The Advance

Wow! This past weekend was amazing!...and exhausting! I won't try to recount it all, but I'll attempt to hit the highlights.

Eli Hooper was awesome. He helped us look into the condemnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and find ourselves in all of the different characters, from Pilate to Mary. The theme being "Where were you when...?", it was really interesting to look at "where I was" during those times in Jesus' life. Was I Pilate, washing my hands of Him because I was accomplishing nothing? Was I the soldiers, distracted and playing games while the Messiah hung on the cross? Was I Mary, full of both fear and joy as I ran to tell others? Where was I and where am I? It was very interesting to think about.

Saturday morning Mom and I left at 7:15 a.m. for the T-ball game. It was early, but it was fun. The boys did great, and this time (thanks to a more aggressive third base coach and some discussion in practice) we didn't end up with more that one boy on second base :-) We actually got three outs within the first six batters or so. Woohoo!

Ok, back to the advance. (We call them "advances" not "retreats" because we don't want to retreat, we want to advance.) We got back by lunch and still had a day's worth of activity before we all went to bet at 1:00 a.m. At each Spring Advance, we have a special thing for the seniors on Saturday night, which has a tendency to be pretty emotional. This year was destined to be really emotional for me, as my two best friends, Jeff and Katy, are seniors this year. Everyone was given a candle, and the seniors candles were lit. Then we all sat around and took turns encouraging the seniors and telling them what they meant to us. I knew I wasn't going to make it through that without crying, and I was so right! :-) I bawled the entire time I talked to both Katy and Jeff. They have both had such wonderful impacts on my life in the last year, and I thank God for bringing them into my life. After that, the seniors went around and lit the rest of our candles. Lots more crying as Jeff came and lit my candle first. Our friendship has been through a lot, but by the grace of God it has endured. That night brought some much needed healing to that friendship, at least for me. Katy and I could not manage to exchange any more than a hug, some tears and an "I love you." We knew we wouldn't be able to get the rest of it out, anyway.

Ok, well hitting the highlights was basically recounting it all, but oh well, you guys wanted to hear it all anyway, didn't you? :-)

All in all, the weekend was absolutely wonderful. Through the short nights and the countless tears, God moved in amazing ways in all of us. He is so good.