Girls' Appreciation + Guys' Appreciation : Summit Semester Week 10

This week was jam packed with reading (loooots of reading), studying, class time, and Girls' Appreciation day! It also had prep for Guys' Appreciation day, cold weather, and finals.

What happened this week:

Sunday was a rough day. We had the Summit worship team completely lead praise + worship solo that morning, which lead to a lot of stress and tension, because nobody had full knowledge in how to lead worship and there were lots of different ideas that nobody could agree on, so that was stressful. The music ended up going very nicely with almost zero complications, but the practicing was complicated. After church, we had our host homes! I was put with the same people in the same house, Jason (worship director) and the majority of the worship team. It was a good time. Right after lunch (it was super delicious – burritos with bear and wild boar meat + chicken tortilla soup!), I heard about the mass shooting in a Baptist church in Texas, very close to where my family is. Not knowing what town it was in, I immediately tried contacting my mom, making sure they were okay. It was about an hour away from them, which I was so very thankful for. I had a hard time coping with the shooting and the fact that it was so close to home made it more terrifying and realistic. We had a more relaxed afternoon, just talking and trying to use the internet (kinda complicated when there's seven teenagers needing to use the internet and there's not a lot to go around). We came back to the lodge for dinner and watched the Dead Poet's Society for our Sunday movie night. It was a very good film. It also had Robin Williams in it, so that made it even better. I hit the hay right after the movie + discussion was over because I was exhausted!

Monday was the start of our New Testament reading! It was a very relaxed day. I think the majority of everyone stayed in their pajamas all day, including myself, and it was super awesome. I read alone in my room, with some coffee and a Star Wars soundtrack playing (I work better with music, and the soundtrack is instrumental so I can still concentrate on what I'm reading without the distraction of lyrical music), which was super enjoyable. We read from a book called The Books of the Bible from Biblica®, which splits up the chapters by the different books of the Bible. So instead of having separate chapters of Revelation, it's all just one chapter. And the New Testament isn't in order by the way it is in regularly printed Bibles today (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, etc), but they're all jumbled up, with some books being in chronological order and all of Paul's letters being put together, and all of the works of John (Gospel of John + 1,2,3 John) put together. It's an interesting way of reading, but it makes reading the entire New Testament at once, a lot simpler. I read for ten hours on Monday, with meal breaks and bathroom/walking breaks because I had a little too much coffee and not enough body movement. I got ¾ of the way through in ten hours, which was pretty good, but I decided to go to sleep early so I could wake up earlier on Tuesday and finish.

Tuesday, I woke up two hours earlier than normal to get New Testament reading finished. I didn't finish by breakfast, but was pretty close. Immediately following breakfast, I went back to work and finished 1½ hours before lunch. In all, I read the entire New Testament in about 14.5 hours. Apparently that isn't super fast or slow, but pretty average, and I'm happy about it. I ended up resting my brain for a good thirty minutes before doing some more work that hadn't been done yet (essays, other reading, and guy's appreciation stuff). After lunch, we had work crews. I was outside, raking leaves and pine needles. It wouldn't have been half bad except for the fact that it was muddy and rainy and cold, and the only jacket I had was white (and not mine), so I couldn't really wear it to stay warmer because of the possibility of mud getting on it. Also, this job couldn't really be left undone because it was part of prepping for winter, and we were expecting snow that night, so it really needed to be done. That was probably one of the most miserable three hours of my life. I could've had a better attitude about it, but I couldn't really feel half of my body because of the cold. Yeah, I could've had a better attitude. We had dinner after, which was delicious, and full of great conversation. After though, was quite depressing, when I found out that we were having a special kind of chocolate cake in honor of Dustin's (head director of Semester) birthday. That sounds odd to you, especially since those who know me well, know that I love chocolate very much. But Bella and myself agreed to challenge and motivate ourselves to eat healthier, so we decided not to have sugar or carbs all this week. So back to the depressing part, I found out we were having chocolate cake and because of our challenge, I couldn't eat it. It was pretty depressing. I went in my room to work on Guy's Appreciation stuff, and Madison convinced me that eating some chocolate cake wouldn't hurt me, so I went to follow her advice. I was cornered by both Bella and Dax, who guilted me into not eating any. Boo. But Elizabeth was going to the grocery store and I was bored, so I (along with seven others) went with her to Walmart and had a grand and spontaneous time. Upon returning to the lodge, Bella hung out in Madi's and my room for a while until we decided to make a sleepover out of it. So we did. It was fun.

Wednesday was an odd day. I woke up cold and hungry, only to find that we were having chocolate muffins (carbs + sugar), so I had to eat fruit salad and hard boiled eggs. I was the definition of hangry all morning. We had an interesting conversation in class about the history of the Old Testament going into the New Testament. My stomach was hurting so much during class though, that it was hard to concentrate. This dieting thing is hard stuff. How do people do this on a regular basis? We had a carb-filled lunch too, but Bella and I made a truce because if we didn't, we would starve through lunch, which isn't being a very good steward of our bodies (thanks Nathan). I had dish pit afterwards, which took forever because we had to scrub casserole dishes, something that is always left for Epsilon. We had family meeting after dish pit, which we talked about our schedule and the fact that Thanksgiving and graduation is less than three weeks away! Following family meeting was exercise time, and because I was still slightly hangry, I gave myself space from the group and went for a hike and talked to my family. I told them about my week schedule and lack of sugar, to which my mother told me that I shouldn't be missing out on the good times because I want to be healthier. With that, she gave me permission to eat the cake I couldn't have the night before (or any kind of chocolate), and I took her advice. Don't tell Bella, but I had a small Rolo before dinner. (She'll forgive me later.) Dinner was something I could eat, which I was thankful for. We had good conversation at the table and while they did have ginger snaps for dessert, Grant (one of those with food allergies) offered me some of his gluten/dairy/sugar free chocolate cake, to which I was very thankful. We had small groups that evening! We had lots of good discussion and even tears, because we realized that we only had a few more small group meetings left! My evening consisted of making sourdough dough to rise, washing a few dishes, and lots of studying.

