Ski Trip!

So this is the first time I have ever written on here...I completely failed last semester. Sorry about that!

Anyway, I'm here to talk about the goings on at the BCM, most recently the International Ski Trip. For those who don't know, the BCM has an International Student ministry that meets every Wednesday to help them learn English. They also go on trips around Atlanta and, in this case, North Carolina. I personally have never been involved in the Int'l Ministry before, but I have always wanted to give it a try and decided this would be a perfect opportunity--I had never been skiing before and wanted to get out of Atlanta for a while. 

We met at the BCM on Friday and carpooled up to NC. Just while we were waiting for everyone to arrive, I got to know several of the Int'l girls by playing Taboo and 2 of them ended up riding in my car (Schweta and Ritu). Eventually we left and made the 4-hour drive up there. It was a bit of a challenge finding places to eat since about half of the Int'l students are vegetarian, so we ended up at Pizza Hut (high quality). By the time we got to the church we were supposed to meet at, it was already somewhat late, but they had a whole program planned out for us (this wasn't just a GT event, all of the Georgia BCMs came with their Int'l kids, so there were a lot of people). This program included a comedian (which half of us missed, but apparently he made fun of UGA a lot, so he was obviously good in our books) and.....wait for it...line dancing! Apparently it's "something we here in the South like to do all the time"....yeah...well, there are some pretty entertaining pictures on facebook if you want to check those out. Some of us caught on more quickly than others...but we all had a good time.

Saturday morning we had to get up at 6 am (booooo) to eat breakfast and then leave by 7 for the ski place. That morning, there happened to be a lot of fog/cloud/something opaque, and we had to drive up the side of the mountain for about 20 minutes with almost no idea what was in front of us. And I was in the front of all the cars. Wonderful....but we made it up there alive, obviously. When we left, we saw how high up we were, and let's just say I'm glad I didn't make any mistakes. Haha. We all went and got ski equipment, and most of us went to ski school for about an hour. I had an awesome instructor from New Zealand, and after the lesson and a few runs down the bunny slope I felt ready to go on the beginner's slope. I pretty much stuck to that all day along with most of the other Tech kids. A few people went on the intermediate, and I probably could have by the end of the day, but decided it could wait until next year. I actually never fell while I was on the slope, it was just when I was standing around waiting to start skiing, or when I had just stopped, that I tipped over. Hahaha....graceful=not Lindsay.

After we stopped to take a group picture, we packed the cars and headed back to Atlanta. All in all it was a great trip, and I had so much fun with the Int'l kids. They were very friendly, easy to talk to, and grateful to us for taking them. I would highly encourage you all to get involved with this ministry. Even if you can't go to Conversation Club every Wednesday night, at least go on their trips. You won't regret it.

New Pages to the Digital Scrapbook

Chia Yearbook

I have never felt as completely reliant on God as I do now. I have never felt so horribly vulnerable and terrified. It feels horrible and unbearable, yet amazing at the same time and my tiny little brain can't comprehend how it's possible. I can't say that I frequently want to go through what I'm going through now in order to be closer to God...but I feel like God is growing me so much. It's like in the princess bride when they put him in that stretching machine. I feel like life has me by both wrists (yes i know...wrists...) and both ankles and refuses to let go. But I'm growing. Growing sucks. Growing hurts. Growing is just an overall poopy experience. But I'm growing. I'm giving it to God. Or at least I'm giving a little tiny bit to God every day. As much as I'm capable of giving that day. And one day He'll have the whole thing...even if that's not till the last second before I die...at least He'll have it. He'll have me and everything I stand for and everything I am and everything I think is so incredibly important now but as it turns out, won't even matter in a year or two or 20. I'm giving it to Him. I don't even know what that means, but I'm doing it. Or at least I think I am. I want to. I need to. I don't feel purposefull right now. But I'm growing. I have boughts of depression for stupid reasons if any reason at all. But I'm growing. I asked God a couple months ago to allow me to REALLY get to know Him. I was terrified what would happen after I prayed that. I semi-expected spouts of lava to shoot up through the floor of my room in some supernatural feat of nature and cause me to cling to the side of North Ave and then as I was about to be skewered to death by the tree below, have an angel fly down and show me a picture of God's high school year book with a cheesy "HAGS" signature by me and my so inconsistent friendship and laugh at the irony of me seeing God's "face" only moments before I would see His face for all of eternity. That's not dramatic at all. The point is that I had no idea what the heck He was gonna do but I was pretty 200% certain it wasn't going to be an easy answered prayer. I was right (for once haha) and it hurts. But I'm growing. And I'm glad I asked to know Him. I'm glad I have close friends to cry on and to love and to share with. I'm glad I know Him the tiniest bit more. I'm growing...heck I'm GROWING...how freaking awesome is it that God is growing me...of all people...me. Let's grow together. Let's grow the BCM. Easy is boring. Easy is really nice some times aka all the time but easy is boring. Let's grow and take the hard route and have bitter thoughts and hate people sometimes and not ever want to talk to God again...but then feel that wonderful downfall till trust in God is necessary so you don't go insane. Let's feel it. Let's grow the BCM together. Why are we so content with what we've already done. Let's fail a million times before we succeed together. Let's fall together. God's waiting for us to sign His yearbook...with more than just a "H.A.G.S"...why aren't we willing?