Part 3

For the 3rd and final part...(sorry this is taking so long, I'm on a writing role, and I love writing so I can't stop, lol! :p You don't have to read if you don't want to. ;) Anyway, to continue......)

The next morning came, and panic was evident. She ate breakfast quickly, and got back to the dorms to go over her "speech". Almost nothing was decided. She wrote down a few points that she learned through the trip, but that was it.

Again, panic set in about 2 hours later when she ran into the meeting room, realizing she missed worship and they were waiting for her to talk. She ran up on the stage, sat down, and looked into the audience to see a bunch of faces that were half asleep. Great. Now she was gunna have to keep their attention too. Again, she. Was. Doomed.

She quickly explained about the spiritual status in Greece (that 98% of Grecians were Greek Orthodox, 0.002% were born again believers). No response. She talked about a few of their adventures in Greece. Was that snoring? She finished with the lessons she learned. She was finally done. Was that one person half-clapping in the back? Oh, no..It was the leader getting up to move the group along. Failure. 110% failure.

She got up and walked off the stage and quietly slipped out of the room to get a glass of water. Or that's what she said. Really, she was shaking so badly that she couldn't have held a glass...It would have been on the floor in seconds. She sat down outside the chapel room in the hallway, and started crying. Then she heard the door open. She stopped...Or at least tried. It was Mark, the speaker of the camp. He gave her a hug and congratulated her for doing such a beautiful job. "Beautiful job?? Huh, I wish!" She replied sarcastically. She knew she had blown it. But Mark didn't stop. He said a few more words, praised her again, and left. Basically he showed her, in those few words, her flawed wanting of perfection. She didn't do that bad, and, believe it or not, she actually showed some talent for speaking. But she let her expectations get in the way and cloud her view. And, even though to this very day Christi *still* doesn't think she did as good as she could have (which is true), she learned and invaluable lesson that she will never forget.

She is not perfect, but God loves her anyway, and will use her in amazing and beautiful ways if she'll just back off here unrealistic expectations and humble herself before God. He can't change/use/mold something that's already perfect.