Sarah Wennersten
December 13- January 2 , 2010
Week in Review 12 pts. 1&2
Pt. 1, December 13- 17
Well my last week at Hume before Christmas break was a good one. Monday we had an Israel test which I did pretty good on but missed a vocab word because it wasn’t in the study notes. Now I know it though. On Monday we also had our first “Money Monday” and everyone got nice and dressed up for dinner. I like the idea of dressing extra nice on Mondays but it just means I have to bring more clothes home so I have stuff to wear. Tuesday for my SWEEP I worked with the Hume Charter School PE class. We went ice skating and I had a lot of fun even though we didn’t anything productive the entire time. Also on Tuesday we were told that we were able to leave Joshua on Thursday because Hume didn’t need all of us to work, only 17. So they had a sign up sheet. I was surprised by how many people wanted to stay and work and not go home. I of course had to stay because my flight wasn’t until Sunday. People were supposed to wait until everyone was through the lunch line but people started a line right away. So I jumped in line also cause I needed to work. There was a little bit of drama but it all worked out and I got to work Program for the weekend and get paid for it. Wednesday was a fun day. We had normal classes and then book discussion after lunch. Then the bell choir had to practice and the rest of us got to start getting ready for the Christmas party and formal dinner. Falynne curled my hair for me which I have never had done before. I really liked how it looked and felt pretty. My roomy and I did our makeup together and had a good time talking like we always do. Pictures started at 4:00. It was funny because you could not use your flash on your own camera in the same room as the big fancy camera set up because they would make the lights blink out. After taking the awkward single pictures we got to take pics with friends and had a lot of fun. At 5:00 we went to dinner. The dining room was set up really nicely and we got to sit at big tables with about 10 people. We had pizza and there was bottled root beer. I almost broke my 5 years and counting not drinking any soda streak over one of those bottles... idk... I have always allowed myself an occasional root beer float so I may allow myself an occasional really nicely brewed root beer. I am still deciding. But I didn’t break my streak that night. I just had an epiphany... I will finish out this year, since my no-pop diet started with a new years resolution, and on January first I will have a root beer. Done. So after dinner we all cleaned up and then went and changed into our ugly sweaters. I actually really enjoyed my sweater. It was knit and purple and just fit weird. I wore my pink cami with it trying to clash a little along with my rain boots. When I first walked down the stairs Josh Coffey goes “that is hideous”. Goal accomplished. Nice job on picking out the sweater Mom. We took funny pics in our sweaters and then our Pause families showed up. The building was very crowded. Soon we went into the dining room and had our ginger bread house contest. Our house rocked. We started out building a nice little Joshua building and making the ginger bread men into zombies. We were doing our house based off of Tuckers “Boom, I’m a zombie” song. Soon however after trying to stick stuff on the roof our building began to collapse... and almost all at once we all decided to destroy it and make our creation the “zombie apocalypse of Joshua 2011”. So we had a giant pile of ginger bread stuff with lots of candy and frosting thrown on top and many zombie ginger bread men on top. It was so much fun. We totally weren’t trying to win anything and just had fun as a family. After that we all went into the great room and the bell choir preformed, we sang some Christmas carols, Becky read a story, and we had the ugly sweater contest. Then we cleaned up the building and our Pause family went to the Mulls house and opened stockings with lots of goodies for Israel in them and had a good time of fellowship. I love my Pause family.
Thursday most of the class left for Christmas break, which meant work started for the rest of us. I really enjoyed working the weekend with Program and getting to know John Foster better. We got to start about hour early because we asked John if we could so that was nice. I believe it was Thursday that we hauled a tons of wood from maintenance to the snow board run. It was a lot of hard work but felt really good to be carry all that wood. The hard part was getting from the top of the run to the middle and being careful not to drop anything or slip and fall. We got off work at 5 but then had to be back at 7 to start work again in the Ark and run the ice skating for the Victory Outreach group. We didn’t actually start work till about 9 because the conference went really long in their session. So all of us working Program just stood around the big fire pit and talked and told stories. We had a really good time together. Then we worked till almost midnight. Friday we started work at one and Lesli and I worked the mechanical bull from 1-5pm. It was very long. There was one dude however who hung around us almost the whole 4 hours. He kept trying to talk and was just a very lonely man. So at one point I was running the bull so I was behind the whole blow-up thing. Lesli was up front getting people in and going. So the dude came up and I almost went over to help her out but decided against it. After a few seconds of conversation he left. Turns out he practically asked her out, asking if she wanted to get dinner on her break. Lol. It was great cause I just hid behind the bull the whole time. So we had a good time doing that. We got off for dinner at 5 and didn’t have to be back to work till 9. So we all went over to Rich’s house and sat around and talked and played games till we had to leave for work. We had a good time relaxing and then went and worked till midnight. It had started snowing when to Rich’s and when we left there a few good inches on the ground. By the time we got off work there was well over a foot. After work we took some fun pics writing with a flashlight with the slow shutter speed on the camera. Over all a good weekend of hard work and relaxation.
