Summer is flying by!! We're almost done with June which means Summer Project is about halfway done... the weeks have definitely been going faster as we've all gotten into our work routines and weekly schedule. Monday nights we have women's and men's Bible Study; Tuesday is outreach night; Wednesday is reflection night ("date night" with Jesus"); Thursday is our large group meeting; Saturday is project event night; and Sunday is church, meeting with our impact group, and large group vision night for the week. I've enjoyed my job at the Fudgery; every day is fun and I've really enjoyed getting to know the people working there. I work with 3 other people from project and a guy named Abdul, whom we all have gotten to know pretty well over the weeks and have grown to love. He's probably one of the coolest people I've ever met; he has such a heart for others and an awesome, fun personality. As we've gotten to know him we've been able to get into spiritual conversations as well. He's Muslim and God has used that to open up conversations between him and my coworker Brooke. Before we started the job Brooke told me that she felt really called to minister to Muslims, and so the fact that God not only placed her in this job but also that she and Abdul regularly talk about spiritiual issues is awesome. He is curious to know our beliefs about things, and regularly asks us what we did the night before for project. We've invited him to our weekly meetings and he may come next week, as well as going to dinner with us next Friday night. This relationship that we've started with him has been such a blessing and I will miss Abdul deeply when we have to leave...We also work with a group of foreign exchange students that are from Serbia and hope to build stronger relationships with them. Please pray for us that we may be lights in our workplace, and for our dear coworkers, Abdul and the Serbian students.
These past couple of weeks we've also been focused on developing more of a world vision. We had a simulation of different countries and the spiritual needs and/or lack of the Gospel, and that really opened my eyes to the fact that there are many unreached groups who have never even heard the Gospel or know how to follow Jesus. Some of the questions that we've been processing through this week are:
- How does my current lifestyle, values, and goals affect the world?
- Does it matter that millions of people, thousands of miles away are living a hopeless life without Christ?
-Do I really care that they haven't heard the Gospel, don't have any means of hearing it, or anyone to tell them?
- How would each day look if I really believed people are lost without the Gospel?
-Can my life really help bring change to the unreached of the world?
These questions have definitely been a huge wake-up call for me, and it's been a great time of learning how important it is to have a heart for the lost.
Finally, we are in a time of transition as a project because our staff is leaving after this week. Stateside projects do that so that students can step up as leaders and learn how to take that training back to campus. 3 women and 3 men have been asked to be the new project directors, each ministry team (Outreach, Community, Weekly Meeting, and Operations team) has a couple of leaders elected, and someone from each Bible study has been asked to lead their Bible study each week and disciple the people in that group. I have been asked to lead my Bible Study, so I'm looking forward to taking this next step of faith and learning how to serve in that way. If you could just pray for me that God would equip me for this position and that it would be good training for when I lead women's Bible study back at school in my dorm, that would be much appreciated! I've never had to disciple others girls before, so I'm looking forward to what God is going to teach me through this experience. There's a lot going on here and a lot to learn, but so far I've learned a lot and been challenged in many ways to step out and step up...
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Killing the Giants
This past week our theme was "Killing the Giants," a week totally devoted to evangelism. "Killing the Giants" refers to breaking past barriers that we normally come across when sharing the Gospel, such as the fear of initiating spiritual conversations with large groups, or the tendency to not share with certain races or ages, or sharing with a family member. Basically, last week was about getting past anything that was in our way to share the Gospel. We each set goals for ourselves for how many spiritual conversations we wanted to initiate and how many Gospel presentations we wanted to have. As a project, we ended up starting over 2,000 conversations and over 1,000 Gospel presentations!
It was amazing to see how much God worked last week, not only in getting the word out but also in how he helped us "kill our giants." As a project we were determined to meet our goals; we pushed ourselves to step out of our comfort zones and stand face to face with our personal giants. We even constructed a 7-foot tall giant to symbolize this and we ended up blowing it up at the end of the week ;) This week really taught me how evangelism should be a part of our lives all the time, not only when we're in a different place or on a mission trip. I've begun to see the unlimited number of opportunities I have every day to start up a spiritual conversation. This week really motivated me to take the Gospel back to school with more of a heart for reaching students.
God also just showed me how much he is ALWAYS working-last night I was blown away to see how he answered numerous prayers. First of all, the one thing that I wanted to see happen on project was for someone to come to Christ. I told myself that even if there was only one person that I witnessed coming to Christ, project would be worth it. Last night when witnessing to two high school boys, one of them (his name was Lewis) gave his life to Christ!! And I am praying that his friend, Jesse, would too.
