Memorial Stones in Words: Born Again

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I had really been debating doing this Memorial Stone In Words by GfG. I knew that God had blessed us in so many ways, but I wasn't sure which ones of them were worth the fabulous things that she had to say. Then the other day I was talking with and thinking about my "old" life before I became a born again believer. I remembered a fantastic person that entered my life whom helped shape the course of the rest of my "new" life. Then I read Grateful for Grace most recent post and decided this was my memorial stone.

It started in 9 years ago, I was a sophomore in high school and not a Christian and was going down a path which my parents and my teachers were very concerned about. I had gotten myself into a crowd that most would say is "bad," but now that I am no longer in that crowd, but have "been there, done that" I know that these are people that are not at all bad. They are looking for acceptance, they are looking for a place in this world that they fit, they are looking for love, attention and people they can call family. But, never-the-less, my parents say this was a bad crowd, and wanted to do everything they could to keep me out of it.
I won't go into alot of details about the what's of what I did, all I will say is that I was being promiscuous, I was using substances that were illegal all together or illegal for people my age, I was failing to show up for school, I was using words I wouldn't dream of using today, I was disrespectful to authority and all around not being a very pleasant teenager (and I will assure you there CAN be very pleasant teenagers, I happen to know some of them).
At the end of my sophomore year my mom came into my room and asked me to get up so that we could go to family counseling...I had to work, and although that is the excuse I used for not wanting to go, really I just plain did NOT WANT TO GO TO COUNSELING. I was fine, I was great, I didn't need those shrinks. After quite a bit of time and lots of words later, I reluctantly decided to go (little did I know, my mom had made arrangements with my boss beforehand). When we got there my parents pulled a bag out of the back of the car, I didn't think much of it, we went up to this open room with MANY other unruly, very angry, teenagers who also didn't seem to want to be there. Once upstairs, with only one exit and about 5 counselors surrounding the perimeter, they told me the real news. This would not be "family" counseling, I was going on a Trek for 3 WEEKS. a what? a 3 week hike, in the middle of nowhere with people I didn't know and didn't care to get to know with only what my parents packed. I was, to put it gently, PISSED OFF.
After some time of talking with everyone, having some group discussions, the parents were asked to leave and the unruly teenagers were all lead down to a basement to be "searched" for drugs, paraphernalia, you know, like they do in prison. They did find something, thankfully nothing to horrible, but it was taken and we proceeded to get our gear. boots, socks, hats, long underwear, backpack, sleeping bag. Anything we may have needed in the middle of nowhere. Without even all the stuff in it I thought I was going to die trying to carry these things.
Then into a van for the, I-can't-even-tell-you-how-many-hours, drive to the middle of nowhere. I'm not sure you could find these roads on a GPS, towards the end they were mostly gravel, all of them with GIANT cliffs on one side. the scariest part is when the van dropped us off at the almost top of an actual mountain, it couldn't get back down (which it was suppose to, some sort of counseling analogy trick they use to watch the van drive away or some mumbo jumbo). Yeah we were stuck.
I won't go into all the details of the trek, b/c it would be a REALLY long post and I still have a whole other chapter to get into, but I will say that it was one of hardest things I had to do in my life. We were not aloud to speak unless spoken too and we always had something at the beginning of each day to think about during our walk that we would talk about at the end of each day.
What I do want to talk about is a man that we came to call Tex. There were 2 counselors/guides by the same name so we decided to call one of them Tex, if you can guess, he was from Texas. I didn't think much of him at first, he was kind of harsh, always made us talk about things we didn't want to, took our shoes at night, and talked about some strange stories using peoples names like Boaz and coming up with the strangest analogies. He called us rats for the most part, but began calling me mouse b/c of how tiny I was, we talked alot on the paths about life, we had some great one on one conversations that really helped me. I really thought I was changing my life. In the middle of the woods it is easy to say. but the three weeks were over, and my parents came of the final meeting where and I went home.
