Sarah Wennersten
November 29- December 5 , 2010
Week in Review 11
This first week back in the building from Thanksgiving break has been a good one. Tuesday we started our new Moody class which is study of Isaiah. I am really excited and have enjoyed the author and book a lot better than the last one.
Wednesday began the new season of broom hockey for Hume Lake. All of Joshua went down to the ice rink, geared up with helmets and knee/shin pads, grabbed miniature brooms, and got sliding. It was a blast. Broom hockey is very much like regular hockey mixed with soccer rules. You have a little broom that you use to hit and scoop and slide the puck. Also you wear cool-lookin’ hockey helmets (face shield and all) and big plastic knee pads that slide great on the ice. I played in the goal most the game and actually did pretty good. I was really surprised that I could still throw my body around like that, just being out of physical, competitive sports for so long. It felt great to compete again. Only one shot got past me the whole night, but all of us were still learning so that’s not a great accomplishment. Especially considering on Saturday night I played broom hockey again, except this time with some staff. Broom hockey is all the staff does during the winter (which is forever long) and so they are amazing at the game. I got dropped kicked that night. And oh my was I sore after 3 hours of that. I played goal for one 8 minute period and then I was done. I let three goals get by me and was a little frustrated because one of the female staff came up after two had gone in and said “you know after you get two goals on you you can ask for a replacement”. Most of the time that statement wouldn’t have bothered me a lot but it was the tone in which it was said that hit home. I felt a little bad a few minutes later because the same girl said something like “if you are getting tired you can switch out”, to which I responded “well I can because you seem to want me to”. That whole scenario and a few others helped me realize another area of pride in my life: I’m not used to really stinking at sports. So on this subject one more thing that hit home was that I was having trouble hitting the puck because it was nerve racking playing against all the staff. I was playing right defender and so I was up against Rich Baker who was playing left forward for the other team almost the whole night. Also right there was Jordan S and other great players. So there was a few times I had trouble hitting the puck and Rich would slide it toward me and tell me to hit it again. He gave me a few pointers but it was just embarrassing to have the game slow down so much because he was trying to help me hit the puck. And the last frustrating thing for me that game (just so I can look back and see how kinda dumb it was to be upset about this) was that it was all Joshua students and Jordan for the first 30 minutes or so of our playing time. I was having so much fun playing. Then the staff starting showing up. The said comments were made and then they started taking over. I just remember standing in my position and actually the said female staff person came and stood right in front of me. A few staffers actually took the right defense position and just made it hard to have fun after that. I guess the thing that made me sad was that I was having fun and then people came and took over. But anyway all that said I really did have a good time. Mostly because it was painful... which sounds weird. My favorite moment of the night was Rich Baker and I had a big collision. I think the puck had just gone by me and I was on my knees. Suddenly in front of me is Rich. And he was coming in hot right at me sliding on his knees. A few feet away I hear him say “oh boy” and then, boom! We hit so hard. We slid back and hit the ice. Our helmets hit really hard and I was a little dazed. We were both laying there and he asked if I was ok and I said yes. Then he asked again and we started to get up. Right as I said yes he tapped my helmet making my head hit the ice again, but softly this time. The whole thing was just funny. Why is it that in sports where people wear helmets everyone feels the need to hit other people in the helmet? So I really did have a good night of momentous collisions and many painful bruises. I hurt my back a little in one pile up but it is feeling better today. My chiropractor is going to have a fit when I finally get home to see him... but hey, it’s people like me who keep people like him in business right?
