Lori Morrison

Lori Morrison died today. While that might not mean much to anyone else, it does to me. She was an amazing person, with an amazing heart.

I had the opportunity to work with Lori and Camp Mundo Vista the summer of 2006. I'll never forget her hugs, and hearing her say "I love you." Without fail, she could brighten my day. I regret that I did not keep in touch with her as well as I should have.

The following is an excerpt from her "About Me" section on facebook. I give her full credit for writing this.

I have had my struggles in the past year and I continue to, but I claim peace and joy in the name of Jesus! I ask this of Him! Day to day can be a battle within my heart but Jesus is the Victor! May I never ever forget that! I have my doubts and questions, but I realize now I am only human. I am waiting for the Lord to show me direction for my next step in life that will lead me and allow me to use my hands and feet to serve. I am NOTHING, but I am trying to trust that God will use this NOTHING of a girl. God is trying to teach me many lessons...though I often ignore:
1) Christ is the possible in the impossible situation
2) Patience is beautiful and waiting is not something to be ashamed of
3) My body is a temple...
4) Obedience is everything
5) I will be disciplined, because God disciplines those He loves just as a Father disciplines His son that he loves
6) Satan knows my weaknesses and delights in my downfalls
7) Never allow Satan the chance to delight in my misery
8) NOTHING in this world does satisfy, thus why the need for Jesus in every midst and part of my life..
9) I have no answers...

Lori was an amazing person, and she will be missed.

Camp

Tonight at BSU, we had a commissioning service for the people doing Summer Missions through BSCNC. I got a little teary, but nothing too major. It made me think back to the last four summers, and how much I had learned.

But then we split up into small groups to pray for each of them. I started praying for Nick Clanton, got out one sentence, and totally lost it. Sobbing and everything. It finally hit me that for the first time since high school, I won't be going back. I won't get to spend my summer sleeping on a plastic mattress, and singing mindless songs, and waking up at the crack of dawn and being fake happy until after breakfast. I won't be surrounded by amazing women of God. I won't get to worship with over 200 girls and women every night. I won't get the chance to see lives changed on the mountain.

And that's so hard for me to realize. But in all honesty, I think camp had become my comfort zone. It was no longer a challenge in the literal sense. Sure, things would get tough, but the nerves from my first summer never returned.

Yet, that mountain will always be so dear to me. I've laughed there, cried there. I've met some of my best friends. Those girls know me in ways that no one else ever will. A bond is created when you live with someone, work with someone that closely. I saw one of those girls a few weeks ago. Even though we hadn't seen each other in over a year, it was like nothing had changed. We were different, but we were still the same, because we had that bond.

I miss that. I miss breathing God. I miss the fact that I was surrounded by people I could trust with anything. I miss having a bad day and having so many girls come up and hug me and pray for me. I miss campers. I miss the laughter. I miss the paths. I miss my sanctuary.

I just miss it. The people I've met, the things I've done there, have changed my life forever.

Stupid People

I really don't understand why people are so stupid. Last night was one of the worst that I've had to deal with as an RA. Actually, it was many of the same people I've dealt with before, it just seemed to escalate. It all started with Bryant coming to get me to tell me there was vomit on the outside stairs. And of course, there's no clean-up box, so I got to do it with water and disinfectant. Then we sprayed down what we think was a beer spill in the stairwell, and then went to break up a party. Only when they realized it was us, they pretended like no one was there. So we called the cops.

Suffice to say, we found over 10 underage people, and a 14 year old whose parents got a phone call at midnight to come get him. Once that was over, we dealt with some beer poured up and down one hall, torn up bulletin boards, and feces in the stairwell. Yeah, all done by the same people.

I just can't wrap my head around the fact that they would do stuff like that. I would never bring a kid to a party, even if it was my younger brother. I would never refuse a breathalyzer if I hadn't had anything to drink, unless I was lying. I would never cuss at the cops and an RA. It's like respect isn't a part of these people. And frankly, I don't know why anyone would. They didn't help their cases at all by doing that stuff. And then to continue wreaking havoc? Seriously, that was just dumb. Especially because we have witnesses that saw them and described them to us.

I guess the issue is that I was raised better than that. And one would think that people would be more mature since they are in college. But no. Or at least that they would realize that you can't pretend that the room is empty is someone has already cracked the door open. We're not stupid.

All in all, I'm just thankful for showers. That was WAY TOO MUCH crap (no pun intended) for me to deal with, and I felt nasty by the time I finally got done with it all.

back at school

I spent the weekend at Sean's house. It was so nice to get away from campus, and to just totally veg out. I hung out with his parents, and we played with his cousin, and baked, and watched movies, and just overall did nothing even remotely related to school. We didn't really even talk about it. It was absolutely fantastic.

I'm so blessed to be with a man who has great parents. So many of my friends have future in-laws that really don't like them, or at least aren't that friendly acting towards them. I couldn't imagine being in a situation like that. I don't know if I could handle having someone that would cut me down all the time, or just not accept me for who I am. I'm not only getting a great husband, but great new family too!

Yeah, I really just did this...

63 words

Speedtest

Give it a try...it just shows random words that are supposedly the most popular in the English language. So it's not like you have to type full sentences or anything.

nothing really to say.

I really don't have much to say. I've got some stuff going on in my head, but I'm not really ready to put it out there in the Internet world until I decide what I want to do with it. Suffice to say, I talked to one of my professors about it, and all the stuff that I have on my plate, and she's helping talk me through it, and telling me to learn to say no. Which I'm working on.

As I sit watching the news tonight, it saddens me that we only hear about the bad things, or about the odd happenings. I don't really care that ball players from Wofford got arrested because they started a brawl when they couldn't get into a frat party. It's just weird that a woman was flashed by a man while she waited for her kid to get off the school bus. It was just luck that the bus was late. Or about the fact that a teenager rode in the trunk of a car to make room for a television. Or that a car that had a kid in the backseat got towed.

Seriously, why can't we hear about the positives? Or about things that are real news? I really don't like watching it. All it does is propagate fears in the general public. It makes me think about the comic "Rex Morgan, M.D." In it right now, there has been an outbreak of MRSA in three teenagers, and one has died. The community is up in arms about it. What they don't realize is that many of them have the Staph virus growing in their noses already. When something gets reported by the media, it gets sensationalized, and the public loses the facts.

I just heard that a guy was arrested for having an alligator in the backseat of his car. He found it on the side of the road.


Anyway, that's really all that's going on here. I'm throwing in a picture of Sean and me from Easter. It's really not that great of him, but I like it of me. There's 1 year and 99 days until we get married. I'm excited!

And here's one of me and John. I can't believe he's going to college this year. It makes me feel old. I still remember his first day of kindergarten.

presentation

I finished writing my Spanish presentation. To just read it, it is running right at 7 minutes. Unfortunately, I can't just read it to the class. No, I have to lecture with only an outline. I might cheat and use some notecards too. I can talk about things for 10 minutes if it's a topic I'm well-versed in. Unfortunately, Spanish police (that is, the police in Spain) is a topic I know very little about. Especially having to say it all in Spanish.

But at least it's written. I can do this. I have most of tonight, other than a staff meeting. And once it's done, this class will get so much easier. I can write a paper and take a test like it's nothing. I'm just not so comfortable in my "habilidad para hablar en Espanol." Meaning, I don't have confidence in my ability to speak the language.

Oh well, it's just once, right?