Thursday morning, we had our class picture! Everyone came to breakfast in dresses and neckties, looking very spiffy. Right before class, we took the picture, and there were even a group of us that took a 'Texas' group photo, because we are the majority of state representation. Class was really interesting, talking about Jeremiah 29, and the context of that famous verse eleven, as well as the Old Testament scriptures that prophesy about Jesus. During lunch, Bella and I decided to call a truce on our healthy eating challenge because we wanted to enjoy the last bit of our time here at Semester. We happily ate all the carbs in that enchilada casserole and about three sugar cookies each. Also at lunch, it was announced that that evening was Girls' Appreciation evening! None of the girls were surprised at that, since all the guys are really bad at keeping secrets. We were told to dress up for the evening, which made us all excited. That afternoon consisted of solitude time and exercise. I went for a walk with Lauren, which was so relaxing. We had quite a bit of time to get ready for Girls' Appreciation, which we all took advantage of. All of the ladies were ready before, but the guys arrived (in button downs and ties/vests) at exactly 5:30pm to escort us to the dining hall to a festive set up of tables ready for a fancy dinner, including classical piano performed by Brock. We took photos and sat down to read letters that the guys wrote to us, sharing their appreciation for us. We had spaghetti, chocolate mousse, and sparkling cherry (or grape) juice, which was mostly prepared by Kent, one of the students that's a great cook. The guys prayed over us and escorted us back at the end of the evening. We had class after, but it was followed by lots of dancing, which is one of the girls' favorite things. It was such a wonderful day!

Friday was a good day. You could almost call it a good Friday... *wink* We had class in the morning, per usual, and work crews after lunch. I was put on bunk bed crew again, but instead of scrapping off paint, we were applying primer! We were all pretty excited. While painting, some primer was spilled on the ground, and I was sitting on the ground and happened to sit in such puddle. I ended up getting orange primer all over my bottom. There's a reason we wear clothing we don't mind to get ruined! After dinner, we had class again, which was pretty good. Lots of New Testament discussion and even about church doctrine a bit. After class, I sent myself to the kitchen to make sourdough. I had a crowd follow me and wait around for it to come out of the oven. All the guys (and girls, but the guys especially) are head over heels in love with this bread. I made about eleven mini loaves, and I had about five remaining by the time it was ready to be put away. Afterwards, there was an unofficial lesson being held in the dining hall about self defense. Brooke and Chris were throwing each other on pillows on the ground and twisting each other's arms (literally). I was too tired to take part in such acts, but it did make me want to take a self defense class in the future! Maybe they can teach me what they know another time.

Saturday was pretty packed. We had all the guys thinking that Guys Appreciation day was on Saturday, so we all dressed up and acted extremely suspicious all day. After class and lunch, I made an announcement that I needed to talk to all the girls, which made all the guys freak out because they “knew” that it was about prepping for their appreciation evening. I did have to talk to the girls about getting letters for all the guys, but the guys didn't need to know that. I spent the majority of study time collecting all the letters and making sure each guy had a letter from the girl who was supposed to write them. I then spent the majority of exercise time studying, because I didn't do it during the designated study time (preoccupied). All the guys thought that it was their appreciation day, so they all dressed up for dinner in nice shirts and ties, it was pretty funny. After dinner, I did some reading and ended up falling asleep. We had fundatory (mandatory fun times), including Four on a Couch and some dancing. I started stressing over guys' appreciation stuff and all the reading that I had to do, but I have some pretty sick girl friends that comforted me and helped me destress. Also, I got myself some ice cream and took a warm shower– those things helped too.

What I learned this week:

I have learned so much after reading the New Testament in two days straight. It's amazing how many things you can overlook on a daily basis. I noticed passages of scripture that I didn't before and since being here, I've learned to healthily question everything. Like, why doesn't God allow us to know when Jesus will return to the earth? Why did Jesus tell his disciples and the people he healed, not to tell others about the miracles he was doing? What's the difference between deacons and elders in a church? Just some food for thought. I've been munching pretty hard this week!

What's going on next week:

Sunday afternoon (12^th) is Guy's Appreciation evening! None of the guys have an idea about it happening tonight, especially since we're watching one of their favorite movies for Movie Night, but it's gonna be pretty awesome! All the details about that will be shared on next week's blog! (Subscribe so you don't miss out!)

We might have a possible day trip to Durango planned for Monday, which I think everybody is pretty stoked about, including myself. Durango was one of my favorite places we went on a Monday day off, and I'm excited that we might get to go again!

This upcoming Saturday is FINALS. Please be in prayer over me and all of my classmates, because everyone is quite stressed over them. Lots of studying and reading and writing to still do in order to be prepared for those, so please pray for us!

My whole immediate family is coming to visit me next weekend! They're starting the long drive on Thursday and hope to arrive by Sunday or Monday, so please pray for safe travels for them! I haven't seen them in about ten weeks (for the older brother, it's been about eleven), so I'm so super excited to finally see them. I know much has changed about their lives since I've been gone and I've changed a lot since leaving, so it will be so good to catch up and see how the little brothers have grown. They will be staying with me for the last full week, including Thanksgiving and graduation, to which I will return home with them and this crazy Colorado adventure will end!

Thanks for following along with me as I do life!

Blessings,

Becca

Lots of reading of the New Testament.

Making sourdough! A community favorite!