Friday night was an interesting night for me. We were done with work around 5 but then a few of us volunteered to work the mechanical bull that night. So we had to wait around until 9. I spent a long time in the dining hall hanging out with a couple of girls but then they needed to leave so I decided I would wait at the OK Chalet till 9. The girls walked me over but when I got inside there were only a couple families in there. So I sat down on a couch and started reading. Then the lights started going out cause they were on a timer or something. The families in there turned them back on a couple times but then they left. It was so awkward. They just left me in there. I asked if it was ok for me to stay and all one guy said was that he didn’t care as long as I didn’t reek havak on anything. They moved into the outside entry way and then the lights went off again. I was just thinking “ok...” so I decided to leave and had to walk by the families which again was awkward. It was dark when I walked back to Ponderosa to find somewhere to be for a few hours. The chapel was empty which was sad because I would have loved to be in a service. So I went back to the dining hall but all the workers were just getting ready to leave. So I stayed there for awhile with them while they prayed and closed the night. So then I was alone again and desicded to walk back to the ok Chalet to check the other chapel. I heard noises and was excited until I opened the door and to my discouragement found that it was just a bunch of men watching a fishing video. So I went outside again and didn’t know where to go. The thing about all of this was that I felt so alone. The feeling of loneliness is not one I feel very often because I usually love having time to myself. The only times I can remember feeling that alone was when I was with other people, sometimes you feel most lonely when you are surrounded by people. But, that night, walking in the dark and in the snow I felt alone. I guess it was almost a sense of abandonment. So I went to only place that was warm and had a light on which was the bathroom. I went in one of the stalls and had a great moment with God. It sounds weird but it was really neat. I am thankful for that night because it forced me to find my peace in God. I sang a song from my childhood called “God is so good” and it calmed my heart. I wrote the lyrics on a piece of paper I had found outside and I prayed. I love how God uses times like that to bring you closer to Him. Around 8:30 I decided to check the Ok Chalet again but it was still empty. So I sat down on the cement steps and read my book. About 15 minutes later the others showed up and we trained on how to run the mechanical bull. We got to practice on each other for a while and then we waited for the men to come. I had a good time running the bull and throwing people off... especially when the men started getting really cocky and it only took a slight twist of a knob to send them flying off. Over all it was a good night of finding comfort in God and then having a little fun.
Saturday was a fun day at work. All of us who were trained in High Adventure learned how to run a paintball session. It took a couple hours to go over all the rules and instructions. Then Sarah G, Nathan B, David, and I ran a session. I was actually becoming really aggravated by the group of men we were leading. They were like junior high boys stuck in grown mens bodies with major pride issues. They did not listen at all which made it very difficult. There are a lot of safety issues when it comes to guns and men and the fact that they were so stubborn was frustrating. I practically yelled at one older man because he was dry firing his gun after the session was over which was clearly not supposed to happen. The same older man had come up and shot one of my brothers in the back five times from 10 feet away! I was not happy. The men were clearly instructed to not shoot from less than 25 feet away. I just couldn’t believe how out of control they were. I mean they were throwing snow balls at each other during the rules at the beginning and then broke out in a snow ball fight. I just think men should be men, or at least act like a man when you are representing your church. Ugh. Besides that, working paintball was fun. I have never done paintball before so it was good to be around it. I still have never been shot though. The guns are so easy to shoot. There is absolutely no kick back.
The biggest highlight for my weekend happened on Sunday. I was working program this weekend but ended up doing a lot of high adventure stuff because the two were combined. We had 21 people working HA and Program so we got a lot of stuff accomplished. But on Sunday I got to do the coolest thing... I got to help build a platform over 40 feet up in a tree. Jordan had put me in charge of the project an hour or two before lunch without a whole lot of instruction. He laid out the general idea of what he needed, told me to use 4x6 wood and big bolts, told me I was the brains of the operation, and left me to it. It took all the time we had before lunch just to get all the supplies together because Derek, Joe, and I had to walk back and forth so much between the snow board run where the tree was, maintenance, HA shed, and wherever Jordan was to ask questions. Right before we went to lunch Jordan asked if he could have 4 people come back to work more after lunch on the platform. I