My eyes are starting to swell up with tiredness as I sit down and try to start to sum up this weekend. But all for a good reason as the past 3 days have been party, party, and more party for Grant and Katie’s wedding! It’s been fun in the south, but adios mios it is too hot and I am looking forward to get my butt back to Maine tomorrow. I have to move into Haley’s house and unpack and get ready all on Monday because I start work at Eagle Island on Tuesday, May 28th, which also happens to be my 21st birthday!
And no, for all you wondering, I will not be going crazy because I don’t drink. I know y’all are disappointed, as I too am very curious as to what drunk Jenna would be like. Alas, let me quickly quote Marina Ambramovic as to one of the reasons I do not drink alcohol-“The things I see and think in the normal course of my life are strange enough without clouding my mind.” I am weird enough as it is.
Anyway, lets get back to the wedding weekend! I flew into Houston Friday night and started the Sweat as Keens and Cheryl picked me up after being stuck in nightmarish traffic. It was late when we finally got to Liz L.’s house, but I got to meet her parents and say hi to everybody else who was staying at her house. It was the almost the same crew from Liz H.’s wedding. Coincidence? I think not. I think this group is some combination of free-schedule enough and loyal enough to travel for a wedding, as Katie invited many ranch friends, but only about a third came. I can’t help but be reminded of the parable in Luke 14 where a man has prepared a great banquet for all his friends, but at the last minute all of them make ridiculous excuses and don’t come, so the man goes out and invites all those on the country roads and in the alleys of the town and the other people missed out on a fantastic and splendid party. No shade to those who didn’t go, though. I know travel is hard.
I think their venue is everybody’s dream. A beautiful ranch with a house with an interior that made my jaw drop. Although it was broiling hot and I got my nice Sweat going again, the ceremony was beautiful and the reception was great. Grant and Katie were a beautiful couple. They are perfect for each other. I was SO blessed that Katie was my roommate my first year at Wind River. Her brother put it really well in his toast when he said that the devil should be scared of this couple, because there is NOTHING that can stand in the way of these people in Christ now joined together to form one kick-butt-eat-tacos-while-they-do-it team!
Alright, my people from the North, you’re never going to believe this. Towards the end, all the people started chanting and dancing to college football fight songs and we waved the bride and groom’s limo off with Texas A&M washcloths! It was like, a huge part of the wedding. Talk about a culture, am I right? Willy had a hilarious and yet poignant idea that I should write a Romeo and Juliet-Esq story about a couple from Auburn and Alabama (roll tide) who are apparently bitter rivals. I don’t know, I was just trying to keep it all straight about who hates who.
The beautiful venue
Apologies for not having more pictures, but I’m really working on being in the moment, especially with my ranch friends (plus, I think it’s terribly rude to be on your phone when you’re out in public with friends anyway). You see, for two years, I interacted with these people exclusively with a camera attached to me because I was the ranch videographer. And that’s alright, because I loved getting extremely embarrassing photos of Liz L. all the time. But it’s no way to go deeper with people, always focused on my job getting this shot or worrying about the light going. So as we all reconnect outside of the ranch, I now re-learn how to be friends. But it’s also challenging, because I don’t really know how that works when a huge chunk of my identity and how they see me is missing. As I mused all this, I had quite the bout of social anxiety in the car on our way to the wedding. Hey, I’m human too. I know I’m really outgoing, but every now and then it happens. But God got me through. He is good. And we all had a fantastic time.
So let me tell you about Sunday. I tagged along with Keens and Cheryl and met Allie (a fellow ranch girl who was a bridesmaid in the wedding) for coffee and we got to chat and catch up. It made me sad that I might not ever get to see Allie again, because that chick is cool and I just really wanna be her friend. Then we got to go to church! I came to Texas a walking spiritual desert after 2 weeks in Florida. I was thirsty for Jesus, because when I go home He gets sucked right out of me. No community, no church, no worship, nothing. So when we got to Liz’s awesome church, I had a water from the rock moment, and just got to experience God’s sweet living water come back into my parched soul. These two southern women were talking the whole time during worship behind me, and I didn’t let it bother me too much ’cause I was so in my own world with Jesus. But I said to myself, “No, ladies, you have no idea the spirit that’s in this room. You have taken it for granted, because I bet you get the liberty to have Jesus whenever you want. You’re talking about trivial things, shouting above the music, but we’re here to worship the living Christ!” Let this be a lesson, especially to those I was with this weekend who maybe weren’t as excited to go to church-You have no idea how much you need God and long for Him and are nothing without Him until he is taken away from you by circumstances outside your control. You become a desert, and nothing satisfies. I would never exaggerate something like this. I was so thirsty and so tired, and the mere suggestion that we would go to church on Sunday made me literally jump up and down for joy.
Counterclockwise starting from the left: Allie, Willy, Keens, Chris, Liz H., Katie, Grant, Liz L., Jo, Sam, Charity, Tatum, Cheryl, Me.
And so then we parted ways. And before I leave you now I wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary. Sometimes I embarrass people when I compliment them ’cause I’m so bad at explaining myself and how I feel. I’m not too great at words of affirmation. But if I do it over the internet, I can be way more eloquent and well spoken! I want to describe briefly to you the amazing things about the members of the crew that I powwowed around with this weekend that I get to call not only friends, but my brothers and sisters. These in no way could ever substitute actually knowing these awesome people, but I’ll try to do them justice. Let’s start with none other than…
Willy-There are few people on this earth who can make me laugh every time I see them. Wrangler Willy is one of those people. Willy applied to be a wrangler at Wind River with no previous horse experience. He learned quickly over the course of the summer, and became such a favorite with staff and guests for his quick wit and big heart for both horses and people. His relationship with his horse, Warrior, was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. He does not take life too seriously, but has an amazingly level-head on his shoulders and is going to be a great provider for his family some day.
