Though trials may come...

This weekend looked to be very promising.  But of course, "The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes His steps."  

I rose early on Saturday (about 6:00) to go skiing.  The mountains are huge (compared to North Carolina) in Spain, and I love skiing.  A couple of friends and I rode up with a ski instructor at the resort name Cuco and we got backstage access to rentals and such.  Also, it was a beautiful day- not too cold, the sun was shining.  The view from the slopes was gorgeous and I snapped a few pics.  

After skiing around for a bit, one of my friends who is a very good skier asked me to come with her to the top of the moutain.  It was about a 15 minute ski lift ride.  We went on one slope that traveled along the edge of the mountain ridge so that you could peer down and look on the other side of the moutain.  I took another photo.

Finally, we decided to go down another slope that was more difficult, actually the first advanced slope I had ever been on.  I took a brutal fall, sliding down half the moutain.  I lost a ski, both poles and my camera.  Meanwhile, my one leg with a ski was dragging behind me, putting a lot of stress on my knee.  Finally I stopped and skiers behind me picked up my ski and poles.  It was a bit difficult to explain to them in spanish what I felt.

My immediate thought was that I had blown out my knee.  Fortunately, I was able to walk down the slope and actually skied more later.  However, I never found my camera.  

The plan for the rest of the night was to celebrate Valentine's day as a group. We were all going to get dressed up, and the guys bought the girls roses.  But I could barely walk.  Today, my plan was to get up, spend some time reading the Word and praying, and then go to the Racing Santander soccer match.  Instead, I spent most the morning in the emergency room.  It turns out that I damaged my meniscus on one side of the knee.  The doctor (medico) said that I should take it easy for 4-5 days, and after that no competitive sports for 2-3 months. 

This has been a hard test for me.  First, of all, my knee hurts.  Walking is quite painful and slow.  Secondly, I had plans to make spanish amigos playing soccer, continue to practice my basketball skills, stay in shape by running, and pick up some chicas, I mean challange myself, by learning ballroom dance.  Well, that's all more or less out the figurative window.  So today, it's been a challange.  I've had to ask myself: who's plan is better for this trip?  My (man's) plan or God's (the actual) plan.  I am hoping that I find other, less active ways to spend my time (suduko mastery, perhaps?) and that my knee heals. But I have to believe that God's plan is the best plan!

Meanwhile, there won't be any pictures for a while, until someone either turns in my camera or I buy a new one.  I am not happy about that!

Well, it seems like I have gotten long-winded again.  I planned to tell you about my spanish house, but I guess I will do that later.

Peace to all!

~Charlie