Another story is of Stephany, a single teenage mom that I talked to on Saturday. She had a background in the church and claimed that she had given her life to Christ, but said she was really far from that lately. She is really struggling right now with a lot of things in her life, so my friend and I talked to her about relying on God throughout her struggles and growing closer in her walk by living by the Holy Spirit. We walked on after that conversation, not thinking it was anything special, but when my friend and I walked past them on our way back about an hour later, her grandparents called out to us. They were sitting behind us when we talked to Stephany and were amazed that out of all the people we could've talked to, that we picked her. They said that the night before they prayed that someone would come and reach out to Stephany; they told us over and over again how we were an answer to prayer, and how much it meant that we had shared with her!! That was last Saturday, and last night my project director shared with our whole group that later the grandma called down to the official Campus Crusade headquarters in Florida to try and track me down. She explained the story of how a girl from North Myrtle Beach summer project had come and talk to her granddaughter and how much it had affected Stephany. Campus Crusade then called my project director to find out my information so that they could talk to me again!!! I am calling her tonight and hope that I can meet with them again; God is SO great and is working behind the scenes in people's hearts even when we don't see it. I can't wait to see how he is going to work through this. It has been an amazing encouragement of how a little conversation can lead to growth, healing, and salvation... I encourage you to kill whatever giants are in your way and trust God to work as you plant the seeds of the Gospel in people's hearts.
It was amazing to see how much God worked last week, not only in getting the word out but also in how he helped us "kill our giants." As a project we were determined to meet our goals; we pushed ourselves to step out of our comfort zones and stand face to face with our personal giants. We even constructed a 7-foot tall giant to symbolize this and we ended up blowing it up at the end of the week ;) This week really taught me how evangelism should be a part of our lives all the time, not only when we're in a different place or on a mission trip. I've begun to see the unlimited number of opportunities I have every day to start up a spiritual conversation. This week really motivated me to take the Gospel back to school with more of a heart for reaching students.
God also just showed me how much he is ALWAYS working-last night I was blown away to see how he answered numerous prayers. First of all, the one thing that I wanted to see happen on project was for someone to come to Christ. I told myself that even if there was only one person that I witnessed coming to Christ, project would be worth it. Last night when witnessing to two high school boys, one of them (his name was Lewis) gave his life to Christ!! And I am praying that his friend, Jesse, would too.
Another story is of Stephany, a single teenage mom that I talked to on Saturday. She had a background in the church and claimed that she had given her life to Christ, but said she was really far from that lately. She is really struggling right now with a lot of things in her life, so my friend and I talked to her about relying on God throughout her struggles and growing closer in her walk by living by the Holy Spirit. We walked on after that conversation, not thinking it was anything special, but when my friend and I walked past them on our way back about an hour later, her grandparents called out to us. They were sitting behind us when we talked to Stephany and were amazed that out of all the people we could've talked to, that we picked her. They said that the night before they prayed that someone would come and reach out to Stephany; they told us over and over again how we were an answer to prayer, and how much it meant that we had shared with her!! That was last Saturday, and last night my project director shared with our whole group that later the grandma called down to the official Campus Crusade headquarters in Florida to try and track me down. She explained the story of how a girl from North Myrtle Beach summer project had come and talk to her granddaughter and how much it had affected Stephany. Campus Crusade then called my project director to find out my information so that they could talk to me again!!! I am calling her tonight and hope that I can meet with them again; God is SO great and is working behind the scenes in people's hearts even when we don't see it. I can't wait to see how he is going to work through this. It has been an amazing encouragement of how a little conversation can lead to growth, healing, and salvation... I encourage you to kill whatever giants are in your way and trust God to work as you plant the seeds of the Gospel in people's hearts.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Getting Settled
Finally...I've arrived and settled in North Myrtle Beach! I've been here for about a week, but it seems like it's been a lot longer. My flight went good and I actually ended up sitting next to a couple of girls who were also headed to Summer Project. Arriving at the beach apartments after seeing so many pictures of them was very exciting. I'm living with 5 other girls, and it's been really fun getting to know them better and learn how to make use of our limited space! We just have to cross the street and the ocean is right there, so it's pretty awesome, and of course, it's always sunny and hot here.
