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...
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