Random comment....

My Best Birthday Ever......

made me feel like crap.

If you would ask me which of my 27 birthdays has been my favorite, it would probably have been my 24th, in May of 2006.

It was my first year in Italy on STINT, and after a year of emotional ups and downs, traveling all over Europe, learning a bunch about myself, my teammates, my relationship with God, and the people and culture of Italy, the Summer Project came to help us out and give us a morale boost on campus. Since we were only a team of 4 at the time, and we were so far away from national leadership, it was suggested that we soak up all the leadership and help that we could from the CCC staff that had come with the Summer Project.

Setting the stage:

The girls' apartment that year was 120 steps up the hill (it seemed like a mountain when we came home tired) from the guys' apartment, but usually it was very worth it for our amazing view of the beginning of the Costiera Amalfitana.
Many mornings were spent with me in front of one of those windows overlooking the Golfo di Salerno reading my bible seeking out what God had to teach me in those days. Even when I wasn't reading anything, there were times I would just stare out the window at the amazing view God had blessed us with. Many days I would become fascinated with the goings on at the port or the regattas that seemed to happen every weekend in the spring and summer.

When it came to my birthday, my teammates knew what I wanted to do.....rent a boat and go out on the water for the day. Katy, Nathan, Tim, Drew (Tim's cool rockstar friend), and I went to the port that morning and got ourselves a boat and headed out to sea.....or gulf.....whatever.....

We went along the coast, past Amalfi and Positano, and could even see a bit of Capri when we found the coolest group of baby islands (just looked them up, they're called Il Gallo Lungo, La Castellucia, and La Rotonda off of the peninsula, a bit west of Postiano) with some really cool house on top (we decided its a mob house). We "parked" our boat, went swimming, and then had some lunch that Katy, in all her awesomness, had the idea to pack. I even got a great rendition of Happy Birthday from Drew the rockstar! We toodled around a bit, swam some more, and then headed back. We even stopped in Amalfi to get more refreshments and to add on to the awesomeness of the outing.

Since it was a Monday, it was guys and girls leaders' night where the guys and girls leaders of the summer project went out to their respective restaurants for some leader time, and they had invited us. That meant that my team was gonna go our separate ways and I wasn't gonna get a birthday dinner with all of us together. That news came out on our way back to Salerno, and it seemed like everybody was ok with it....except for me.

That's when my selfishness came out in full force. Even though my teammates had spent money to spend the ENTIRE day with me out on the water, I wanted the WHOLE DAY to be focused on me. I tried to hide it on the way back to our apartments, but I'm never that successful at hiding when I am upset. I ended up telling Tim a little bit about how I felt, and we all parted ways.

We got back and were getting ready to go out with the SP girl leaders and Katy suggested that she make a cake so that we could take it to the SP hotel to have all together after dinner. That made me feel a little better, but not much. I called Tim and told him that I needed to talk to him at Umberto's, our favorite bar in Centro Storico. I went down there and I explained all of my feelings and he explained where him and Nathan were coming from, needing guy time. It was a major cry fest for me, I apologized for trying to make them feel bad (because that's what I do when I pout, don't we all?) and we left saying that we would see everybody back at the 14 Leoni (the SP hotel) after dinner.

I went back home, got ready for dinner, went to Spunzillo, had great food and a great time with the staff girls. As we were wrapping up dinner, Katy said that it would be easier for her to take the cake to the hotel on the bus, so she left us to walk back. When we got back to the hotel, I walked into the courtyard to the SPers, Katy, and even some of our Italian friends yelling "Surprise!!!!!!!" (the guys were late coming back from dinner haha)

I started crying again. I didn't deserve this.

I'm not sure how it all happened, and I'm not sure I want to know, but that night, even after all of the time they spent with me on the water, all the money they spent, the HUGE fit I put up in ALL of my selfishness, they still threw me a surprise party.

I felt like SUCH a terrible person for the selfish way I had been acting that afternoon, but I was overwhelmed with love. My team showed me love that God had already showed them through Jesus. When we were sinners, throwing fits, pouting when we didn't get our way, only looking out for ourselves, God sought after us. God sacrificed his son to bring us to him, ESPECIALLY when we didn't deserve it. My team was the greatest witness to God's love that I had seen directed towards me EVER on that day......the things that I learned that year in Salerno with them were all wrapped together as an AMAZING gift from God with my birthday as the bow on top.

So yes, my BEST BIRTHDAY EVER made me feel like crap......but in the end, it helped me to understand just even a LITTLE more about God and his love for us through the grace that my team showed me. And that made me feel amazingly loved....

This blog is dedicated to my Salerno STINT team 05-06, I hope it finds you well. Thank you for all of the great times we had that year serving God together.

To everybody else, I hope that this reminds you of how AMAZING God is and helps you to share God's love just that much more today :)

posted by Kat @ 12:57 PM