7th grade… wow, in two years I’ll be in high school, kinda freaky! Maybe I’ll get a little taller by then!
I recently went on a mission trip to Ballard, Seattle (I know, not too far from home, right?) and it was the best experience of my life! I loved having family time, the first three nights were kinda quiet and lonely for me, but on Friday, that night I was sitting with my friend, Gillian, when she got up during worship to go with someone else to comfort, so I was left on a huge couch alone with someone else worshiping on my left. I looked around the room and I saw a group of my friends in a tight circle praying for someone, I was dieing to be over there, my whole pod, (the groups we were assigned to for the week) was over there but I have super low-esteem, but without me telling my body to stand, I stood up and as soon as I did, I thought, No turning back now! I walked across the room and put my arms around the group from the back, i felt so awkward, but two girls opened up the circle for me to join, Beth and Kira. We all decided to do a ‘popcorn’ prayer and when I started to pray, Kira did as well (who was supposed to close, haha!) she let me pray after some giggling, but half-way through my prayer, I just started crying, for no reason at all! I wasn’t even sad or upset about anything! I felt like an idiot, but guess who was patting my back comforting me? Beth and Kira, somehow i got through my prayer without falling on my knees or crying so much.
After we were done praying, everyone was giving someone a hug, but I forgot what to do after we finished our prayer circle, so I just kinda stood there looking around the room, then someone in a dark jacket with dark hair came up to me and said, “You okay, hun?” I searched her face, it was Beth. Now, normally I would have said “Yea, i’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be?” but I was done faking it, “No… i’m not” I told her. Beth pulled me in for a long hug, I can’t exactly remember her exact words (I must have A.D.D, but it definitely gave me courage and hope,) one of the things I remember she said though was, “God will always be there for you.” after she said that, I couldn’t hold it in any longer, I just let it all out, crying, sniffing, all that stuff. I’m not 100% sure she said this, but Beth said something like this, “You know I love you, right?”
That was the first time she’d said that to me in person, “Yea.” I replied through tears of joy and sadness.
She hugged me a little tighter and said (something like,) “Hey, its okay, I know were not that close, but I’ll give you my number so we can hang out sometime.”
I was tired and sick of holding this in, I held her as tight as my arms could handle, “I love you, Beth.” I whispered as loud as I could. Beth had paused and held me tightly as well, “I love you too, Kaety.” I’m not exactly sure, but I think we were both crying.
I also remember a night where Debo (Daniel) said to go pray with someone you didn’t know very well. As SOON as he had said that, Taryn, who was sitting behind my couch. jumped up on her knees and poked me and said, “I wanna pray for you, kay?” I laughed, I didn’t know Taryn that well, but we had met each other earlier in the day, I swear I almost cried that night when she prayed for me.
I know there were many other times where i had my moments like that, but there were so many, the one i’ll never forget, is the one where Taryn prayed for me. (MEOW)
I made so many friends, and i’m still close with them, i think now that i have gotten over Cora, (old-‘friend’) I have a better relationship with God!
Speaking of which relationships, a few weeks ago, i went to Firwood for a youth group camp, GOcamp, (fircreek, one of those ‘Fir’ places!) on Saturday afternoon, my group couldn’t find a table, so we all split up, and our leader, (Pookie) said, “Make new friends guys! MAKE NEW FRIENDS!”
I decided to stick with Lindsay, my other leader, and we ended up sitting with my mom’s group, who had two of my friends in her cabin, (Beth and Alyshia) so i got to hang with them a little bit. When we were done clearing our table, Alishia started to play with my hair (people like my hair, A LOT) and Beth and her started talking to me, then i decided to ask Beth a big question, “Beth, if they do that recommitting thing tonight, will you go pray with me?” Beth’s face seemed normal, but excited “Of course I will!” I was excited and nervous.
That evening, our (AMAZING) speaker, Chris, said that if you’d like to ask Jesus into your heart, or recommit, he would like it if you stood up. My heart started to race, In front of 290 middle schoolers AND high schoolers?! I felt like I was gonna die, but my friend Gillian gave me a hug cause she noticed how nervous I was, (I guess it shone through my face!) I searched the crowd for Beth, when I found her, she was already looking at me, she mouthed “You still going to do it?” her face showed that she really cared. I nodded back at her with confidence. When Chris told us to stand up, I cautiously stood up from the crowd, from my point of view, I saw only 8 people standing other than me. He said to stay standing, my legs began to shake like leaves. When he asked the worship band to come up, Lindsay came up to my bench to pray with me, (Once again, i don’t really remember what she said, the music was pretty loud) in the middle of that I felt two… then four other hands on my shoulders or hands, i began to stroke the cold hand that was on my right hand with my thumb. Beth squeezed my hand telling me that she was there for me. When Lindsay finished i turned and saw Beth she held me for a long few minutes and then she began to pray (Music was loud…. -_-) Alysia was behind me with her hands on my shoulders or back. After worship ended Beth said to me, “I want to show you something.” she led me to my mom and asked, “Nikki, can i talk to Kaety for like five minutes?” (We were supposed to have cabin time after worship.) My mom said yes, and Beth took me to the second to the front bench, she opened her Bible to Eph. 2:8-10 (after looking for it twice) and read it to me. She showed it to me before, but I didn’t understand it then, now, I do. Hopefully me and her will get closer, I miss her bunches!
So yea, that’s pretty much my summer!!!
-Kaetlyn Mikael <3