The Pond

My family did join Colonial, and I became actively involved in the youth group. During the summer of 2009, our youth group did a ministry tour. We went to 3 different churches, played hand bells, sang, and gave our testimonies. The trip was over a weekend, and on Saturday we stopped at an orphanage. There were only a few teenagers there, but we all had such a great time with them. It was almost like a miniature camp :-) We had a lot of free time there to play games and enjoy the outdoors. They had one paddle boat and a very small pond, and I really wanted to go on it. I asked Michael if he wanted to go on the paddle boat, and he said that he would go with me. I was the first one to get on the paddle boat, then Michael, Eddie, and Ryan. We started to sink into the water when the last person got on, so he jumped out. Michael and I were the ones in the front with the paddles, so we got a push off the side, and we started paddling. The problem was that the paddles weren't moving! It turned out that the rope that they used to tie us to the dock had gotten tangled into the paddles, and we couldn't go anywhere except in a circle. Eddie decided that he had enough of it, so he jumped out into the pond. This pond was quite dirty, and I had on a white t-shirt, so I was NOT about to jump out. Michael and I were just stuck in the pond together, so we just talked. This was really the first time that we had a conversation besides the "Hi, how are you doing?" "Good" conversation. I really enjoyed talking with Michael. I don't remember what we talked about while in the paddle boat, but I do remember thinking that he was a really nice guy, and fun to talk with! It was dinner time by now, and we were still stuck in the paddle boat, but everyone else went inside to get something to eat. We were eventually pulled back to the dock, so we could go get something to eat, but this was a fun thing to talk about for the rest of the trip. It was our first adventure. When we went inside, we were standing in line for food, and I distinctly remember that I turned around and started talking to him. He saw smoke coming from the kitchen, and said that maybe something was on fire, and I replied, "Um, I think that's just smoke coming from the boiling water." Then he made a comment about how when he was irrational, I was rational, and when I was irrational, he was rational. I thought about this for a long time. My main thought was "We compliment each other very well." On this trip, Michael and I also started reminding each other not to complain. I don't remember how it started, but I do remember that we said it to each other multiple times. To this day, we still tell each other not to complain. We both say that our pond adventure was pretty much the beginning of getting to know each other.