My parents had made arrangements for me to go to a different school for my junior year, the school was in the next town over and was right around the corner from my moms place of work. I had really changed alot, but after Cross Country season I found "that crowd" again and I got into even worse things then before. It is truly scary for me to think of the life I was leading knowing what I know now.
This time before school even ended, my parents made that phone call. this time they knew there was not going to be any convincing me, so they hired police escorts to get me to the destination. My mom left the house b/c she was so upset about having to do this to me, My dad was upstairs where I could not see him. I was again PISSED OFF. The female came into my room, woke me and told me that I needed to get dressed so we could go, I was angry, I knew where I was going and I didn't want to go. She asked me if I knew where it was that I was going, I told her I did and I wasn't going and they couldn't make me. She said that the other officer was going to give me 5 minutes or he would come in, cuff me and take me in my pajamas. So I decided iIbetter cooperate so I didn't have to go in my Pj's. Once in the car we talked along the way about where I was going and how it had helped last time. They tried to talk some sense into me, but I wasn't having it. When we got there I saw a familiar face loading the van up, it was non other than Tex.(they have alot of counselers that go out for 3 weeks at aa time, so it was amazing that I got him again) The officers brought me upstairs to the same big room where my mom and dad awaited my arrival.
Again with the unruly teenagers being brought to the basement, the search, the gear and the van ride, this time not so far in the middle of nowhere. We had one exceptionally unruly teenager who did not want to do alot of walking, so that meant that we didn't get to do alot of hiking, we would sit at our tarp help up by a stick much of the day, talking to ourselves, making fancy things with leaves and stones and such. eating our rations away. Tex would come and pick me up and take me fishing, I'm not sure if he did this with others, but I'd like to think it was b/c I was so "special" to him (is that going too far). We talked alot and really got very close as a cousnelor ptient relationship goes I almost thought of him as a father figure (but that would be going a little too far), towards the end of the trek he proposed something to me that he said he had never proposed to any of his other patients before, he proposed that I go to Texas to a camp and work there. maybe not with the kids, but that it was a great place, with great mentors that might be able to help me out. He had already spoken to my mom and dad and they were going to go with a transitional home, but if I wanted to do the Texas thing they said I could try it. So I stayed up much of that night, didn't sleep in my tarp, but we got to lay out under the stars and I thought for a long time. On the drive to where we were meeting the parents Tex talked to me about "The Ranch" about the people and about the unity. I decided to go with Texas for the summer.
A fantastically wonderful family was there to pick me up, they had 3 children at the time, whom I instantly adored, and I'd like to think they adored me too (again too far huh?) they showed me around the big city by taking me to all sorts of stores to by all sorts of camp "stuff" I didn't mind, it was way better then the middle of nowhere that was for sure. This family became my family away from family.
Tex never told me, at least that i can remember, that this was a Christian camp. But it was, and I learned so much about the Lord that year from the worship time and from the the fantastic family that had taken me under there wing. I was saved that summer, by the wife of this family actually. I'm not sure that she remembers, but I came to her and the owners wife after one of the worship times and asked to pray that special prayer. My life has never ever been the same. Tex came to visit me that summer at camp. It was nice to see him. I found out later that Tex is not a Christian, isn't it funny how God works, a non christian is the one that sent me on my path to become a believer in My Jesus Christ.
The next summer I went back to camp after having finished my senior year of high school with straight A's at a Christian Boarding school. I met my husband that summer. We were married 1 year later and now have 3 (soon 4) beautiful children together. I will never ever forget the impact Tex had on my life. I still have the sleeve of his dirty shirt from my first trek that he wrote MOUSE on. (we had made fun of him for not changing his shirt the entire trip, gross, so the last night he cut it up and wrote Rat on all but mine, he said he was saving his clean shirt for the parents) I still see him from time to time when I am out visiting my parents. I am truly blessed by the life that God had in store for me and I am truly blessed that he put his man of many personalities in my life.

That is my Memorial stone.

Blessings