LT stands for "Long Talks"

Hey Everyone
So I woke up this morning feeling like crap again, I really hate being stuffy. Anyways, I've been thinking about how awesome friendships are and how great it is to have close friends who believe in things that you do. I don't think I've ever been in an environment like this one before and it is so amazing and empowering. It's so cool that I can walk around and talk to people about my life and say things like "God is so amazing, that message last night was so powerful" or staying up until 5:30 in the morning talking to friends about God and my life and my struggles and really opening up to people on things you have only shared with your closest friends. Thursday night marked a major bonding point between Kristin, Daniel and I. Amy hung out with us for a bit for the dancing part and then left because she was tired and had to work. The three of us kept dancing for a while. Salsa, Cha Cha, Tango, a bit of waltzing for like...a second, this cool line dance thing, and of course no dance party is complete without busting out cupid shuffle. Eventually we got tired of dancing and started talking about stuff. It ended up getting pretty deep after a while and before we knew it, we looked over and saw the sun coming up over the mountains and realized that it was 5:30. Lucky for Daniel and Kristin, they had project day and didn't need to be anywhere until 10, but I had work at 8:30. It ended up making it a really long day and I still wasn't feeling 100% better...actually I still don't. Hopefully a good breakfast and some grape juice or tea or something will wake me up today.
One of the things I really love about God is that His presence really draws people together. I find it a struggle to become really close friends with non-believers, but if I run into someone who believes in God, even if I don't know it yet, it's like I form and instant connection with them and it's like we've been friends for years. The best part is when those relationships do develop over a few years and you form a life-long bond with someone that nothing can break. I am totally excited about the fact that I can keep going in LT with a support group like Daniel and Kristin. After Thursday night, it feels like any of us come talk to any of the other two about anything and the other two would be there for support 100%, which reminds me of my relationship with Kyle and Andy. I've heard it said(that people come into our lives for a reason....sorry, Wicked tangent) that being a Christian is about community, about sharing your struggles with each other and forming accountability and the awesome feeling of knowing that someone else has struggled with something that you are struggling with and they can lead you and help support you when you need it most. I think the Wicked tangent is actually very fitting.

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them and we help them in return."

It's really exciting that I finally feel like God wants to do something in my life this summer. Hopefully this is me getting out of neutral in my relationship with Him and hopefully kicking it into high gear....or at least 1st or 2nd.

Well I really need to get going if I want to eat breakfast before work. If I have the need for a brain dump again, I'll be sure to post...otherwise, see you after project day!

-Go Green-
Sammy

Project Day 4 aka Project Day Burned!!!

Hey Loyal Followers
So this has been quite a week since I last posted for many crazy reasons.
1) So I ran slides on Tuesday, which as anyone who has worked on a church tech team knows is a very stressful job sometimes. Our first problem was that the girl who had all the slides typed up and ready to go got locked out of her room and none of us knew this until she showed up about 15 min before the service started, but before this, I retyped up all the slides for the songs in an hour and got everything ready to go so that was taken care of....until the middle of the talk when the speaker mentioned something in reference to his slides...which we never got...so we tried to fanagle that to work and it kind of worked, but it was really bad and a huge distracting pain and I felt horrible about it. So after that fiasco, we decided that if we don't have it before the service, then it just ain't happening. Problem solved...hopefully...
2) After the service, I was talking to my buddy Daniel about everything that happened and he talked to sense into me about how stupid I was being for stressing out so much and after a while I felt better.
3) After the long talk with him, a few friends and Daniel and I got together and had a Latin dance party on the admin building porch until 3:30 am, which was totally awesome!!
4) Project Day was a trip to Winter Park at Snow Mountain Ranch (the other half of the YMCA of the Rockies, besides Estes Park Center, which i where I work). It was pretty fun except for the part where all of us got some sunburn and I had a pretty major crash on the Luge track and I think I got sick a little because I woke up this morning with a major stuffy congestion thing and in a lot of pain from the sun burn and road rash, but all better now.
Anyways, I have to go get ready for LT service tonight. Daniel, Kristin and I are having another dance party, this time with good Latin music and dressing up with heels and dresses and stuff so it should be fun. Guess I'll see you next week.
-<3-
Sammy