Our first week here was orientation week, so we got placed into men's and women's Bible studies, our co-ed Impact groups, and ministry teams. I am going to be serving on the Outreach team so I'm really looking forward to learning how to coordinate and encourage our group to go out sharing each week. We also started looking for jobs last Friday; with 97 students out looking for jobs, you can imagine how busy we were! I applied at a couple of places but didn't hear back from them until 3 days later, so that time of waiting for me was pretty stressful. Over half of the students had a job by the first day, so for me not knowing if I had a job was kinda hard. God really used that time to teach me to be flexible on this trip and to trust in Him and not worry. Although I was very anxious throughout that time, God taught me to take everything this summer as it comes and trust that His plan is the best. I ended up getting a job for the first position I applied for, a fudge/ice cream/smoothie shop called the Fudgery. The Fudgery is a unique spot in South Carolina so I am excited to be working at something a little more tuned to this area. I am so thankful for the job and seeing God provide it was awesome. When we were applying for the job, we actually had to sing a solo in front of the manager as part of our application; as employees we have to sing and do shows in front of our customers all day. We make the fudge on large tables for everyone to see and are constantly engaging customers to try some of our fudge. It's been a fun job so far; although I can honestly say I've never sang and talked about fudge as much as I do every day now! :)
We've gone sharing around town and on the beaches quite a bit lately, and it's been so amazing to hear people's stories and their spiritual views. Many people that we've encountered here are familiar with our program or are already Christians, so it's awesome to see how God uses them to teach us instead of the other way around. But there have been so many cool strories so far of how our project people have shared with others; I can't wait to see how much more He will do throughout this summer. We started having big group meetings and can invite the public to come each week. Other than that, we had our first Reflection Night, or "date night with Jesus," and Bible studies and meeting with our discipler. It's good to be getting into our weekly schedule with work and Project activities.
Thank you for all the prayers and support once again; it's so amazing to see how you helped bring me here; it was all kinda hard to believe at first!! But if you would like something specific to pray for, you could pray for the remaining students on our project to find jobs, and also that we would be a light in those jobs. Pray that our group will just grow closer and build strong relationships so that we may build each other up in our faith. And finally, prayer for the people that we will be ministering too would be most appreciated. Pray for those who we've already encountered that God would nuture the seeds that were sowed, and for the interactions that are yet to come. God is going to do great things this summer; He already has...
Our first week here was orientation week, so we got placed into men's and women's Bible studies, our co-ed Impact groups, and ministry teams. I am going to be serving on the Outreach team so I'm really looking forward to learning how to coordinate and encourage our group to go out sharing each week. We also started looking for jobs last Friday; with 97 students out looking for jobs, you can imagine how busy we were! I applied at a couple of places but didn't hear back from them until 3 days later, so that time of waiting for me was pretty stressful. Over half of the students had a job by the first day, so for me not knowing if I had a job was kinda hard. God really used that time to teach me to be flexible on this trip and to trust in Him and not worry. Although I was very anxious throughout that time, God taught me to take everything this summer as it comes and trust that His plan is the best. I ended up getting a job for the first position I applied for, a fudge/ice cream/smoothie shop called the Fudgery. The Fudgery is a unique spot in South Carolina so I am excited to be working at something a little more tuned to this area. I am so thankful for the job and seeing God provide it was awesome. When we were applying for the job, we actually had to sing a solo in front of the manager as part of our application; as employees we have to sing and do shows in front of our customers all day. We make the fudge on large tables for everyone to see and are constantly engaging customers to try some of our fudge. It's been a fun job so far; although I can honestly say I've never sang and talked about fudge as much as I do every day now! :)
We've gone sharing around town and on the beaches quite a bit lately, and it's been so amazing to hear people's stories and their spiritual views. Many people that we've encountered here are familiar with our program or are already Christians, so it's awesome to see how God uses them to teach us instead of the other way around. But there have been so many cool strories so far of how our project people have shared with others; I can't wait to see how much more He will do throughout this summer. We started having big group meetings and can invite the public to come each week. Other than that, we had our first Reflection Night, or "date night with Jesus," and Bible studies and meeting with our discipler. It's good to be getting into our weekly schedule with work and Project activities.
Thank you for all the prayers and support once again; it's so amazing to see how you helped bring me here; it was all kinda hard to believe at first!! But if you would like something specific to pray for, you could pray for the remaining students on our project to find jobs, and also that we would be a light in those jobs. Pray that our group will just grow closer and build strong relationships so that we may build each other up in our faith. And finally, prayer for the people that we will be ministering too would be most appreciated. Pray for those who we've already encountered that God would nuture the seeds that were sowed, and for the interactions that are yet to come. God is going to do great things this summer; He already has...
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