Pt. 2, December 18-January 2
For Saturday I had a bit of difficulty finding a ride down the hill but finally got one with Josh C. Once down we, Sawyer-Lesli- Josh- and me, went to Starbucks. Josh left with his dad and then a little while later the girls left. So there I was. In Starbucks, by myself with my suitcase. It was great. I was calling around for a long time trying to find a place to stay the night and find a ride to the airport in the morning. I was finally able to get a hold of Sam who had offered for me to stay with her earlier and she picked me up. I actually kind of enjoyed that little adventure. I knew I wouldn’t be spending the night on the street and God just gave me a ton of peace and I was able to be totally cool about the whole situation. At Sam’s house I got to skype with my mom for about 2 hours and she got to meet Sam’s parents. Sam’s parents left for a party around dinner and then she went to go hang with some friends around 10pm. I opted out and decided to rest before traveling the next day. So I had full reign of the house but mostly just sat in my room and then went to bed. In the morning Sam and her mom took me to the airport. While waiting to board I got some good Bible reading in and then this random girl who had been sitting across from me the whole time came and sat beside me and started talking. When she came over she said “my dad always taught me to be very sociable”. I guess so. We talked for a long time before the plane finally boarded. My flight to Portland and then home was mostly uneventful except for coming a little close to missing my connecting flight because the first one left late. I was super excited to see my parents so when I got to hug my mom at the bottom of the escalator I was one happy camper. And then dad was waiting outside with the car so when I saw him I was an extra happy camper. We went to Parisio’s to get some tortilla soup which was excellent and then we went home. My parents went in first to see Snickers and get her outside. Then I came in and sat down on the family room floor and waited for my dog to come in cause I knew she would freak out. When she came in she knew something was up but went straight to the bathroom where my bags were. After smelling them she I knew I was back and started searching for me. I was expecting her to freak more but she was confused. She didn’t know what to do so she just whimpered and ran around with a very funny look in her eyes. It was really good to see my dog. That night we went to my church’s Christmas service and I had a great time seeing and being with my church family.
My Christmas break was crazy. I didn’t have a full day at home until Christmas day. So Monday I got a tetanus shot and then went and spent a few hours shopping with my mom and then spent the late afternoon and evening hanging out with some friends. Tuesday I went shopping with my mom, got my hair cut, went to the chiropractor, got my eyes checked, and went to my schools boys basketball game. Wednesday I met with a girl friend at 8 at Starbucks, went to the doctor, had lunch with some girls from my class, and went to the dentist. Thursday another morning appointment in a far away city followed by random errands. Friday big breakfast at Ellie’s, most of the day at home working on FAFSA, and then spent Christmas Eve with the Herringtons. Christmas day was finally a relaxing day. I had a good morning with my mom and dad and then just got stuff done during the day. I was working all week on unpacking my bedroom because it was all packed cause we got new carpet. Sunday church was good and then I spent time with my old small group during second service. Sunday night was amazing. It was announced that morning that we were having communion that night and I was so excited. I can’t ever remember a time I was excited for communion. I have always been scared out of my mind to take it because I was never sure if I was actually saved or not and was afraid I was just goign to drink judgement on myself. But by God’s grace and working in my life I was super excited to get to celebrate what Christ did for me and express my thankfulness and loyalty in that way. I can’t thank God enough for letting me not be afraid anymore to come to His table. That night after church I went to coffee with Jacob and Nathaniel, two of my great friends my whole life. We talked for a long time and just got caught up on what has been going on in each other’s lives. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with those boys. When we were leaving I got caught up in a conversation with two girls I knew and ended up talking with them for another hour until Starbucks closed. Over all it was a great evening of being spiritually built up and encouraged. Monday morning I had a good devotion time and caught up on some reading I had missed in my Psalms and Proverbs reading. Monday also turned out to be the second day I got to spend at home. Tuesday I went to the chiropractor again and then to a thrift store to get some stuff for the DR. Then my mom and I went to the outlet malls and looked around for awhile until a close girls friend showed up. The three of us hung out for awhile but then my mom left and me and Amanda shopped awhile and then went to Starbucks and talked for a long time. After that she came over to my house and ate pizza with my family. After she left and my dad went to bed I sat in my mom’s lap for a long time while she prayed