned about not quenching the Spirit. If you do something that displeases God, your walk with Him is affected. In otherwords, you are quenching the Holy Spirit. It can't reach you. This is how many Christians have fallen from God's plan for their life.

Once the service was over, we all waited to ring in the New Year. We watched football, played ping-pong, and finally, watched the ball drop in Times Square. We didn't get into bed until 1:30 that night. However, we didn't have to leave to ski until 10:00, so we didn't have to wake up as early. Good for us.

When we woke up, we did pretty much the same thing. Eat breakfast, get changed, and leave. However, it had snowed 4 inches that night, and was continuing to snow. Ski conditions were miserable. The resort was so far behind on their base, so they blew snow all night, and were not going to stop at all that day. In addition to the blowers and the real snow, it was windy. You couldn't see going down the slopes at all. Needless to say, we didn't stay for very long. We headed back to the lodge. We then went for supper, and came back for our communion, which is how we ended the retreat.

In the morning, we loaded up the vans and set forth. It took us 2 hours to go 50 miles, due to the driving conditions. It was just me, the band, and Ben and Libby. Sweet! We talked a lot about college, and one of our local universities, North Greenville. Oh, and we played the best prank ever.

We hauled our stuff (suitcases and the band's equipment) in a small U-haul type trailor. It is owned by a guy named Billy Morrow, who goes to our church. We found out that the singer, David, could imitate Billy really well. Most of you don't know who Billy is, but he's this southern guy who has the best grammer I've ever heard.

So anyway, we're going down the road, and Billy is driving his truck, Ben is driving our minivan, and Kevin is driving the 15-passenger van. All of us have walkie-talkies. So David gets on the walkie-talkie and begins to talk to Kevin, while pretending to be Billy. Billy was actually behind us, because they had to stop and get their windshield wipers fixed. Kevin thought that they were far behind us.

David's like, "Hey Kevin, we're just a couple miles ahead of ya'll." And Kevin knows right away that it's not Billy. He plays along anyway. So he starts asking questions that Billy would know. Ben calls Billy to ask him, then calls Kevin's dad, who also happens to be the pastor of our church! Hilarious, right? So then Kevin's wife (Kelly) asks to talk to Billy's wife, Denise. And so came my favorite line of all, "Ah, she just drank a can o' Mountin Dew. She's passed out from a suga rush en the back seat." It was SO funny.

Well, after 12 hours of road time (this was w/o stopping for supper, as originally planned), we finally arrived home. We unloaded the vans (in the frigid wind.) I swear, it is 10 degrees cooler here in SC than it was in WV! Anyway, it's so good to be home. I learned a lot about myself, and my friends, and I am hoping to go back next year and rock the slopes.

P.S.- I will definately live to see the Superbowl.