"Ooooo Over there"

This past weekend I got the chance to venture up to the mountains of Big Bear to spend some quality time with 11 of the most ridiculous, funny, adventure seeking, fun loving, junk food hoarding, music making, coffee drinking, psychos ::ahem:: I mean, people, I know.  ;] Our  church college group, The Bridge, took the weekend off of work, responsibility, stress and anything else we could leave behind and ran for the hills, to relax, and spend time with one another.

Although I had been on the annual Big Bear retreat before, I still was not sure what to expect from this weekend. I knew we were in for a weekend full of cold weather (which didn’t even turn out to be too cold, due to the lack of snow), jokes, late nights and lots of snacks, but this weekend was so much more than that for me. It ended up being all of that, definitely, but it was also a weekend that drew 12 people closer together, a weekend that allowed us all to, in one way or another, be the servants that Christ asks us to be for one another, a weekend where the Holy Spirit moved.

Friday afternoon we all met up at the church, packed up all our stuff and soon enough, we were on our way. The entire drive there showed me how much laughter was to come from this weekend. Susanna brought mad-libs with her, so of course we were plenty entertained. We discovered that if Jesus turned water into Vodka instead of wine, for His first miracle, that wedding could have made for a bigger and very different story in the Bible, that Zoran dreams of “caressing” people and telling them “It’s alright, it’s alright”, and most importantly that Nate is beautiful woman, with a figure like Ruth. We laughed way too loud and way too hard on our way up the mountain. Once we got there, we all figured out which rooms we were staying, got settled and then headed to do some grocery shopping for the weekend. What’s the problem with taking a group of 12 to the local grocery store and letting them loose? Probably the fact that we all have our own money, so we all bought our own snacks... aka we came home with enough snacks and coffee and junk to survive on, had we gotten snowed in for 2 months.  After dinner that night we all got together for a time of group and then individual prayer, during the same time our church was having their 6 night of the 10 nights of prayer. After that, some of us jumped in the boiling hot tub, and by the time we were done with all of that it was probably around 1130. Somehow, the clock struck 1am and a few of us late night party animals were running in the freezing cold to the van to make a trip to the 24hr Mcdonalds. WAFFLE FRIES! Lol

Saturday we were up by 9, having breakfast and getting ready for a morning of adventure. Sarah, being the awesome leader she is, planned a scavenger hunt hike for us. We had to go on this hike and find something for every letter of the alphabet as well as take pictures doing certain things like climbing a tree, starting a fire, etc.  I refuse to care about who won because our group gets way too competitive, but I seriously had the greatest time looking for ridiculous things on that mile and a half hike. :] After that we went home for some delicious chicken fajitas and relaxation. After my much needed nap we headed out for some geocahcing. Once we got home we began our night of prayer and honestly I didn’t know what to expect, and was kind of worried about how everyone would respond to it. Sarah had been talking with me about it for awhile, and she decided that it would be a good idea if we broke off into small groups and took turns praying for one another, asking God to use us, and bless us with his spiritual gifts. I was totally down for it and thought it was a great idea as well; I just wasn’t sure how everyone else would feel. Getting into small groups and audibly praying for people can get very personal and often puts us in a vulnerable state. But God knew it was exactly what we needed and I am so glad Sarah is so willing to be obedient and open to whatever she feels God is asking of her. This weekend really drew out the prayer warrior inside of me-although still weak in my opinion, in His Spirit He makes my words flow with His will. After all the groups were done, we got together to close out in a group prayer, and man did the Lord show up! We all went back and forth just praying whatever we felt on our heart. Some prayers were for unity in our small little group, some thanksgivings for all that Christ has done and given to us and some were just simply praising our King. It was an amazing time of all of us coming together, in one accord, being open and vulnerable and used by the Holy Spirit. A time where we all agreed on one thing; that our Master is so worthy to be praised. It was amazing.

Sunday we woke up, had pancakes-Ruth Carnehl pancakes, packed, cleaned and waited for the laundry to finish. While waiting some of us went to sit on the beautiful wraparound porch (My favorite). Brenna brought her ukulele so she just sat out and played while I was reading. Eventually Nate, Sarah, Ruth, Zoran and Javi joined us and Nate started singing along to the uk, making up a song. As he kept going, it wasn’t long before Sarah joined in, then Javi started keeping a steady beat, I began doing back up vocals, and Ruth was harmonizing. It was a song that really made no sense, but it was the best! Brenna and I decided we want to just sit and do that all the time, it was so fun. Although it was a silly little song entitled “Over There”, it was still really cool to have everyone throw in a little bit of their talents without feeling judged or afraid, and seeing that when we work together, our talents can make something really awesome. (or in this case something completely random and fun). It was just another small, maybe insignificant to other people; way that I felt like the Lord was saying, each one of you is important, without one another, the body cannot function correctly. Without Brenna we wouldn’t have a key to sing in or a musician to accompany they lyrics, without Javi we would have no beat, without Nate no song, without Sarah no higher harmony, without me no melody for back up, without Ruth no lower harmony and without Zoran no audience haha. Without one another, we would have an unfinished project, an outcome that was lacking. And that is exactly how it is for the body of Christ. Without one, another cannot produce its fruit correctly. When the body of Christ is not unified and each part does whatever it wants, not listening or paying attention to the others, it creates chaos, much like if we all did our own thing and didn’t listen to one another in the improv of our crazy song, it would have been a mess. It’s great when God uses little things to speak to you.

Now we are back from the mountain, back to reality, back to the crazy called life. Its nice to be in my own bed, but I do long for more time in vacay land. Although we are all back to our day to day, I hope and pray none of us forget the fun we had this past weekend and more importantly, I pray we don’t let what happened up there stay there, that we don’t leave our encounters with the Holy Spirit in that cabin, but we fan the flame that was ignited within our group, to spread it like wild fire, and to experience Him in new and exciting ways each and every day!