I suppose I need to get a life and update..

Well the retreat is over! Pastor Jim Savastio preached... it was really good. The theme was "Remember your Creator" but it wasn't only on Ecclesiastes. It was basically just about youth -- Josiah, Mary, David. Pastor Jim gave his testimony Friday night too. That was interesting!

Oh yeah I rode in the Sutherland's suburban with Jon and Ben Sutherland, Ryan Wasson, and Jeremy Korteweg (who was driving). I just drove to the Sutherland's house from school. Ben and Jon are extremely funny so it was an interesting ride. I don't know why I find 14-year-old boy's humor so funny. Jeremy started the trip by "crashing into the bushes" according to Ben. (It wasn't that bad -- he just put it in drive instead of reverse.) The only time Jeremy scared me was when he was on the highway and I was talking to him and turned around and started talking to me... that was a little scary because keeping your eyes on the road is a good thing. =) It was very foggy too.

Since I'm in college, I got to be in Beechwood Lodge which is a lot nicer than the cabins that they put the high schoolers in. =) I roomed with Bethany, Sara, and Esther. Esther is from Trinity so I knew her and I enjoyed meeting Bethany (from Flemmington) and Sara (from Wayne Mack's church). The nice thing was that we went right to sleep when we went to bed. The girls cabin was apparently very noisy.

For the games night they played milk carton lacrosse. That was interesting... and they also did tug of war. Our side let go on the other side and they all crashed. That was quite interesting... only I was too much in shock to take the picture. Phooey!!! (I wasn't playing at that point because I was taking pix)

I met a girl from Baltimore -- Rosie Noll. She's 14 and homeschooled and I really enjoyed meeting her. We had some good talks... she's very serious-minded and sweet.

Saturday during the time for sports and stuff, I just hung out in the main hangout area because I don't play sports... I talked to whoever was down there. For a while I watched Dave and Jon play chess (also took pix of the Star Wars chess pieces) and I played some games of foosball... stuff like that.

We had the talent show Saturday night. There were some amazingly gifted musicians there! Tim Carr is pretty good on the guitar and he played with some guy who is more than amazing on the piano. There was another girl that wrote pieces and she played a duet that she wrote. WOW!!! One girl sang "Think of Me" from "Phantom of the Opera." I wish I could play the piano like some of them. Jon Sutherland was amazing me with his playing too -- he writes pieces as well. I wish I knew chords!!!!!!!!! Jared Firth played in the talent show as well. The Chamerbsburg skit was the "Beans" one that they had done 4 years ago. I still clearly remember the first version and it was funny because it was done this year by younger siblings that had been too young to go to the retreat 4 years ago.

Sunday we went to the Downingtown church. Usually the church comes to us but since the churches merged, there wasn't enough space. They had a schoolbus bring some people and others that had cars came in those. I rode in the suburban again. According to Ben, the shock absorbers are so bad that if you hit a bump, it feels like "going over the Grand Canyon and up the side." He has a way with words.

Sunday was good... there was supposed to be a hymn sing, but we didn't really have one. It took forever to take the group picture and this year they took the college and high school separate. Oh yeah, the guy Dan who was amazing on the piano was playing backwards -- and I mean backwards. It was unbelievable!

Sunday night we went to the Steiners and then back to the Sutherlands and I drove back. When I got off the exit, I noticed it had snowed. We hadn't had any where we were. I actually spun out a bit at the Bellevue exit because it was so icy.

Monday was good -- I love my classes. I am way too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the Biblical Intro class. I know I will have serious issues later on (some of the topics coming up are "Literal interpretation," "Kingdom," and "Dispensationalism") and I've heard he's very narrow-minded about some things. My main defense is something he said in class yesterday -- "Don't interpret the Bible as what you think it said or as you want it to say -- interpret it as God says." HAH so if God didn't mean things to be literal, then we shouldn't interpret them that way. But anyway I loved the class on Monday. I don't usually answer in class, but my hand kept going up and I kept answering questions. Yeah I'm a freak.

We had a surprise bday party for Chris last night. We were going to blindfold her and make her search for her gifts in the ball place, but they wouldn't let us. Oh well. We still had fun.

Sunhee and I are going to the mall in a bit... she's ironing Pap's pants right now. I'm enjoying rooming with her -- we are at each other's throats everyday though... =) Just kidding! It's great!!!