project begins!

i woke up this morning to the light of the rising sun. it was gorgeous! (and kind of weird that the sun rises instead of sets over the ocean...) today, our first full day of project, began with an orientation session in which we learned our summer project weekly schedule; i'm excited for what we'll be doing--every day, we'll be spending our time in activities designed to deepen our spiritual roots and further the kingdom of God through community outreach. during the days, all project students will be at their jobs-their ministries sites--seeking to honor the Lord through diligence and service to their coworkers. in the evenings, we'll be spending quality time at dinners with various groups of other project students (Bible study group, "family" group, the whole project). to wrap up each day, we'll have a project event--a teaching session, a prayer/praise session, Bible study, etc. a lot of our community outreach will happen on the weekends; this is what most excites me. on saturdays, we will be going out sharing, doing ministry in youth correctional facilities and serving the community in whatever other avenues we find. on sundays, we'll be going to church with our Bible study group and then serving the church (most likely through leading their childrens' ministry programs). our weeks are full!! project has been described to me as a "greenhouse for spiritual growth", and after seeing the schedule they gave to us, i know it definitely will be!

after orientation, i went to lunch with my family group; again, i love these guys. we are going to be really close by the end of the summer :)

next comes the really exciting part...we went on our first outreach this afternoon! the goal of this was for students to approach people and start up conversations with this. my group--my friends jessica, robert, and myself--decided to walk down A1A, the main street in daytona, and try to talk to people. here's a picture of the three of us...
on the way back, we wanted to walk down the beach to get back to our hotel. as we were walking, a huge storm came and lightning literally struck about 50 feet away from us. first we screamed, and then we ran as fast as we could to get to the nearest bus stop!! it turns out the lightning that changed our course was totally from God. when we got to the bus stop, we met a man named Ron. i got into a 20 minute spiritual conversation with him while we all waited for the bus. it was so cool, a total answer to prayer that God would bless and encourage us through this first step of faith in outreach!

the day is far from finished and i am exhausted! still to come...our first teaching from our project director, our first Bible study, and more quality time with my fellow students!