Tatum-Tatum cares for people so well in a practical way. If I ever needed help getting out of a sticky situation, I would call Tatum because she is a treasure trove of wisdom and gives the best advice because she rarely ever speaks rashly. She was the one who, when ALL the girls got sick, cleaned the bathroom, brought food up to staff, and filled in the jobs of those who were down. Tatum, never think those things go unnoticed. I want to raise my kids to be the kind of person you are.
Cheryl-My favorite memory of Cheryl was when she led staff worship one night when Morgan was away. I bet she thinks nothing of that night, but again, it has left an impact on me. She sang a song called “When You Walk Into The Room” which finally gave me the words to describe how to trust God with the things of my life and how to put reliant faith in Him. She led the night with such kindness and patience. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Cheryl boast about herself. She has a wonderful and beautiful laugh that sounds like bells.
Liz L.-Lizzie girl has such a big heart. I love how goofy she is, and we are two peas in a pod although we are different in disposition. She’s also really smart, but is so humble about it. She lives her life to the fullest every single day, and you can see proof of that because she loses her voice all the time. When I was heartbroken about a boy at the ranch, Liz was the one who found me curled up on the ranch porch crying my eyes out. She was so understanding and empathetic, and gave me the courage to get up and go to work on that Sunday as guests were rolling in, which I didn’t think I was going to be able to do.
Keens-I never worked a summer with Keens, but she treats me with such kindness I feel like I did. After Keens visited in 2017, she sent me a letter in the mail encouraging me in who I was. Who does that to someone they just met!? And again when she visited in 2018, after telling her how I was starting to get discouraged, this girl writes me a beautiful script note of encouragements in the Psalms. I hung it on the videographer’s desk, and I hope whoever is there now is getting just as much out of it as I did when the days were tough and everything seemed like it was going wrong. On the hard days, Keens is always there to get the fire lit again.
Allie-Allie Fuller came to visit the ranch with Keens (the 2016-ers) halfway through the summer of 2017, and they all ended up in Katie and I’s room (because Katie also worked in 2016). I was so freakin’ excited, cause this girl seemed rad and I got to get in on the deets because they were all talking in our room. But that night, I got extremely sick and threw up twice. It was scary because it came on so suddenly and I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want to ruin their time together. After coming back from the bathroom the second time, I hoisted my body back up to my top bunk. My face must have been sheet white, because Allie stopped talking and looked at me. She asked if I was alright, and I mumbled that I was fine and for them to pretend I wasn’t there. This chick leaps up and comes up to the bunk and feels my forehead and proclaims, “Girl, you are not fine! Why didn’t you tell us you were getting sick, we could have helped you sooner!” They then got me medicine and tea and got the essential oil diffuser going, and I felt much better. She is so caring and wild and loving like crazy. Allie is so wonderfully “crunchy” but also loves Jesus. I want to live life boldly like her one day.
Chris-The thing that sticks out to me about Chris is how when he first came to visit the ranch to see his future wife Liz P., he was so interested in the work that I was doing. He showed such genuine interest in what it took to do my job that I was really floored, because nobody notices the camera girl. Chris is probably the most smiley person I have ever met, and none of it is fake. He exudes the joy of Jesus.
Liz H.-She was Liz P., but she married Chris. I think the most valuable lesson Liz taught me was in self confidence, and she never said a word while she was teaching it. It was all action. Liz is the definition of a role model, who humbly walks alongside others and points them to the truth by living it out wholeheartedly herself. It’s one thing to tell someone, “You need to love yourself better.” It’s another thing to wake up in the morning and watch a woman look at herself in the mirror and love what they see, which Liz did every day without ever saying a word. She also set such a good example of vulnerability in our bible study group. Out of the 60+ people I worked on staff with over the course of 2 years, I feel like I know Liz the most intimately because of how willing she was to share with me not only her wisdom, but her life.
Grant (the groom)-I think everybody was not nervous, but interested to meet Grant. After all, this was going to be the guy that Katie marries, and we all knew how special and rare Katie is. But as soon as he got out of the car and started hugging everyone like old friends, we knew he was going to be just fine. This dude is so solid in his faith, I want to stand on the rock he is standing on. He’s also tons of fun to be around, and I couldn’t imagine anyone better to love and protect and cherish my good friend. I have loved welcoming into our ranch crew. He is one of us, and if anyone every tried to say different, I would kick their butt.
Katie (the bride)-Bugs, I really don’t even know where to begin. There are tons of people as you go through life who impact you. But I think Katie does so much more than that, and I don’t really know how to describe it in words. Katie is like a light that pierces through your worst darkness, says in a big Texan accent, “I don’t care, you’re still beautiful to me,” and seals your heart with scripture, spirit, and truth, anointing you in those things. She is a powerhouse, and yet so gentle, and is one of those most beautiful people I have met inside and out. Because of the seed that Katie planted in me at Wind River in 2017, I have had the courage to go on. To go on without the bondage of shame, to go and be a light, and to go and be exactly who God made me to be. The scriptures (Hosea 2) she spoke over me have gone as far as Uganda and as close as my college friends next door-talk about spiritual generations, Katie is a LEGACY MAKER. This girl makes the devil wet his pants, and that is no exaggeration, I swear.
All God’s blessings to you, Katie and Grant, as you start you’re life together as one. Go and be faithful laborers of the harvest, continuing to be obedient to God’s voice. And when you need us, you know your Wind River brothers and sisters have your six.
~J
Water from the Rock 
As a 3 year wind river staffer I would have loved to have gone but my own wedding is June 1st
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