Beach Reach

Stuff that's been said about Beach Reach by others aka for my own reference. I miss it!

"beach reach by Meredith Brooke Oliver Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 11:50pm

Oh man, I could not describe my spring break in one sentence even if I tried. I do know that God showed up and in a big way. For me, this trip probably started at the beginning of this semester when I thought that I needed to go but had no idea where the money would come from. I still owe my parents money for school and books from this semester. The trip cost $370 plus spending money. My church paid for $100 but I was left with the rest. After weeks of doubting, I finally got a direct deposit totalling to $316 from taxes. How great is our God!

If I went though the entire week, this would be so incredibly long but I'm going to talk about a few of the many amazing things that God did.

The first night and our first day together as a group, we bonded so quickly. It was full of laughter and good times. It was amazing how different our personalities were but how perfectly we all meshed together. It was amazing how we were all quick to encourage and pray for each other. I love you guys!!

One of my prayers for the week was that we could cling to His many promises. Oh man, God's word just totally jumped off the page for me last week. It wasn't just certain passages, it was everything I read in there.

At the beginning of the week as we walked around and rode in the vans making conversations with other spring breakers, I felt a lot of pressure to steer the conversation. By Thursday, I finally realized that God is big enough to handle my converastion and if He wants it to go there, then it will, and not forcefully so. The last night, I walked around with Chris (we seriously walked like 4 or 5 miles!) . For the first 30 minutes out on the street we just walked and talked, and trusted God to guide our footsteps and put us in the right place in the right time. We decided to walk to waffle house. After about 2 minutes of standing outside the waffle house, a guy walked up and we asked how he was doing. He said "still breathing." We wished him a good night and then watched him go in and sit down by himself. Chris and I ended up going over and sitting with him as he ate. His name was Adam. He was a local Christian who has been burned by the Church. We ended up talking to him for an hour and a half almost. It was amazing though that the conversation flowed almost naturally to Jesus.

Then, after our conversation ended, we headed in the opposite direction, we caught up with another guy named Chris. Chris was walking to a club about a mile and half down the strip in the direction we were walking so we walked and talked with him. We were allowed the opportunity to present the gospel to Chris. We actually ended up walking a mile past the club where he intended to go before we turned back. Chris seemed to understand Jesus and his grace but also felt unready to make any kind of decision. That was a great converstaion too.

There were many others that I met that night who tugged at my heart and I pray that God used me despite my weakness.

One of the highlights of the week was the night when I stayed back in the prayer room. So when my team left, I went over to the prayer room, where I found some of the leaders hanging out. I got to meet them and joke around. They asked what I was doing that night and told them that I'd be in the prayer room while my team went out to do rides/street teams. So they asked if I 'd like to enter the prayer requests onto the blogsite as they came in all night. So that was what I ended up doing for about 6 hours. It was AMAZING!! I got to listen in as the other people in the prayer room prayed aloud and agree with them as they prayed and as I typed in the prayer requests that showed up on the screen of the prayer room. I also typed in praises where God had answered prayer. God is faithful!! He continues to amaze me with his mercy and faithfulness!

As I return to a test to study for, and other worries and doubts and fears, I am refreshed and feel better equiped for having gone to Beach Reach in Panama City, not to mention a little bit sun burnt. :-) "

"Beach Reach Quotes!! by Julia Kannapell Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 4:43am

"Do you REALLY want to know??" - Beach Reach

"Who? MIKE JONES!" - Bryan Harris and me

"Who? MIKE WHALEN!" - Stephen Stegall

"You need a Man Friend!!" - Lance Butler

"Emily earned her beads!" - Bryan Harris

"You cold, Emily?" - Bryan Harris

"That is a Lance original!" - Lance Butler

"I passed a kidney stone, SON!" - Lance Butler

"If I don't have a 10 pound baby by the end of the night I'm gonna be disappointed!!" - Lance Butler

"Dad is great! Makes his chocolate cake!" - Chris Mize

"HERMAN!!" - Meredith Goolsby

"Calvin Johnson!!" - Juice

"All I remember is Pony on a stick!" - me

"That's exciting! I know more of the lyrics to Def Leppard than the drunk girl singing karaoke!" - me

"Cakes of the pan, devoid of cost!" - some Beach Reacher

"Sweet Action!" - Laurie

"I'm changing my shirt!" - Stephen Stegall

"Free Wife!" - Oliver Albrecht

"Everyone picks on the retard!" - Lance Butler

[said to Megan Smith] "Saucy Momma!" - Some drunk guy

Stegall - "It had two words and they both started with S... something Bomber..."
Me - "Bisquick Bomber?"
Stegall - "yeah!"
Me - "but neither of those start with S..."
Stegall - "Jerk"

"I met a high person!" - Meredith Goolsby

"Straight Up!" - Bryan Harris

"Foot Pansy!" - Chris Mize

"Pool Pansy!" - Chris Mize

"Hold it down like a fat kid on a seesaw!" - Lance Butler

Megan - "So are you an American citizen?"
Drunk German - "Not yet. Will you marry me?"

"Holy snap, crackle, pop!" - Lance Butler

Drunk guy - "Where the [heck] did you get the pony?"
Drunk German - "Don't ask me. Ask the pony, man!"

