"2-adays"

Alright, so this week, is probably going to be the exact opposite of Elevation. For all of you who dont understand...if Elevation was the best week every this week is going to be...exactly...the worst week ever. So basically, for all of you who didn't know this or didn't read my last blog, I am trying out for the high school soccer team, and this week, is 2-adays. So from what I've heard, this is going to be terrible, and the players call this week "hell week". SO to start it off, I have to get up at 6, then get picked up at 6:35, then start running at 7. So from 7-8 AM were running about 5-9 miles, depending upon the day. Then I have all day, to try and conserve my energy, sleep, and pray to God I have enough will power to do this. Then, I go back, from 6-8, and get my tush whipped some more. Just so you know, I'm just going by what I've heard from the players. I will definately be posting my experience later as well as my will. In the night session, we do constant sprints, pushups, situps, up and unders, interval runs (jog one, sprint one, jog 1, sprint 2, jog 1, sprint 3 etc), and plyometrics (speed ladders, in and out of cones, jumping over cones, frog jumps, etc). So after all of this, I'll probably go home, eat a nice juicy steak and then pass out until I have to do all of this the next day, and by the end of the week, my legs will be jello.

Alright, so i hope you guys have sympathy for me,
Much love,
Alexxxxxxxxxxxxx

New Haircut

Alright. So today, I got my haircut. Not just a little trim, but so short, it was just short of being a buzz. It wasn't my choice. I am a soccer player, and I am going to play for my school team next year. However, in order to try out, the rule is your hair has to be above your ears and collar and out of your eyes. So I got it cut, very short. I think it looks alright, but I guess you'll just have to see for yourselves at VI!!!!

Elevation '07: Hollywood

Alex's First Elevation:

ELEVATION '07: HOLLYWOOD

So what can I say about Elevation ‘07. Well right now I am driving to Chicago, so I have a lot of time to write this, which means this will be a lengthy, but good blog. Well as most of you know, this was my very first elevation, let alone my very first experience with VI. Before elevation, I had no idea what to expect. The only reason I went on this was because Dan invited me. So the first few meetings for elevation I got through them, knowing no one except Dan and my cast (family). My family was an amazing family. The people in it were Joe Get, Molly Sullivan, Olivia, Julia, Stephanie, Emily, LFD, Andrew, Dan, and I. Our name was 3, and we were quite the creative bunch of people, which led to us winning best name, song, skit, and flag. But going into it, I wasn’t excited at all, but that soon changed, and I am so glad I went on elevation.

Day 1- “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”
So anyways, the beginning of the first day of elevation kindof sucked. I knew no one, and I just followed Dan around for the beginning of the day. Later that day we presented our amazing song and flag, and had the handbook quiz bowl (which we also got 2nd in). But nothing that happened up to that point in elevation could even compare to what I was about to experience during worship. I had no idea what was coming and everyone said I was in for a great surprise. We started off with fast worship, which just wasn’t my thing. But then slow worship came along, and it was a very powerful experience. Between the slow songs, the sermon, and the prayer circle, the experience was very, very powerful, and it gave me a great time to get closer to god and reflect on my life. I spent a lot of time at the prayer circle, and I was really glad we were given the opportunity to do that. So by the end of the day, I felt reasonably comfortable with all of the people, and I had made a lot more friends than I came with.

Day 2- Lake Lanier- “Pirates of The Caribbean”
The second day of elevation was the day at Lake Lanier. It was so much fun. My boat was Molly, Andrew, Me, Dan, Stephanie, and Aimee. Now let me tell you, Aimee is one crazy boat driver, and Molly is just in her own league. When Aimee gave Molly control of the wheel, no one could stay on their tube. However we didn’t just tube, we occasionally anchored the boat and took a dip/leak in the lake, ahaha. We ate lunch at Van Pugh North Park, and did quite the interesting Folley involving chocolate syrup and cups…. Then we came back on a long bus ride, in which I could have sworn I could have heard people saying my name, but it turned out it was just Coleman and Gaburo whispering my name over and over to make me paranoid.

Day 3- Service Day- “Mission Impossible”
So today was the service day, and I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to that, but coming out of the day, it was a very moving and powerful experience. For my cast/family’s service, we went to name of place. This place is a fun camp for kids with mental/physical/emotional disabilities. I cannot express how moving this experience was in words. The not so moving part was in the first half, which was dirty work, although it felt good to know that you were helping. I removed a bush, pulled weeds, and cleaned out a barn with a power washer. A message to everyone, don’t give me or Andrew a power washer. After we were done cleaning, we sprayed a wasps nest and Andrew ran, then slipped and fell on his badonkadonk. It was hilarious. The second half was the powerful part. I got to hang out and play with some of the kids. Joe and I were playing “fight” with some of these little kids where we were the bad guys and they were Spiderman and Hulk. I think one of the boys had a bit of a thing for me. When he first came up to me, he drooled all over me and then buried his head in my crotch. It was really awkward but funny nonetheless and everyone in my family was cracking up. He also “had to tell me a secret” but he licked my ear instead. The part that really moved me was when I met a girl names Kayla with a mental disability, and she asked me to play piano for her. I played “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, and she sung along, and then when we were done, she drew a picture of me and her. This really touched me, and by the end of the day, I felt like even though the kids may not have noticed it, I think we gave them a good time and I think we helped them and the leaders of the camp a lot. That night we had yet another extraordinary worship, but it was outside in the gazebo. We got our care packages, it stormed, and Phil gave a great sermon about life as a horror flick. Also, the FH staff told ghost stories which sprung millions of other “true” stories.

