9.18.2004

How Stasi Got To Athens

i realized that i didnt ever tell y'all how cool Jesus is and how i got to the olympics. and i want to Because it is all so col the way everything worked out. back in the spring when i found out that i was not chosen to go to greece i was a bit upse, but I decided to be positive aobut it and jsut accept that God had a differnet plan for me. and since it was his plan it was bound to be better than anyplan i could come up with. so i told god that i was up for whatever adventure he had in store for me and i would trust him that his plan was better. i was also honest wiht Him and said how i was disapointed and couldnt really imagine anthign better than Athens.
But then i got to work at camp Allegheny and toward the end of the summer i got to the point where i was talking to someone about camp and how much i learned about myslef and God and Media and the experience i got in exactly what i want to do with my life.
So then...the last break i had from camp was jsut one day long and the plan was to sleep in and then go Tandem biking with my sisters and my camp roomate Michele and our friend Bo who came home with me. but when you tell God he can take you on an adventure, he often changes the plans you make.
I woke up to the phone ringing and it was for me and it was Dr. owens and he was in Athens and said there was a job open adn would i like it. I was in 800 shades of shock and All the time Abi and Ami are goign who is it who is it who is it and what do they want and i was jsut in such shock that i couldnt even tell them who it was but anyway i told him that i would talk to my parents and think aobut it and e-mail him what i decided. and then i screamed and jumped all up and down the steps :)
so there were lots of things that God worked out. the first was me not getting the Job in the first place, cause then i wouldnt have worked at camp cause the people who got hired last semester went a week or two before and that overlapped the last 2 (busiest) weeks of camp. as it turned out, i left straight from camp to get on a plane to Athens.
and then there was the timing of the call. if he had called a day earlier or 45 minutes later i would not have been home. that was the only day i was home almost the entire month before i had to leave. if i had been at camp who knows wether he could have gotten hold of me. and even if he had, there would be almost no way that all the stuff that needed done would have gotten done as i was i left 10 days after i got the call i didn't go biking that afternon and my mom didnt do any of the errandsshe was planning on and drove me all around getting stuff that i would need like film and plane tickets and i had that day to call people who needed to be told, like Brian and
And i have the most amazing parents EVER! When i was a baby my parents gave me to God and told Him he could take me anywhere in the world He wanted to use me and they wouldnt stand in the way. That has been one of the great blessings in my life. when i called my dad at work to ask if he thought i could go his response to his little girl saying "dr. owens offered me a job in Greece!" was "GREAT when do you leave" Both my parents said youd be an idiot not to take advntage of what is so obviously a "God thing" and my MOM (amazing woman that she is) spent the week doing so much stuff paperwork and logistic-wise liek travelers checks and tax forms so that i could go. there's no way i could have done all that the last week of camp
and I already had my passport from my Chile trip Sr. year of HS,
and My minion stopped by to say hi and i got to tell him in person that i would be missing his eagle Scout Banquet
and my mom's work schedule was changed from tuesday to thursday without her being asked so it worked out that she could take me to the airport.
So God is Cool and it turns out that He did have somethign better in store for me. but that something better wasn't something else, it was something MORE. and the lessons i learned were priceless both at camp and in athens. now that i am done with both and looking back i can see how much i needed both of those experiences and how they built on each other and how incomplete my lesson would have been.
GOD IS GOOD...ALL THE TIME!!!!