Autobiography

(Prelude: In my english class junior year,  we were assigned to write our autobiography and the length requirement was one paragraph. I wrote one paragraph, but it was a looong paragraph haha. At first, I was mad that this was an assignment because I thought "We're 16. Nothing happened yet". But then I started to think about my life more and realized there actually is a story there. I thought it would be cool to write it in the form of a prayer. My teacher read it and loved it. She told me to come back in 10 years and update this autobiography, so I have about 6 more years to have some good content to write about. 11/16/13)

       Dear Lord, I want to thank you for the life I have and letting me be reborn in You. I remember when it all began; I raised my hand as I felt overcome with You. Seeing this, a woman behind me asked if she could pray for me. I have not been prayed for out loud before and she was a stranger, but I still said yes and even though I was kind of angry with her that she interrupted my recommence. Later on in the convention, I had to leave due to some middle school inappropriate material. I recommitted, but I still went back to my sinful ways almost immediately with little to no repentance. This went on for a while, gradually getting better as I went to youth group every week. I was forced to go to youth group at first and now I cannot wait for Sunday nights and will never regret any of it. I was frustrated often though because I was ahead of my time, in that, all my friends were in the high school youth group and I was stuck in the middle school youth group. By the time I got into high school youth group a lot of my friends were finished or almost done with high school and I was just getting started. All of my real friends came to youth group; I either met them there or brought them there to share Your good word with them. Freshmen year I got the opportunity go on a mission trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua (we called it the Costaragua trip). I felt a strong conviction to go, but I had no idea what to expect. I went with my church, so I knew almost everyone and they had gone to Costa Rica before, but never Nicaragua. I was nervous to go and about a week before we left my mom, who was supposed to go, could not due to health issues. I still felt I was going to be safe because I had 16 other people going with me including my best friend Ross and You to watch over us. We got there no problem, other than we needed to get up at four in the morning to catch our flight. When we got there Ross and I pretty much just stuck together because we were both overwhelmed. There were free roaming chickens, stray dogs, people that do not speak my language and a large group of missionaries that got overbooked for one night with us. Needless to say it was a lot to take in after a long flight no less. From going on mission trips and in some cases vacations the first day is the worst day, so do not think the rest of the trip is going to be that bad because it usually is not the case. I was so naïve about the things they have in third world countries. I basically thought all they had was dirt. They had an air-conditioned bus waiting for us when we got off the plane; people had cell phones and computers. I remember hearing Nightmares of the Bottom by Lil Wayne in English played by the teenagers. I did not know what to expect, but I was not expecting that. The Costa Rican pastor is so committed to You and so passionate in his message. One thing that Ross taught me was always keep your expectations low for things you do not know about because you can only be pleasantly surprised that way. That being said, we slept on the floors in the church either on an air mattress or the paper thin possibly bedbug infested mattresses they provided. Good thing I kept my expectations low and expected to sleep on rocks with cockroaches or that would have been uncomfortable. Lily, a cook from the congregation of the church we stayed in, made food for us. We had rice, beans, a different type Tang and a main course for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some of the best meals I ever had were in Costa Rica. Not to mention the coffee is the best coffee I ever had without a doubt. I bought four bags (that is all I could fit in my bag) of the brand of coffee they made for home and my dad said it is the tastiest coffee he ever had. I had the coffee I brought home from Costa Rica and it does not taste as good here as it does there. We started working at either seven or eight o’clock and worked on pouring cement and finishing a driveway for the church until it rained that day, which was at 12 o’clock sharp almost every day. After that we showered and talked while the rain kept coming down. We often played cards with the local teenagers and they cheated like there was no tomorrow. A couple times we walked to the little town just because it was something to do and I found my favorite drink of all time there, it is called Fanta Rojo. It translates to red Fanta and it being my favorite drink you can imagine my disappointment when I learned they do not sell it in the United States. We sang to praise Your name and did devotionals every night. Also, we picked different names from our group to pray with every morning. Someone prayed for you and you prayed for someone, which really helped me with how to pray and gradually got better. One night, Lily got my name and she prayed for me for at least five minutes. I did not understand what she said, but she said it so passionately. Your love knows no language barrier. After that, we just sat and talked some more or played games like charades or fish bowl. It was sad to leave Costa Rica, but I know You also needed us in Nicaragua, so we packed our bags and went on the six hour bus ride to Granada, Nicaragua. We made a pit stop on the edge of Costa Rica for the night at a resort called Bueno Vistas, which means good view. We got there late, but the buffet was still open, so we pounded some food and went to our rooms because we were exhausted. Then, I do not know if it was energy from the food, built up energy from the bus ride or just something that came over us and most of us went swimming in the outdoor pool they had. The pool had already closed by then, but by the time we found out we were already there and dressed for the occasion, so we went in anyway, please forgive us for that. What were they going to do, kick us out and force us to sleep on the ground? Been there, done that. After that long day it felt good to get a normal shower and a nice bed. In the morning, the teenagers on the trip walked around the resort to see what else they provided in the resort and we found the largest mountain waterslide at 400 meters long through the Tropical Forest. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done, twice. Then, before I knew it, it was time to go again. The views we saw through the duration of the trip were unparalleled. In Nicaragua, we stayed at a hostel, which sounds bad if you saw the horror movie, but it was not like that at all. We had a lot more down time in Nicaragua and I did not mind it at all. We stayed right across from a convenience store, the equivalent to a 7-Eleven without the gas, and they had my Fanta Rojo and by the time I was done with them I bought them out of the drink. Right next to our hostel was kind of like a souvenir shop. All the stuff was handmade and we all bought stuff for our parents and/or spouse that did not go on the trip. I bought my mom a ring, my dad a hand painted coffee cup to go with the coffee and I bought myself a wooden hand painted pipe. I do not know why I bought that out of all the things there, but I thought it looked interesting and no one in the United States has the exact same one. We helped out a pastor that rides his bike ten miles to get to where he preaches, which is someone’s porch with 15 plastic chairs. He lives on a beach, but does not have floors and did not have plumbing until we gave him plumbing. He was just happy he could “go” in the lake. Next, we held a kids carnival after one of his services. We played games, sang songs and handed out sandwiches to the kids. We also handed out some necessities to families in that neighborhood. I want to thank You for all the things You helped us do to help in that community. We could not have done it without Your grace. I got to know my future girlfriend during the trip, it was not a focus or my intent to meet someone on the trip for me, but it kind of just happened. I knew her because we went to the same church, but we never really talked before. I never thought I would have a girlfriend until she came along. I was always shy, especially around girls, but she gave me confidence. When she became my girlfriend I was not as shy or nervous around girls because I did not feel the need to impress them or anything because I already had one. When she dumped me (still to this day she never really told me why. Personally, I think she just got bored of me) I was crushed at first, but then I realized I still had the confidence from the relationship. I was excited to see what I could do with my new found confidence and disappointed when I saw that I still was not confident enough yet to be smooth with girls. It helped tremendously, but not enough yet. Regrettably, I know it is not my time to be a smooth talker yet or to have a girlfriend yet, You have a plan for me and it is not to have a girlfriend yet. I respect that because You are just finding the perfect girl at the perfect time for me. Amen.