and we just talked. It was a great last day. Wednesday I was woken up at 3:20, at a yummy breakfast, got ready, left the house at 4:30, made it to airport by 6, and then waited for my plane till 8. I was tired. Nathan Betz, Autumn and I all had the same flight. Nathan showed up first but then Autumn didn’t show up until almost 10 minutes before our flight left. My flight was good but I didn’t get a lot of reading done because me and the lady I was sitting next to talked almost the whole time. After talking for a long time it was clear that she knew I was a Christian and it was also clear that she wasn’t. She had been raised Catholic but now seems to have nothing to do with religion. I was feeling very convicted to ask her more about her spiritual state but started chickening out. I told myself it was good how easily she accepted all my talk about God... but then she never really reciprocated the talk about God. So then of course I started getting really convicted. I told myself this woman is probably going to hell, am I really going to just sit here and not engage her at all? So I kinda eased into the conversation by asking if she had heard of the church “The Well” since she was from Fresno. She hadn’t but she talked a little about all the churches in the area. So I kinda got to the point and asked what church she went to. She said she didn’t really go to church. After that I didn’t really push the subject but just tried to show Christ in me. I kinda felt like I should have gotten her in some kind of theological conversation but then I realized that maybe by me being and gentle with the subject of God I made more of an impact than by being pushy. Some people are so turned off to Christianity because of all they have ever experienced has been Christians trying to shove God down their throats and being unloving. So I hope that maybe God will use my interaction with her as a means to draw her to Himself. It’s just hard to not see results and to not think maybe I could have done more.
We got to Fresno around 10 and after getting all my bags Josh Yee took all of us including Matthew back to his house. There we ate scones, eggs, and some bacon. We just chilled for a long time because we had to pick up a full time staffer at 2 from the train station. For lunch we had pizza and began the squish. There were 8 people in an 8 passenger suburban with lots of luggage. I was in the back seat with Matthew and Josh’s sister and it was tight. We were holding Matt’s guitar in our laps, the second row had luggage at their feet, there was a suitcase sitting on the center consul, and we had the car top carrier full. It was so cramped but fun too. Josh’s mom was a really good driver and with all the weight in the vehicle we never had to put chains on. Once at the Joshua building we got to see everyone, most of whom had been there since Tuesday to avoid to storm. We relaxed a little and then were told to meet in the great room at 7 with snow clothes on. I went down about 5 minutes early and everyone was already outside and had begun. So we were doing an old Joshua tradition of burning about 5 Christmas trees. So the boys were out there with fire and lighter fluid and hairspray lighting the trees up. It was a little crazy. After that we all went inside and enjoyed some karaoke and just had a good time being with the family again.
Thursday began another weekend of work. I worked Program and spent most of my time at the tube run in the very cold snow. For the tube run what I did most of the time was hook people’s tubes onto the tow to take them up the hill. It involves standing facing the tow, which has giant orange hooks every 15 feet, holding onto the loop at the end of the cord on the tube with the kid in it, grabbing a hook as it goes by and hooking the loop on the hook. The tow is really powerful and doesn’t stop for anything unless you stop it. I experienced getting hooked by the tow and did not have a fun time having the back of my left thigh hooked and me being spun around ending in a belly flop down the slope. I have a nice bruise though. The most exciting thing that happened this weekend was when I was hooking people and suddenly this one kid’s tube slipped off for no reason half way up the hill. So the kid starts sliding backwards heading right for another kid who is still in motion going up. I took off at a run but got there right as they collided and as the first kid flipped on top of the other. One of the kids hit his head and the other was just a little shaken but otherwise they were ok. I was kneeling there with both of them making sure they were good when I turned back up the hill. Suddenly the kid’s’ tube that was below me started sliding down the hill headed straight for the line and the tow machinery. So I went after it. I made a grab but it was too fast and so I just scrabbled and then dove. It was actually pretty legit. So I full belly dove after this kid, caught the rope on his tube, and then was able to get on my knees to stop the slide. My heart was pounding so hard! For a long time after that whole fiasco my heart pumping really fast. So I brought the one kid back down, hooked him up again, and then it was over. When I wasn’t working the hook up I was doing some crowd control which wasn’t that bad because it was family camp and so there were plenty of adults. The bad thing about crowd control though is that you are just standing around and you get very, very cold.