volunteered and so did Derek and Andrew M. So after a good hour long lunch I drove up to HA with Jordan because the boys had already left. Jordan had to stop at the infirmary and while there I found the book “You are Special”. It’s a book I remember from my childhood about wooden people/Wemmicks/us and Eli/God and one Wemmick learning that he was special in Eli’s eyes. It was actually a really encouraging book for me to read again, so I thoroughly enjoyed that. Once at HA the four of us stood and talked for a while about bat bombs, training crows, and curving bullets. Then we proceeded to try and curve a paintball by placing your thumb slightly over the barrel but it didn’t work. After that we got down to business. We went down to the tree, after searching in the snow with a metal detector for a tool that had dropped, and Andrew went up the rope he had installed the day before. He put another rope around the tree for me. So I downed the special harness and all the accompany gear and got climbing. Which was actually a little difficult at first and it took me a while to get the hang of climbing up the rope. So what you have is just the rope that is attached by your waste to a locking... can’t remember the name of the thing.... and then a gold...don’t remember that either... that is above your head, both of which can go up but not down. The gold thing was attached to the harness and also two straps hanging below me with footholds. So what you do is you bring your knees up to your chest and then slide the gold thing up the rope. Then you stand up on the straps, and with the tail of the rope in your right hand pull the rope up and tight. Then you repeat and inch worm your way up the tree. Legs up, slide, stand, pull. Oh the glory. After making it up to where we were working Jordan and Derek stared sending up supplies. It was really hard working up there because you are hanging by your waist and trying to get in a good position. The hardest thing was bolting the lumber into the tree. You had no leverage and had to push really hard on the impact drive to get it to penetrate the tree. Also we had all the tools attached by caribeaners and ropes to ourselves so we didn’t drop anything. Over all it was a very challenging but great experience. We got the four main pieces of wood in place but didn’t quite finish. As we were making our way down I got stuck and realized one of my straps had got caught in the wood. So I had to climb up again a few feet to unhook it. The gold thing was really hard to get on and off so that took extra time. To get down you hold the tail of the rope in your right hand and the lever of the locking...something... in your left. By releasing the lever you take away the ‘locking part’ allowing yourself to belay down the rope. It was a little bumpy but I did alright. After that adventure we all went to Jordan’s house for dinner and had shrimp and pasta with a creamy Alfredo sauce. I got to deep fry the coconut shrimp which was fun. Had a great relaxing evening after all that work up in the tree. We went “midnight shopping” at the G-store, sat and talked and ate, played a game that electrocutes you if you are the slowest player, and then did dishes. I had a great weekend!
This week I want to be praying for Africa. I believe at some point in my life I will go down there to spend time with a missionary. The country is still struggling with hunger, drought, and child warriors. The country over all just needs a ton of prayer.
Sarah Wennersten
December 6-12, 2010
Week in Review
Can I just say right now I am so excited for this next week?! It is going to be a fun week of parties and work and then I get to go home! My heart is definitely ready to go home for awhile.
But this last was another good week here at Joshua. I still can’t believe how fast the weeks go bye. Every weekend I am shocked that it is the weekend already. I was thinking about it and I guess it makes sense. Monday through Thursday is filled with classes and then Friday through Sunday is a little class and then hard work. So the week is almost split in half with class and work. This year has been flying by and it is only going to speed up. I need to hold on tight.
Wednesday for dinner Lacy, Cheryl, Caitlyn and I dressed up in the Indian (dot Indian that is, not feather) fashion. Caitlyn has been to India a few times and had 4 actual outfits. The pants part were huge, two and a half of me could have fit in them. Basically what they wear down there is just giant pants (which are very airy and comfy) and a long shirt thing. It was a fun night.
Thursday we had a theme dinner and this time it was “50 year reunion of Joshua class 2010-2011”. So we all got to dress up like 70 year olds for the night. I got to where one of my favorite wigs and draw wrinkles on my face (thank you drama class). Jerrod actually shaved a cul-de-sac hair cut on his head and looked great. Everybody had fun looking and acting old. We joked about our inside jokes and tried to pull off our Joshua dance moves. Josh Yee had a “heart attack” during dinner to which his roommate Tyler came to the rescue. Our dinner consisted of “old people food”... pudding, apple sauce, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and chicken noodle soup. And we could only use spoons. After dinner we played 3 rounds of a rousing game of Banco, a game of dice. It will be interesting to see what all of us look like at 70 is the Lord tarries that long.
