Back To Practice

Hello!

I disappeared for the last two days because I've just been so busy doing this and that. I usually like blogging at night before I go to bed, but it just wasn't possible to do that Tuesday and Wednesday. I probably wouldn't be able to blog tonight either so I'm writing in the afternoon now when I still have time...

So on Tuesday 11th January, a nice snowstorm was being forecasted for our area. My mom told me about it before I drove back to school but thankfully the snow didn't start falling until much later.

After I moved my stuff back into the dorm that morning, I went with the distance team to Liberty State Park for our first official practice of the year.

I was really happy to be running with someone else other than myself again!

It was cold at first, but after running hard for a good half hour, all of us were steaming.

That evening most of the track team got together in the basement for dinner.

I haven't spent this much time around trackies since I came to this college. I usually don't like spending too much time around them because there are a lot of jokes and cursing that I just don't get and not a lot of Jesus-loving going down too. Not that I'm a saint or anything, but after a while, I sometimes find myself getting sucked into that though I really don't want to be. This time however, I kept praying that the Holy Spirit would stay with me and that I would meditate on His law day and night.

I guess I just realised that I need to be more approachable to the other trackies. I can't sit in my room by myself all day and expect people to feel like it's ok to talk to me about God. So I've just been running a lot of errands and being around a lot of trackies.

It's draining, but spending time with God each night helps to replenish my spiritual stores.

So since practice ended, I barely had time to bathe when I had to drive with Cherrice to get the dinner for everybody, then after dinner we stayed on in the basement to play Taboo.

Sometime around 21:00, we looked outside and it was SNOWING! Lovely big flakes of fluffaly snow!

Very quickly, a fresh layer of snow covered the older layer, making the whole place look like a storybook picture.

Saccito's girl wanted banana milkshakes from Checkers so we piled into his 4-wheel drive and drove slowly through the street to get them.

I had actually expected to be bored most of the time when I moved back to the dorm because classes won't start until next Wednesday. The only things that I thought would take up time were track practices and rehab. However Tuesday hit me like a storm (hah!) and blew me off without warning.

I went to bed around 01:00 that night after spending quiet time with God's Word but was rudely awakened on Wednesday morning by the announcement that there were to be two practices at 10:00 and 12:30 later.

10:00 was whatever, but 12:30 was DEATH.

Telly and I had to run four miles at near race pace and I had to pray my way through every single lap. Yikes! I feel so out of shape.

After practice, we walked through the post-blizzard landscape back to our dorms.

After shovelling my car out from a foot or so of snow, I drove to ShopRite for food shopping with some of the track girls.

Again, Wednesday night ended with what seemed like a whirlwind of activities.

I had to rush a bath and dinner after we got back from ShopRite and Target, then run over to Cindy's to bake brownies. I was making them for Gatto because I threw a snowball at him in a moment of mischievousness and he got mad at me and said that he was going to ignore me for the next six days, so I said I would make him brownies so that he would start talking to me again.

When I got to Gatto's apartment, it turned out that most of the trackies were there watching a horror movie in the bedroom, so I stayed in the kitchen and ended up having a long talk with Gatto about God and stuff.

Before long, other trackies were coming in and out of the kitchen to see what we were up to. We ended up having a little Bible study right there in this kitchen and praying that God would open up Gatto's spiritual eyes to His wisdom.

Throughout the whole night, I was praying that God would use me to speak the right words to Gatto; and it seemed that each time we were coming to something significant, there would be horrible noises coming from the movie in the bedroom.

Those of you who know me know that I absolutely cannot stand this kind of stuff but I just thought that it was so amazing how this movie was playing in the next room while the Holy Spirit spoke in the kitchen through His Word, the Bible.

God stayed with me all night and I'm so grateful for His continual presence. Even in a place where no one really cares for Him, where it seems like darkness fills the rooms, God is still there. He really is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust!

I am praying for all the people who are beginning to be drawn to God. First of all I just am so grateful that God has answered prayers about drawing trackies closer to Him. Just to have the Bible open in a track environment is such a big step. And now, to have trackies like Gatto asking questions about God and being convicted in their spirits of His truth. I am just SO... speechless, in a good way. :)

I prayed last night before I went to sleep that God would be with me in my dreams and He was.

This morning again, I had an impromptu conversation with my roommie (one roommate moved back in with me) about God and the Catholic Church. I just pray that I always walk in the Spirit and not speak from my own knowledge and power but by the will of God.

Hopefully tonight she will come with me to C.L.I.M.B.

Ok I have to go now, Time for practice.