Friday it was work again at the tube run but then I worked the mechanical bull from 9:00-10:30pm. After that began the New Year’s party. I got there just in time to join the pizza train and carry a pizza out to a table dancing like a crazy person. It was great having 56 Joshua students burst out of the kitchen screaming, yelling, and dancing with pizza. My New Year’s was really good this year. After the pizza train we mostly just waited for midnight: watching some videos, singing songs, and helping serve the conferees. At midnight a bunch of balloons, noise makers, and confetti dropped from the ceiling and it was loud. We all went crazy and had lots of fun. When everyone left it only took us a little over 20 minutes to clean the whole dining hall. It rocked. I came back up the building after that and then me and my roomy sat on our beds and drank IBC root beers together. So about 5 years ago I made a New Year’s resolution to not drink any pop, and since then I just never drank it again. So it had been 5 years since I have drank any pop- except for the occasion root beer float. The other night at our Christmas party I almost broke my streak because I wanted a bottled root beer so bad. But I refrained. That was the first time I can ever really remember my no-pop diet being difficult. I didn’t want to be a stickler about my resolution so I gave myself some slack after 5 years and am allowing myself the occasional root beer. I had a great time with my roomy sitting, drinking, and talking till 2 in the morning. Great way to break the streak.
Saturday we had to be at work at 11:30 but didn’t work. We just had to turn in the new really nice bright green Program jackets and fill out our time cards. After that we went to lunch. At 3 there was a party at Calens house but I decided to go back up the building and see I was feeling up to going down later. Once at the building though, looking out at the cold snow falling and sitting in my quiet room drinking a hot chai tea latte I voted against going to the party. So I stayed up at Joshua pretty much all by myself and unpacked from Christmas break and got some work done. I am really glad I chose to stay, it was good to relax a little.
Sunday we had a family meeting at 10am. I didn’t think it was going to be anything bad and at first it wasn’t. Rich just made some announcements and we checked our plane tickets for the DR. Then it happened. The projector screen was raised and they announced that we were getting new rooms and roommates. I wish I could have recorded the reaction in that room. We were all in shock. Everyone was yelling and freaking out. A lot of the girls cried and it was just chaos for a minute. I think almost everyone is feeling the same thing. We are not sad about living with someone else, it just stinks to be leaving our old roommates. Kaylee and I have had such good memories together and it’s kinda hard to leave. We all had to get all of the stuff out of our rooms and into the hall ways. It looked like a bomb had gone off. The halls and library were full of stuff. It’s hard to imagine 28 girls stuff all piled like that. After all our stuff was out we had to clean the room, get it checked, and then start moving into our new room. Kaylee didn’t really start packing until after lunch so the girls who were taking our room had to wait a long time but I guess that’s ok. So my new roommate is Julie and I couldn’t have asked for anyone better. I love Julie and am excited to get to know her better. My new room is now at the complete opposite end of the hall right across from the catalyst room. The whole packing process was pretty crazy cause I really do have a lot of stuff here. By the time we left for dinner and church around 5 I was not done unpacking by any means. Dinner was good, church was good, and then my first night in a new place was good. I sat up with Julie, Kaylee, and Sammy Mull for a long time before a girls meeting was called. We met with all the girls for a while about a garage sale thing which of course started getting out hand as soon as all the girls felt the need to suggest something to the whole group. A few of us tried to end it quickly and were able to avoid some of the tension. After that I went back to my room and worked on stuff. Julie and I stayed up for a long time both working on our computers and then we went to bed. We were laying there in the dark talking and long story short the light ended up coming back on and we laid there talking for a long time. It was a great to get to know Julie a little better and just talk. I really enjoyed it.
The last few weeks have been crazy but really good at the same time. I feel like I have had no time to process what is going on in my head or heart. I hope to write more about my spiritual life more once I get a chance too, which may not be for awhile because I have so much to do. I plan to take time to process all of 2010 and make a plan for 2011.
This week I want to be praying for Africa and for the widespread suffering present in that country. The terrible things that happen there on a regular basis are so, so sad. Mostly what that country and it’s leaders need is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No amount of economical or health care aid will truly change Africa apart from the work of Christ in people hearts and lives.
Sarah Wennersten
January 3-9, 2011
Week in Review 13
Yet another week has gone by... I still can’t believe how fast time flies here. I feel like I have no time to process what all is going on. I just need a few hours... a few hours of no responsibilities to attend to, no set time to be a certain place. I feel I just need to take a ton of uninterrupted time to spend time with God and sort through all this stuff in my head. I think I am missing out on a lot of growth because we have no down time. This is a lesson for me that can carry through the rest of my life... taking time to process is very important. I can’t just go a hundred miles per hour all the time and not take time for retreat and rest.
