ELEVATE: Day 1

It goes like this:  I move to Waco, Texas in October. I start attending Antioch church. I meet a lot of people. I start making friends. I hear these friends talk about a dicipleship training school called Elevate. I learn that while in Elevate, you are asked not to drink alcohol, smoke tobacco products or watch rated R movies. I tell myself I will never go to this school.

Today is my first day of Elevate.  How did this happen? I don't know, but it's happening none the less.

Elevate is a dicipleship training school at Antioch that helps students deepen their walk with Jesus, equiping them to live a life abandoned to Him. This school is an experience built around knowing the person of God and his purposes for your life. Yes, I have been asked not to drink, smoke, or watch rated R movies. I will have to fast once a week. I will have A LOT of scripture to memorize. I will go out sharing the gospel, approaching strangers to share Jesus with them and pray for them. Am I excited about all of these things? Not escpecially, but this is suppose to be a year set apart. I will take the next 11 months and persue the things of God. I want to love others well. I want to understand how my Heavenly father feels about me, learn my identity in Him. There are apparently 42 other people who have a similar desire, and I will be meeting them tonight for our first day of class.

I remember driving to Waco, not knowing anything, totally terrified. I had no idea where I was going to live or if I could get a job. I had never even been to Texas. I remember crying so hard I almost had to pull over because I couldn't see enough to drive. I remember saying, out loud, "Just turn around. Go back. This is crazy." And I wanted to, I really did. But I just kept driving. Kept going. Through Missouri, then Oklahoma. Right into Texas. Now, 10 months later, I have that same thought. I know this is crazy. I know it will be hard. But I'm holding on. I'm just going to keep going.

Plus, it's only for a year. You can do anything for a year, right? Right??

When It Rains, It Pours..Right Into Your Living Room

My plan when I got home from work on Saturday was to shower, get ready for a night on the town and then head out for Jaqui's birthday hoopla. My plan was not to run around my bedroom in a towel, frantically picking up my belongings off the floor and then watch in horror as my living room became drenched in bathroom water. But, alas, life does not always go as planned.
I made it to the part in my plans where I shower. This is when one of my roomates, Emily, came into my bathroom to ask me something. Little did she know that when she leaned against my bathrrom sink..it would fall of the wall. I poked my head out of my shower to find her sitting on the floor, the sink underneath her, and water spraying out of two pipes coming from the wall. Not immediately understanding how much water was pouring out of my wall, I started laughing. 10 minutes later, standing in my towel, I was crying. And screaming. The water was gushing out of my bathroom and filling my room. As I made my way downstairs I discovered water was now pouring from the celing of the livingroom. Not dripping..pouring.
I will spare you the gory details of drywall raining from the ceiling and water running down the walls. Instead I will fast foward to Sunday morning. It's 11:30 and I am still in bed. There are jumbo fans and dehumidifiers filling my room and the livingroom below me. There is also the faint odor of..gas? No. Electrical fire? Yes. Apparently it's not ok to plug in several industrial size appliances and leave them running all night, especially when the wires in your house have been around since the world still knew Yusuf Islam as Cat Stevens. First a flooded bathroom, then a (tiny) fire in the attic. Oh, and my landlords live in Michigan.


But hey, there are other things to worry about. I just got a new purse at Dillards, and I can't decide if I need a new wallet to match. It's been bugging me all day...