"That is a dude in a bra!" - Lance Butler

"Everyone lay a hand..." - Beach Reach

"We're NAKED!" - Brooke Oliver

"Who doesn't want to see an albino midget pop out of a cupcake?"
- Lance Butler

"Tell that vein in your forehead to chill out!"
- Lance Butler

"It was the perfect cup!"
- Lance Butler

"He loves Mexicans!"
- Jose from Morehead

"Just wait, when you get out, your nipples are gonna be harder than the SAT!"
- Bryan Harris

~This is all I could think of at the moment... if you remember something that I forgot, leave a comment and I'll add it! Thanks so much for making it an awesome trip guys!"

Life Happened

blah.. why did life have to get stressful again. I was having enough on my plate trying to see what God is doing, now "life" has hit again.
projects have hit the fan again and one extremely nightmarish one has come back for revisions
im working on buying a motorcycle, my mom's not happy but everyone else, in my family at least, is supportive. I know I'm "crazy," it's dangerous, I don't need to hear it anymore I've made my choice.
Im trying to sort things out with some people, and don't know what to do/say

So often I feel like I'm making progress and growing then seemingly "life" happens, things just pop up that require attention and place the other on the back burner. It's like I'm climbing up this mountain face and as soon as I really am able to stretch and reach out and over the next outcrops I have to stop to eat, sleep, fix my straps, etc. Each of these things are vital to my existence yet they delay the obtainment of my ultimate goal yet I can't not do them and expect to reach the top. I guess I just need to learn to better balance each aspect.

Peace beyond all understanding

I love how God is so in control of my life. Lately, He's been reminding me of things He has taught me and showing me things He is teaching me that I hadn't realized. Quick bullet points are:

• He is in control of every detail
• To love like He does I must be willing to accept love
• His peace and grace surpass all understanding
• He is continually working on and in me
• He has blessed me with so much, in experiences, glimpsing how He may be using me, family, friends that aren't afraid to say what they should

I know my life will never be an easy sail for that I'm grateful, if I ever do get to a place where things are going swimmingly, someone please wake me up. I would like to praise God:

• for allowing me to do the best I've done ever so far at Tech class-wise
• for blessing me with so many opportunities to serve Him
• the ability to seek His face whether I'm on a retreat or doing chores
• teaching me so much about Him through a relationship, that I'm grateful He has had His hand on since the beginning, I have no regrets and have learned a ton
  

Each time I go through a challenge I learn something about God's character and I'm excited to see what God has in store for me. For those of you that read this I need to be heading to bed as I start work again tomorrow but I have a couple of prayer requests for you to lift up to God:

• I start back to work, so everything that encompasses, ease and memory recall of getting back to it
• My Dad is on night-shift again for work, safety and rest
  
• My brother is getting ready to leave for Nicaragua on a mission trip at the end of this week for several days, safety, speed, and smoothness of working through challenges
• I'm planning on seeking out different churches here at home, wisdom and courage to follow through
• strength, peace, wisdom, and reminders to run to Jesus when I'm attacked and my emotions try to run wild with me heart

Thank you for reading and considering my requests. Maybe I'll update this more and elaborate subjects... leave me Bible verses or comments, I'm always open to what people have to say.

Moving

I'm sooo tired of having to move seemingly constantly(aka twice a semester). I don't know whether it's b/c I've never moved in my life until college or just the repetitive leaving friends and what not. People have been askin' me if I'm ready for summer? glad to be done? looking forward to work? etc other typical life halfway just making small talk questions? I really don't know my answer to these questions this time around. Before I could just half think and come up with the pros and cons, this time, I have no clue. I can't even really come up with a good list, my brain cannot organize my thoughts on this, other than is it time for these already? I feel like each time these questions come closer and closer together leaving little time to process what's happened between. ...
I should probably be sleeping but I can't. I feel like anytime I want to sleep I can't and when I most need to be awake is when my body just shuts down. For example, I didn't have to get up today by any specific time and I wen, to bed not to long after midnight and woke up on my own, no alarm, around 7 I think then tossed and turned until 11 when I finally got up. I know I'm not the only one that suffers from these problems ...
Finals... blah so I ended up only with 2 finals out of a potential 4. Basically I landed my grades in such a middle range that my professor's essentially said don't bother taking the final it won't help your grade, thanks. So I finished Tuesday and I've been hanging around to see everyone and pack, etc. I almost wish(keyword almost) I didn't finish so early and only with 2 finals, everyone is like you stink I know there's no true mean thoughts behind that but I feel like they've forgotten I've been in there position and rarely get a break like this. Anyways I should stop I believe my prose is turning into complaints and not thought provoking content like a blog should be.
Good Luck on finals and get some rest! goodnight

Woo

Wow..mmm there seems to be so much going on lately. Spring Break was amazing, God was so active. School is crazy and giving me tons of work as usual. There's been lot's of events in general. I'd really love maybe a day or two to just chill and spend time with people. It's not looking like I'll really get that until I'm back at work. I don't want to wait that long though. I'm just gonna try and schedule time to make time. Thankfully I'm doing decent/pretty good (for me anyways) in my classes so far. Yet, I still have at least one test in every class, plus hws, and a project. The thing is I know a lot of people, including those really close to me, are in the same boat. I really want to be there for them and support them. I pray that God will teach me and show me what I need to be doing. Bedtime has come and gone so Goodnight.

For no particular reason

I'm starting one of these things for no reason at all. I probably won't post that often if history is any indication. I figured it might be an easier way to catalog my thoughts on what goes on in my life and such. College seems like an interesting time period to keep track of feelings and such due to the opening and closing of so many doors. There's so much you learn about yourself and figure out about how life works. Maybe this will give those who this read it something at least mildly amusing to read and consider. This blog comes with no guarantees though.