All of this craziness hit a boiling point mid-way through the week. I found myself so longing for time alone with God that my heart was just heavy. I just felt down, and sad, and just longing. In a way this was encouraging for me, but very difficult. I think it was Wednesday night I was sitting in bed about to go to sleep when I started to... weep, I guess would be the word for it. I remember sitting criss-cross on my bed crying and crying out to God. I told Him I missed Him and wanted to get back into spending time with Him. I vented, and just poured out all that was on my mind to Him. I felt at times like screaming, like it was the only way to relieve the weight on my chest. There was so much more to say when I finally laid down to sleep, and after praying more and bathing my pillow in tears I finally fell asleep. One thing that I realized the first weekend back from vacation was that I badly need to be spending time with God every day. I didn’t spend much time with Him over break and it was painfully apparent to me that weekend. Ugly sin reared its head and I wanted so bad to punch it out. I couldn’t believe how much more I struggled. I have been having a really great season of light struggles, so when ugly pride began creeping up I was very discouraged. But God has been good and instead of letting the devil fill my heads with doubts He let me long for Him more. I am so encouraged that all my struggles of assurance of salvation did not come back like they always did in valley’s like this one. I know He loves me and even when I ignore Him He pulls me back to Himself.
This week was pretty normal aside from the roommate change on Sunday and Philippians test on Friday. I will admit I did procrastinate on the Philippians. But I past on my second try. I found a good way for me to memorize is to record myself reading it and then talk along with the recording. Since it is at my own pace with my own inflection it made it much easier. I could only do this after I had it mostly memorized already. Just to get it smooth. For this test we had to write out chapters 1 and 2. It took a little over 50 minutes of almost non-stop writing to get it done.
Thursday night was Pause night. We enjoyed celebrating the Mexican holiday of “Euphony” with the De La Rosa’s. We ate good Mexican food and hot cocoa and then found the baby Jesus that was hidden in the giant donut-shaped loaf of bread. We played some “guestures”/charades on steroids and then had ice cream and snacked on homemade marshmellows. I love my Pause family.
This weekend was an odd mix of fun, awkwardness, and frustration. I was working SS with Kaysi, Becky, and Sarah G and we had a blast. It could have been a horrible weekend but we made it fun. So the frustration came into play with the work/lack of work we were doing. I hate being at work and on the clock and not doing anything. We would take a 15 minute break and then they would have us sit around the shop for another 30. Ugh. The work was slow. All in all for one day we could do all we did in about 2 hours, instead it gets spread out over 8 hours. Partially because we have to vacuum the dining hall after each meal which of course do not happen in a 2 hour period. So I was a little quirked just because we didn’t get to work hard but thats ok. The awkwardness came in the form of our boss having a huge crush on the other SS guy we were working with... that in and of itself has many funny stories. A couple funny moments: boss lady says, “Girls go strip. Darrin come with me”. Meaning strip the beds... but it was hilarious, especially how we reacted after they had gone. Probably my favorite time this weekend was on Sunday when it was Becky, Sarah, and me. We were all loopy and hyper. We were singing camp songs and just being goofy. At one point Sarah was vacuuming upstairs and I had gone downstairs to get something. When I came back up I peaked in the room, saw her back was to me, and began to kinda creep/run up to her. When she turned around and saw me she let out a bloodcurdling scream. I fell to the ground in laughter. It took us both awhile to get a hold of ourselves. It was so perfect. There lots of funny moments this weekend that made it very enjoyable in spite of the difficulties.
So this morning I was leaving my bathroom without my glasses on when I noticed something black on the wall. I figured it was a spider so I went and got my glasses and when I came back my whole body shook and shivered. It was a giant, ugly, black spider with huge fangs that had giant black balls on the ends of then. I was just shuddering. My roommate was still asleep so I went to my shelves, got batteries in my electric bug zapper, put shoes on and then went to conquer the beast. I told myself just to press the button to get the electricity flowing and then just hold it on the spider. So I went for it. It sparked a little as I held it there. I took the zapper off and it fell to the ground so I zapped it some more, and some more. Soon it started to smoke a little and stink really bad... smelled like burning spider flesh. It was so gross. I had to make sure it was dead though. So I scooped it up and then watched it as it made it’s journey into the Hume Lake sewage system. Great way to start a day.
This week I am going to really start praying for the Dominican. I need to prepare my heart for the time we are going to spend there. I am going to pray for the country as a whole but specifically where we are going to be ministering. I want to be prepared and I think the best was to do that is to pray for them.
Love Ya SD! Praying each day for you.
ReplyDeleteHey Sarah! keep on keeping on! praying for you. got a letter comin your way :)
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