Week #4

Sarah Wennersten

October 4-10, 2010

Week in Review 4

The days are long but the weeks are short... such is my life. It’s actually very interesting how the days can be so long and filled with so much activity that at the end of the day it’s hard to remember what you did. Then at the same time you come to Saturday and feel like Saturday just happened a day ago.

This week I turned 19. I still have the banner in my room that my mom sent my roomy to put up. Even when I am not at home she still found a way to decorate my room like she always did at home.

We started SWEEPING on Tuesday. So for the next few weeks on Tuesdays I will be babysitting and then my SWEEP will change.

My weekend was the best weekend here so far! It all started on Thursday and just got better after that.

Thursday night was soooo much fun!!! My Pause family picked up our little group at 4:15 and we drove down the mountain quite a ways into the canyon. We drove to a campsite and set up a fire and food and we roasted hotdogs on sticks and had a great little dinner. After that we “kids” went down to the river and goofed around for a while before coming back and sitting around roasting marshmallows and eating junk. My Pause parents made me a birthday cake with candles and the whole shebang which was fun. It turned out to be a great evening.

Friday the real fun started. First almost everyone in the whole camp was helping turn over the camp to get ready the Women's Conference that morning. Then I got to work High Adventure!!! I was so stoked and it turned out to be even better than I dreamed. We only worked from 3-5 but we got some good training in on the Screamer and other aspects of the course. Then Jordan, the head guy, said he was going to go bouldering and asked if anyone wanted to come. Of course we all wanted to go so after grabbing a quick bite to eat we all loaded up and drove down the mountain a bit. We got out and picked out climbing shoes and started hiking. We hiked fast and hard trying to beat the daylight. Finally we got to a giant rock garden filled with huge boulders and cliffs. We climbed around out there for a while and then headed back in the dark. On the way back we stopped by some Indians paintings which were really cool. We also stopped for a while and just looked at the stars. Jordan is a super knowledgeable guy and it’s really neat to be around him and learn so much. We got back and I was very tired, but a good tired, a “worked hard” kind of tired. 

Saturday we got to work at 8 after grabbing breakfast on the go and got down to work. First we played an awesome game called "President Assassination" or something like that. Basically you all stand in a wide circle with two people in the middle. Then the people on the outside with a small soft ball called a “coush” try to get by the body guard and hit the president. So you have two people, one trying to block the ball and protect the other person and the other trying not to get hit. Once you hit the president then you are the body guard. It was a great way to start the day. Then we practiced on the Screamer for a few hours and I jumped off 4 or 5 times. It was a ton of fun. We had our first session at 1:15 so we grabbed a quick lunch and then I helped Seth on the bus with sign ups. The ladies were hilarious. So we got to the course with 17 women all ready to do it. I had a blast with those women. The best part was in the tree course. I was working the balance beam and helping the women get across it. So I would walk backwards on the plank and be there to support them and keep them from falling. The hardest part was actually getting them on the plank. Two women in particular really had a hard time. They wouldn’t let go of their ropes. So I was encouraging them and talking them through it. They ended up holding their ropes in the end but not without lots of persuasion from me. The only reason they were able to hold on was because they were holding up the line. Anyway those two women really took a funny liking to me. They talked about how I was so calm and nice and how I had such a sweet smile on my face while at the same time not letting them hold onto anything while being 35 feet off the ground on a small wood plank. Afterwards they came to me and grabbed me and made me take a picture with them which was very funny. One of my goals this year is to discover and grow in my spiritual gift. And I think one of my gifts may be encouraging and speaking the truth to people. I was told a few years ago that someone thought I had the gift of expounding scripture and being able to explain it to people. So maybe interacting with people on a personal level and speaking the truth is my gift. If it is then I hope I can work High Adventure this summer or somewhere else that lets me encourage people when they are in an uncomfortable position. After another group of women at 3 Jordan told us that he was going to be going to sushi and asked if anyone wanted to come. Most of us said yes and around 6 we started down the mountain. Yes, we drove 2 hours just to have sushi. The place we went is called “Roe’s” and is really nice. We had all you can eat sushi for 20$ each. It was amazing. I have never eaten that much sushi in my life. We had a large group because when we got to the restaurant there were already 7 or 8 full time staff there. So the 5 of us Joshua students felt a tiny bit awkward but it wasn’t too bad. We all got to sit at the same long table and had a contest between halves of the table of who could eat the most sushi. We laughed and joked and just had a great night. But around 9:30 we Joshua students started to think about how bad we needed to be going back. By 9:45 we knew there was no way we would make it back my curfew, but our ride was not in a hurry, so we just hoped for the best. Then at 10:00 Roe’s started to turn into a night club. A huge monster of a man came up and was saying he had to check our id’s if we were planning on staying. But we were well on our way out, just waiting for our checks. The guy was actually really nice, so my first encounter with a bouncer was a pleasant one.  Once we finally got our checks and were able to leave we exited the door by which there was a line of people waiting to get in and drove away with full tummies. It was the best sushi I have ever had and have no regrets for eating so much. Finally we were on our way back to Hume with no chance of getting back in time. I am going to talk to staff about it but I hope that was ok because when you are with full time staff and they are your ride it is a little difficult. So we ended up getting back to the Joshua building at 11:48. I was so tired! But it was such a fun night and it was neat to see so many full time staff in a setting outside of work.

Today, Sunday, work started at 8 again and me and Leila grabber breakfast to go again. Once at HA we got started right away. The first thing we did was all climb into Jordan’s car and drive up into Wagon Train. He brought us to an amazing three story fort in the woods. We had a fun time exploring that. Then we did odd jobs until noon. We took down tube run cable, took down the giant net over the skate park, and moved wood chips from the woods and spread them out over the HA area. It was a good few hours of hard work. One low point though was that I got a bunch of fiber glass in my hand which still hurts once in a while. I just didn’t know that the broken shovel I was playing with and twisting around was fiber glass. So I got hundreds of little invisible slivers in my hands. Fun times. Then at 2:00 came what we have all been waiting for... Paul and Sarah’s wedding! It was a very short and sweet ceremony. They had a beautiful wedding and reception. After hanging out at the reception a while I decided to head back to the building. I was starting to feel a little sick again and very worn down. So I made the tough decision to skip church. But I decided that I really need a day of rest, or at least a few hours of rest. So I came up, made some hot cocoa and popcorn, sat on my bed in my PJ’s, and have been relaxing. I really needed this, just some time by myself to rest and work on some homework without a big time crunch. So now I am going to read Mere Christianity a little ( which I am super stoked about) and go to bed early tonight. 

The country I want to be praying for this week is Japan. I found out that my big brother is going to be going there for a year and half to two years after he serves a 15 month tour in Turkey. So I will try to pray for Japan since it will be on mind because of my brother. I figure it’s a good way for me to remember to pray if I have a personal connection to the country. I think Japan is a pretty liberal country so they risk falling into the same trap as America of materialism. I can pray that their culture will be one that will have strong morals but more importantly that they will be open to the gospel and turn from their idolatry.