Friday started another weekend of work which I spent in the Ponderosa Dish Room. I worked with Richie, Jon Dail, and Nessa. I really enjoyed working there because there was almost always something to do. I have loved basically everywhere I have worked on the weekends because the is plenty of work to be done. We were very busy but had fun at the same time. Friday we got off a little early at 8:30 and once up the hill I went to sleep. I was up again at 5am to be at work by 6. I got to work “the cannon” all day on Saturday! From 6-2:30 I was spraying stuff with a high powered hose and pushing stuff into the dish washer. Within a few minutes I was soaked. All day I super wet but in the dish room it’s not bad because it is so warm and steamy, once outside though oh man it was cold. It was so disgusting too because I would be spraying something and all of a sudden water would be bathing my face. There were almost a thousand people here this weekend.... so I had almost a thousand peoples germs on me. Gross. So after a few face-fulls of water and being soaked in water we were done. And done means done for the weekend. We walked back up to the building and around 4 I sat down to look at what the rest of my weekend would look like. I wrote out a list of all needed to do, which wasn’t very much just some reading and my WIR, and then I added up my time. I figured between that night and Sunday I had about 15 hours of free time. 5 hours Saturday night and then about 10 Sunday. I felt yet another emotion not common to me... I was lost as to what I was going to with myself for that length of time. I could finish all I needed to do in a few hours that first night. But then as I was coming in my room after putting in some laundry two of the boys invited me to go snowshoeing!! Jordan was taking a group out and had more space so I got to go. So I got ready super quick and walked down to Ponderosa around 5. I had just eaten a whole bag of popcorn so I wasn’t very hungry for dinner. Then Jordan, Eric, and I went to the Ok Chalet and picked up the snow shoes. While there Jordan showed us the refrigerator full of dead things. It stunk so bad. We drove up to his house and 4-5 of my Joshua brothers were there. So we sat around for a while and talked while Jordan got ready and then we loaded up. It was Jordan, Eric, John True, Rusty, Andrew Morey and me who went. It took over 30 minutes to get to the spot where we would hike in and once there I really had to go. So I asked if by chance there were any restrooms around. To which the response was “there’s a bathroom everywhere here”. Yeah for the first time doin’ it all- natural in the California forest. Then we were off; crossing the road, stepping up onto the few feet of snow, and strapping on our snow shoes. I didn’t know snow shoes pivoted at the ball of your foot. The shoes were pretty easy to walk in and made steep slopes a lot easier to climb because there were spikes in the toe. It was well after dark by the time we got started so we did everything by headlamp. It was a lot of hard work hiking in but well worth it when we reached the top. When we finally made it to the top of Vista Point my legs were beat. We took off our snow shoes and climbed around on the rocks for awhile. While on top of the tallest rock Eric used his laser to point out different constellations. The stars were beautiful. I was finally able to see Orion! We took a few really cool pictures which was an adventure with Eric trying to make it up the rocks in 10 seconds. On the hike back down you could almost ski in some spots if you lifted up your toe and slid down on your heal. I ate it one time when I was sliding down and at the bottom my toe caught the snow. There was one really cool moment when Eric had gotten caught on something and I looked back and in the sky behind him something large and bright fell down. I freaked out a little but no one else saw it! I was bummed. But it was crazy! A giant light ball just fell from the sky! I probably sounded like I was crazy, oh well. Besides that the walk down was pretty uneventful, except for Rusty leaping off a rock and almost taking some of us out and then the boys wrestling a little. Once back in the building there was a group of people singing and playing some music. I stood around for a while, drew with sharpie on Jerrod’s head, and then went to bed. My body was so drained and so tired.
I got up this morning a little after 8, ate some breakfast, finished my book, did laundry, updated last week’s WIR, and am now finishing up this WIR. So far a good relaxing day. Now to study a little for Israel and then chill before church. Good weekend.
Somalia is being called “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster”. The country is in a state of deep turmoil being torn apart by violent attacks from within. Those in power have self interests in keeping the country in such a state of disarray. I want to be praying for Somalia that those in power and those innocent civilians who are being killed daily would hear and receive the Gospel.
cant wait to have you home. for a while at least. almost there!
ReplyDelete