Project Day 3

So apparently I only update after project days, weird.
This has been a pretty great week so far. Right now, it's about 15 min. until Friday, so it's kinda late. Tomorrow is four months with Sean, which is super exciting. I don't think I've ever felt this secure in a relationship and it's really great to have such a wonderful guy. <3 Sean <3

Ok...so back in Colorado. The talks we had this week at our Tuesday and Thursday LT meetings were really great this week. On Tuesday, he ended the talk with "What are you afraid of and why?" which led me to two things.
1) I am afraid of changing. I am afraid of becoming a completely different person by the end of the summer and Sean won't love me anymore and all my friends won't care about me anymore.
2) This is LT. We are learning about things like sharing our faith with people, and frankly, that's really scary and hard and I have no idea how to do that.

So after the Tuesday service, I spent some time talking to one of my LT buddies about my fears and as we were discussing my fears about Sean (among many tears), I get a phone call, which is weird because the cell service in Estes Park SUCKS!! Anyways, I pulled out my phone and it was Sean calling me just to tell me that it was 1am in Ohio and that he just wanted to hear my voice and tell me that he loved me and that he missed me. It was amazing. It felt like God saying "Seriously, you are worried about this? Why? You have nothing to worry about. Oh, you don't believe me? Well here you go!" Which was totally awesome!! The next day (Wednesday) is project day, which meant a day of hanging out with the MSU gang and talking about God and sharing our testimonies/life stories with each other and this week, they decided to do a "how to share the gosple with people" workshop, which was God talking to me again saying "well you asked for it, so here you go"

Thursday(tonight)'s talk ended in making about that God is good and God is strong. God is so good that he will be there through all your fears and struggles and God is strong and will help you with all your problems and fears, which I feel has been proven pretty well this past week.
Now on to face my next obstacle, whatever it may be....and getting some reading done.
-<3 and Go Green-
Sammy

Project Day Number 2

So I have been super busy and up to a lot of stuff lately. Sunday, I went to our first workshop day, which for me is "learning to read the bible" workshop, which is super cool and really interesting. I'm getting some stuff done on my first Graphic Design 2 project so that is exciting. Also, our LT meetings laptop started deciding it was going to crash mid-service, so mine is the new LT computer....which means I am in charge of typing up all the slides for each service, which is actually kinda cool! Today is project day again which means spending time with people from MSU who are here and bonding as a group before we go back to state. Today we went on a nice drive through the mountains, stopped at different scenic spots and took lots of pictures, then hopped into some trash bags and sledded down part of the mountain. It was so cool!! We started a thing last week were we have two people from our project group share their life story and how God has affected them and next week is my turn. I am really working on trying to compile all my thoughts into one solid story, and I have a running list of things that I don't want to forget. Right now, I am waiting on some books to read for the summer to show up.
Last night we had a couple come in as speakers for our LT meetings for the week and it was really interesting. They spent the evening talking about relationships between men and women and how we should treat one another. The woman made some really good points, like the fact that when two people get close, the evil forces in this world (her wording) will try to drive a wedge between people. And if you don't believe that, think about how society keeps trying to convince the world about how "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus" News flash: Men and women are both from earth and they were both created in the image of God. Also she made a point that is actually stated in the Bible about how women should have "gentle and quiet SPIRITS, not gentle and quiet MOUTHS" which is a really empowering statement. Tonight the couple is have a Q and A session followed by another talk on Thursday night.
It was really nice having these past two days off work and even better that I got spend some time talking to Sean yesterday because he is now home from India!!!
Thank you all for keeping up with this blog! I am really loving all the support and will be back to update again soon!
-<3-
Sammy

My first Project Day

Hey Everyone
So yesterday was pretty much a full day of actual leadership training and small group discussions with people from MSU. It was really great to get a really tight bond with the people from state who will eventually be the leadership team for Riverview next year. I also have finally been here long enough to make a to-do list for the summer that I think i can manage. Today is another day of working with the kids at the craft shop, then tomorrow all of the craft shop employees are headed to the low ropes course for a team building exercise which should be super fun!
-Go State-
Sammy