Encounter

I just got back from the Middle School Winter Retreat, Avalanche. It was such an awesome weekend, just to get away from work, to slow down and focus on God, and also to connect with the middle schoolers, which by the way I did!! I had a cabin of girls from MHS plus 3 that weren’t. To be honest I wasn’t all that excited to go on the retreat because I didn’t know any of the girls in the cabin, but now that I look back I’m so glad that I got to go and meet the MHS girls. They were so wild, they brought a fart machine and played the noise all night on Saturday, lol….I probably got like 4 or 5 hours of sleep that night, plus the beds weren’t that comfortable either. I have a few stories to share on here……….

Friday before we left the church this one middle schooler that I know fairly well, Julia Fisher, had a real deep conversation, lol, ok not really… so here it is….I forget all what I said at that time but heres like two lines….it was all out of fun……
ME: “Your face!!”
JF: “Your moms face!!”
On Sunday as we were putting our luggage on the coaches JF comes up to me and says, “I’ve wounded you when I said “your moms face” on Friday and I’m so sorry. I realized it after I said it.” I told here that I forgive her and that she’s the most awesomest person around, lol….i guess that the students really did listen to Keith speak…that’s awesome…

Heres another one….
The last few weeks I’ve been having a hard time at work and two Sundays ago there were these three middle guys that I know fairly well and they were kind of giving a hard time while I was in the info. booth, while there were people asking me questions and I couldn’t really answer them because I was busy watching the 3 guys. Well on Friday night before the gathering, I think, two of the guys come up to me and starts pushing me towards the cars and I constantly told them to stop and they wouldn’t. So Matt’s walking towards the auditorium with me and he’s like why are they pushing you, and I told matt I have no idea. So Matt grabs me and was like “where are the guys?” I showed him and we had a conversation that I will never ever forget.
Matt: why are you guys picking on ash?
Gregg F.’s friend, I forget his name: because she’s so awesome and she’s pretty much the only one that we can have fun with. Gregg F.: yea, she’s so cool!!

They did say that they were sorry and I could really tell that they meant it.
Then they all gave me a hug and that’s when I started to laugh and I told them that I loved them and that their also such amazing middle schoolers. I told them that I was having a few bad weeks at work to the point where I just wanted to tell my supervisors that I wanted to hand in my two weeks notice. I also told that after the retreat they can pick on me as much as they want too. During the worship part of the evening gathering on Saturday I walked past one of the 3 guys and I gave him a side hug. Middle schoolers have two sides of them and the one side we barely ever see.

On Saturday during the day while everyone went skiing, snowboarding and tubing some of the students stayed back at camp and made shirts, playing basketball, put candy on everyone’s pillow, including the guys and the leaders, and played basketball. I had the opportunity to play basketball with the MHS girls and let me tell ya, some of them are really good, like Morgan. W tried playing a real game but it just got out of hand and we played knockout. I was pretty good until Morgan beat me. lol…. I had a blast with those girls all weekend. Saturday night when Keith was talking about taking a key and what not, I personally didn’t take on only for one reason; I have yet to forgive my dad for what he’s done to me in the past after my mom passed. To me that was not right what he did and I look at it as if he was greedy. It’s hard for me to forgive my dad, I don’t know why though. I do want to forgive my dad but I know it’s not going to be an easy process for me. I don’t know if I CAN forgive him. I just need help on this I guess. I need prayer on this. When we got back to the church on Sunday, one of my girls asked me if I’m going to be at the church on Wednesday and I told yes I would, so I’m excited to see them again.


My Cabin girls that I miss already….
Kristin Grice
Amanda Bordowicz
Nicolette (Nicky) DeJohn
Rasheeda (Cheeda) McLean
Morgan Miilu
Kat Minerva
Allyssa Riker
Rochelle (Rocky) Halteman
Shawne Senft
Michele Shaffer

One thing before I’m done…..When I was walking back from helping the MHS pack up their vans to leave, Jason comes up to me and says that I did a great job this weekend….Thanks Jase, I needed to hear that…..I’m so glad that I had the chance to be apart if this awesome retreat…….

A few memories…….
-the cabin girls playing a prank on Abby
-the walk with Jill N. and a few middle schoolers, so much happened on that walk
-playing basketball with the MHS girls and no guys!!!!
-Keith speaking
-Adam and the band doing an awesome job during the worship
-meeting new middle schoolers
-leading the cabin during our group time
-getting to know the MHS girls and the tough times they’ve gone through
-Kristin waking me up at 2am on Saturday morning because she wasn’t feeling well, I love to woken up at 2am!!
-staying up really late on Friday night and not getting any sleep
-listening to the fart machine all night, lol-the girls drinking 7 bottles of mountain dew in one day to stay up all night


Now its time to get back into reality..........

"He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying. My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want Your will be done, not mine." Matt. 26:29