June 29th, 2008 - Day 9

7:05pm
Amusement park was awesome. I rode on nearly every single ride there, including one of the highest, fastest, longest coasters in the world (the Mongo). My favorite was the Patriot, where your feet are dangling as you go through loops and stuff. Clayton had never ridden on a roller coaster before and we all went on the Patriot first. Afterwards I asked, "So how did you like your first coaster, Clayton?" He was speechless for two whole minutes. The first words that came out of his mouth were when he stepped off the coaster and exclaimed, "I can't walk!" But he fell in love with the coasters and couldn't get enough of them. Everything was really cool. Really expensive ($3.50 for a can of soda, and those were the cheap ones...other places, you could pay up to $6 for a can of soda). I didn't spend much.
Right now, though, I am in misery. My head is killing me, I'm tired beyond belief, I'm stiff and ache all over, I can't walk without my feet burning, and my rash has gotten much worse. Every time I stepped in the sun, my arms started burning. Eventually they got so unbearable and my aches hurt so bad that I could barely walk. I had to stay in the shade away from the rides the rest of the day. Fortunately Clayton went into Big Brother mode (no, Clayton's not my brother, but he sure can act like one sometimes) and made sure we stayed in the shade, let me get some ice cream to cool down, rode on the train simply to get in the shade and relax. It was nice.
I'm in a hotel now (a very nice one). My arms literally feel like they're on fire, and they hurt even worse when I touch them.
Oh, let this not be something bad.

9:27pm
I just got done eating what could quite possibly be the best meal I've ever eaten in my life. We went to a local place called "54th Street." People told us it was like Applebees, but man, it blew Applebees out of the water. First I had some really amazing wheat honey bread with some special kind of butter, it was the best bread I'd ever had. Then I had a Caesar salad in which every single leaf was crisp, green, fresh, and drenched in delicious Caesar dressing. Like the bread, it was the best salad I'd ever had. Then I had a loaded baked potato (butter, sour cream, chedder cheese, bacon bits, and chives...also the best), a little 6 oz sirloin steak (I don't eat much steak so I don't know if it's the best, but it was darned good), and a few chicken fingers (very good). I ate way much more than I could handle. When I get home, it's weight-losing time for me.










Sorry. I'm sitting by the pool right now and Garrett, Neil, and Lauren are having a cannonball contest and they splashed all over my page. And they're still splashing water over my pages. Garrett and Neil are having swim races. Garrett keeps smoking Neil's butt.
Btw, the funniest thing happened earlier. 2 days ago Neil, Garrett, Lauren, and Tanner were doing a thing where you spin around 10 times and someone shines a flashlight in your eyes and it's impossible not to fall over. So Neil spun around 5 times before he fell flat on his face, and the bridge of his glasses snapped completely in two. Neil's legally-blind, so he needs his glasses to see, so he taped the bridge back together, but it doesn't hold very well. At random times during the day, half it it will fall off so he's left with half-glasses only covering one of his eyes. It's hilarious. Anyway, Neil was carrying something into his hotel room and both his glasses halves fell off. He didn't have time to turn around and pick them up right away, so Clayton picked them up and put them on. They looked so goofy on him and he was having fun with them. I guess, though, he forgot that when a person is legally blind, their glasses are exceptionally thick, which makes it hard to see if you have 20/20 vision. So Clayton turned to walk into his room, grinning smugly and being his usual class clown, and he walked smack into the doorway. He muttered, "Oh, snot!" and Neil's glasses went flying and it was sooo hilarious. You had to be there. I still laugh when I think about it now.
Ooh, I'm incredibly sunburned and it hurts really really bad. Grr.
Anyway. During dinner tonight, I was thanking God for the food and I asked Him, "Why is this mission trip so much different than last year's? In Jamaica, we slept with roaches and fire ants, here we lived the life of luxery. Almost nothing went wrong, and it's almost like we were spoiled. I mean, we still worked hard for You, but we had it so good. Why did You send us here? What's with all the major blessings?"
And I heard it so clearly:
"To see if you would remember Me."
It's true. When we stayed in Jamaica, it was easy to focus on God. We had to. It helped us get through, plus it helped us be thankful for what we did have. Whatever could've gone wrong did go wrong, and God sent more miracles than I can count to make them right.
But here, everything's alright. Everything went right. And I realized that, for most Christians, those are the toughest times to remember God. He just kind of gets pushed away until hard times come and we call on Him agian. But the God who saves from trials is the same God who makes good days too. He's there regardless. So maybe this mission trip was easier to act nonchalant and let God slip a little. Fortunately this team did wonders. God was in it all the way.
I get home about 3:00pm tomorrow. I am seriously missing my iPod. One of the first things I will do when I get home is plug the music in my ears.
Can't wait to get home! Homesickness finally sunk in today.