Day 4- “Choice Day”- “Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny”
I hope I’m not losing you’re interest here, I’m just so elated from this experience I want to express everything that happened during elevation. So today was our choice day and I chose white water rafting. This was an extraordinary day, because it was a new experience to me. We had to wake up early and within 5 minutes of rafting, we hit a class 5 rapid, a 7 foot drop. For me, I was a little worried, but I had trust in my raft mates. We went through that rapid not like a hot knife through butter, but a hot knife through hot butter (yeah, that fast and smooth. Lol) . Amidst rafting through calm currents, we noticed water coming down on us. This was not rain, but it was the raft consisting of Keiser, Gaburo, and Stephanie, The next thing we knew, their raft leader jumped on our boat, and pushed 3 of us, including me, off the boat. It was so funny. So we had to get them back, so later, we caught up with them, and we got Katie and Annie off the boat, and Dan just jumped on their boat and stayed on. Hahahaha. Not only did we raft, but we also went cliff diving and swam on a “natural water treadmill”, which were both really fun. Also on this trip it was pointed out by some observant people (Annie and Katie) that I have bigger biceps than Coleman. Hahahaha idk why Katie and Annie were look at my HUGE biceps but they are BIGGER than Coleman’s. Jk David. That night, we again had my favorite part of camp, the awesome worship services, and Aimee gave a great sermon about life as a comedy. There were only 2 days left now.

Day 5- Tournaments- “Love & Basketball”
So today, was one of those days where we were at Forrest Hills. We started off the day with a seminar by LFD (and it was a great seminar!) about life as a silent movie, and then we had quiet time. This again was a great time for me to expand my relationship with god, and for this quiet time, I sat on a tree stump, and just though about life. Later that day, we had the basketball/cornhole tournaments! My team, was by far the biggest underdog team. The tallest/oldest guy on our team was Dan, a 5’8 freshman, while other teams had 6’1 Freshman in college Elliot and Coleman. Anyways, Dan basically carried our team to the winners bracket finals with his sharp shooting and we ended up coming in third, which is pretty good considering our team (By the way, our team was me, Dan, Andrew, LFD, and Emily). So 3 came in 3rd in basketball and in cornhole Julia and Olivia played their hearts out and we got 6th in that. Our family was more of the “artsy” family than the “sporty” family. That night, we had the SKITS! I figured I would give a short summary of the skits.

3-Monty Python- The nights of 3, versus the nights of NI! Silly string sprayed everywhere but finally the nights of three came up on top with Sir Robin of Loxley leading the way!

X-rated- Desperate Housewives- Annie’s slutty character and Dustin’s cross-dressing caused some drama. John’s unscripted line, “Let’s get out of here BABY” was by far the funniest moment.

Epic- Epic’s multiple movie character skit was hilarious with Nick as superman, David as Harry Potter, and Chris Acheson and a very odd version of god…or at least that’s what I thought he was trying to be.

Sinbusters- Austin Powers- The different Austin Powers represents the different sins. Between Zach as “the fat bastard” and Trey as Austin Powers their skit was hilarious.

VIP- The VIP room- Who can get into the VIP room? Drew…I mean, Paris couldn’t seem to make it in, but Jesus did! This was one of my favorite skits.

Oceans 10- The second best skit. Behind the ever powerful 3 of course! Their skit was all about freeing the famous film figures from their failure to find faith. D-Frost’s part from Castaway and Elliot’s Jack Sparrow were both hilarious.

That night, a group of us went “ghost hunting”, it was good to get some people scared, but we came back dry.

Day 6- Obstacle Course- “Star Wars”
Today was the last full day that we had of elevation. In the morning we had quiet time again, with a beginning speech by Zach and Vicki. For this quiet time, I started on a walk with Trey and Rachel and then when we finished I walked with Paley and Elliot. It was a great time just to talk with them about different things in life that were important to us. After quiet time, we had Tug O’ War. Again, as I stated before, the physical tasks weren’t exactly our family’s “specialty”. We got 6th place. After that we had the obstacle course. Me, being one of the smallest on my team, I was harnessed in for the mission impossible test. Of course, the harness was on backwards, so I got flipped upside down, which made doing the task extra hard, but it was funny nonetheless to see me flipped upside down. We came in 6th in the obstacle course. Then we had “The Monster’s Ball”. We were able to sit with who we wanted that night, and we were served a great dinner and I had a great time. My table was Nick, Angie, Elizabeth, Dan, Me, Maddie, Katie, and Annie. For the final worship service, Drew spoke about life as A drama, and we had communion. That night’s prayer circle was really emotional for me, due to the fact that it was my last night at my first elevation. I put my head down, and Coleman came over and put his arm around me. This put me to tears because it just made me think about all of the friends I made here, and it made me felt like I belonged, and I was part of the elevation family. That final night, me, Katie, Annie, Coleman, Maddie, James, and Slon all went on a walk. We layed down, looked at the stars, and just talked about how great elevation was. Katie called it a “Notebook Moment” whatever the heck that is. Hahahaha. So that was my very last night at elevation.

Day 7- “The Oscars”
This day, was just like a half day, and our last moments on elevation. We had the Oscars, and I was really hoping I would get an award. I got the Up and Comer Award, and the All Star award. These two awards really meant a lot to me, and it really made me feel like I was part of the VI family.

So elevation was probably the best week of my life. I went into it knowing no one, and left with 60 new friends. This was such an amazing experience. The worship truly expanded my relationship with God, and now I feel a lot closer to him. So between the fun activities, the amazing people, and the extraordinary worship, I am sooooo glad I went on elevation this year, and I can’t wait to see you all at VI

Much Love,
Your Friend,
Alex