Saturday, July 8, 2006

   To the best of my recollection...
Well, I'm not gonna write too much about my time at Tori's camp at all 'cause I've tried a thousand times, it would take three hours at the least to finish writing, and there's no way to explain it...except, I was thrust into a enviroment I had NO idea existed, loved it, then was forced to face the horrible truth. You see, I have been to three Churches in my life: Green Ridge, a TINY baptist church really close to our house; High Point, a larger baptist church; and First Christian of _____, a disciples of Christ church that we are going to currently. Well, my friend Tori goes to a non-denonminational church. When I went with her to church before we left for camp, I just thought that the differences were that the congregation was louder in her church than mine, and that the pastor yelled in his sermon.
When we got to the camp I was already in a bad mood because I had to wait almost six hours in a van with NO ONE I knew in it(Tori had to take the other one), but I have to admit that it looked like a DUMP. It was even worse when found out that I wasn't going to get to be in the same dorm with Tori.
But then service rolled around, and things got better. I have always wished our church was louder, with people shouting "AMEN!" and all, so that was cool. But it got weird when they mentioned altars and speaking in tounges, which i had NEVER heard of before. Around the middle of the service I felt compelled to go up to the altar, and it was like nothing I have ever doen before...people came up to pray for one another, other people cried, and some spoke in tounges. I had never seen/heard anything like it, but I guess I just sort of let them do thier thing while I prayed quietly at the altar.
I never left it until the service ended. I felt so close to God, it was AMAZING.
I got back to our dorm, and the dorm attendent that we needed to make room for came. It was either Tori or me that had to leave even though Poodle-girl and Book had the EXACT same scenario. I clhose to leave cause it was obvious that Tori would have much more fun in that room alone than I would, so i had to walk down the bug-coated hall thirty minutes before lights out to settle in to a different place for five days.
To make a long story short, my new dorm ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone except me and possibly Sleepy were related, and they all stayed up until, like, two talking. There was Mississippi, a girl from (obvioulsy) Mississippi who had an accent and a HUGE sense of humor; Superstar, a somewhat preppy, very nice fourteen year old who was part of the Macho-Man/Superstar feud; Ashley Ashley, Macho-man's cousin and HILARIOUS person; Sleepy, a person so sweet she would melt in the rain; SoftballStar, the coolest jock I will EVER meet; Lavva Lavva, our AWESOME, SWEET, COOL, and laid-back dorm attendent of whom I WILL be in the dorm of next year(who is also Mississippi's mom); Hannah-Banana, who is like, the best person ever to talk to; and Macho-Man, a funny jock-ish person who was conned into going out with a dude younger than her.
Yeah. It rocked.
Over the days I made many great friends, such as FlyAway, Bracelet, Maxi-Me, and a lot more.
Here is a list of memorable things that happened because it's faster to write and we have to go pick up Cantaloupe soon:
1. I accepted the Holy Gost into my heart and spoke in tounges myself.
2.The family runion:Macho-man, Ashley Ashley, and Superstar decided they wanted to take a picture of what they thought to be thier large butts, and Ashley Ashley started to rub hers and made a WIDE LOAD sign to stick on her butt. HILARIOUS!!!!!!I might be able to get a picture, not sure.
3.The Mississippi dance and her accent, both SO funny and only to be pulled off by her and NO ONE else.
4.Bible Quiz. Not that I participated or anything, but going everyday after lunch to watch Tori battle out BroCo and then win by ten points makes it something close to your heart.
5.Brother Bass. SO hot. SO at least twice my age.
I know there are things that I'm forgetting, but I need to wrap this up....
When I got home mom made it clear that I was NOT going to church with Tori, and she also made points that I had thought about intensly over the almost-week at camp. Such as, how much praying are you ACTUALLY getting done by rolling around the floor speaking in tongues as opposed to doing nothing but bowing your head? If rock does not portray a negative meassage, what's bad about it? If your purpse in life is to spread God's love, does it really matter if youl listen to rock or read Harry Potter as long as it does not distract you from that purpose?
There was more spiritual closening than met the eye havin to do with that church camp. Not only with God, but with the disciples of Christ church itself. I thank Tori for the amazing opportunity, and everyone who I knew for bringing me through the journey. I thank the experience itself for giving me the book, Unsweetened Kool-Aid, to be written.
But most of all, I thank God for everything.
And now, as I sit next to tears a half-hour before picking up Cantaloupe, a day before leaving for Chicago, listening to Green Day, loving God, and reflecting, things could barely get better.
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