the last of...

this week--our last full week of project--has been really interesting. for one, the Lord is not done working here; nearly every day this week a person has come to know the Jesus...10/25 total have happened in this past week or so! anyways, since i've now less than a week to go, i have found myself saying "this is the last time i will______" so much! i wanted to post a record of all of "the lasts" as a way to share with you some of the day-to-day stuff i have taken for granted in writing on this blog. i also wanted to have pictures of all of these things as a way to remember them after i leave...in only 6 days and counting. here it goes...


our last day of work; here are amber, christine and i with our bosses (miss grace in the blue, miss gail in the stripes and miss rhonda with the sassy blonde haircut) our last monday meeting. singing a great song!
our last church host family. this is ginny; she's 83 and still does cannonballs and handstands in her pool :) she is spicy!
the last regular social. sitting around the christmas tree for christmas in july!

probably the last visit to the oceanwalk...home of outreaches, staff hunt, job searching and fun!
getting ready for the last formal beach outreach trip in room 1301
the last women's time. learning and sharing outdoors at the jetty!
the last family group dinner...looking over the waves and the sunset from the restaurant on the pier.

kathy's story

As I wrap up summer project, I want to highlight a few of our team’s success stories. So far, we have had 22 people trust Christ. One of them, an older woman named Kathy, just trusted Christ a few days ago. One of the girl d-groups set out to a local shopping center to get into conversations with people on Friday night. They tried to talk to people a few times and were turned down before they realized they hadn’t prayed for their time! They prayed that God would lead them to the person/people that He wanted them to minister to that night. As soon as they finished, they came across Kathy. When they started talking to her, she told them she was an agnostic who wasn’t really sure about God. They spent the next hour talking with her, sharing their own personal testimonies, and going through the Knowing God Personally booklet (a CCC tool that puts the Gospel in 4 scriptural, understandable points). Upon hearing the Lord’s great love for her, His ability to redeem her from hurt and brokenness, and the promise of new life, she trusted Christ and spilled her guts about all of the pain in her life. The girls who talked with her will be going back to build her up in her understanding of the truth and assurance of salvation. Hallelujah, what a great story!!

our last beach outreach

finally i have internet again! our wireless has been down for the last week...needless to say i have a lot to catch up on! i'll start with last saturday--the final group beach outreach of project! That is hard to believe. I know that the Lord is not finished here yet--more people still will hear about Him and believe before we leave. I definitely feel a sense of urgency to keep getting out there and sharing with people, to leave this project with a bang. Today I got to share the Gospel with three more people—Janice, Eric, and Jessica. They were really responsive to our image survey and gave creative, well-thought answers to all of my questions. The answers they were giving (frustration with life, feeling like God is behind a locked door…) really led me to believe that they were searching. I shared the Gospel with them and asked what they thought about it. Eric led the charge—he responded by saying that everything I had spoken to him was a lie, that Jesus was a mythical figure who never existed, that God does exist but may not be perfect and people can’t have a relationship with him, that the church was created to subject people to authority and tell them they’re bad...a lot of bitterness and mistrust. With as much grace as possible, I talked through these things with him. It was a conversation that really challenged me to apply my knowledge of some things that I, too, thought about before I trusted Christ. He really would not hear what I had to say; his mind and heart were definitely closed to the things I was telling him. As I walked away from our discussion, my heart was really broken for the people of this world. Here was a guy, about my age, who was completely deceived, trapped by pride and complacency from realizing the hope and grace extended to him. This is really Satan’s biggest ploy—convincing people that they are smarter, that the world will never get any better. I am grateful for this conversation: first, praise be to God that he has heard the truth at least once; second, what a way to break my heart for the people in this world; third, excellent practice for the attitudes and perspectives I will come across at USC in the fall. I am not discouraged or defeated but rather ever more ambitious in pursuing the kingdom of God!

success!

i just got back from a time of sharing with one of the girls i'm discipling this summer. we got to share the Gospel with 6 people today! AMAZING. just wanted to share my excitement over this success!!

the good, the bad, and the ugly!

that's the best way i can describe everything that happened this weekend!
let's start with the good. friday night was amazing!! it started out by going to a local church's cookout. a youth group leader staying at our hotel for a church conference invited us to come enjoy a meal with them. a lot of us felt a little bit awkward about showing up at this cookout; most of us never even met the man who invited us, let along gone to the church or known the members. we went anyways and were blown away by the way we receieved and provided for! it was truly amazing. i've never had an experience like this before; it was such an awesome picture of the body of Christ--instant community with people who knew nothing more about us than that we served the same Lord. it really did amaze me to see that bond actually lived out!
here's a photo of the cru students with dylan, the youth leader that invited us!

the bad...well, not bad, but tough! yesterday i spent a lot of time with local high school students--the kids in (and out) of my sunday school and some kids in a juvenille detention center. it was just plain heartbreaking to hear and see some of their stories. these are kids who come from broken homes, who have been imprisoned, who have kids of their own, who have run away, who have had lives filled with pain and hardship--it is tragic. all of them have such a need to be loved and poured into. i don't think i can even do justice to the weight i felt for them yesterday. i'm praying that the words of encouragement and the truth of the Gospel spoken to them will take root. i know that a lot of students on our project made a huge impact last night at the detention centers. the Gospel is amazing for the way it meets people in their brokenness; a handful of kids heard the truth in a real way for the first time last night. praise God that His promises of love and provision for them were presented and receieved! just as much, praise Him that His people can see the way His heart breaks for the lost.

the ugly...ugly! saturday night we had tacky prom for our social event. picture 'ugly bridesmaid dress gone way wrong' and ' caddyshack meets las vegas'...there you have it, a very tacky evening. it was a ton of fun to leave our cool cards behind. everyone let loose, looked ridiculous, ate, danced and, naturally, laughed :) some photos...

note the earrings :)
wilson and christine (in a dress that once belonged to a 7 year old girl...:) )
tacky prom king and queen! leo and mandi

the students are in charge!

this week was our first full week as a students-only project. no major headaches...it has gone really well! all of us are learning how to make this project our own, keeping in step with the things we've learned and our ministries among each other and the community. the coolest thing for me has been seeing my peers teach our project on monday and thursday meetings; so far, three of us have spoken--my codirector AJ, another katie, and myself. it is just really encouraging to hear their hearts, their wisdom, their passion for the Lord and for leading people! there is something special about learning from someone your own age. it is such a reminder that we are doing this together, cojourners with the same objective! it has also been really cool how students have continued in everything right where staff left off: discipleship still happens, now student-to-student; evangelism still happens, students take the initiative to go out and share; gatherings and events still happen, now planned and organized by students. it just goes to show how well equipped and focused these people are for the next three weeks ahead of us! that's not to say it hasn't been difficult...i am being challenged so much by my position on this project. of course, the Lord put me in the place that would stretch me the most. i'm really aware of how much i need the Lord's strength to do things that are really hard for me, i.e. making judgement calls on decisions, intervening in conflicts, staying focused on God instead of getting sucked in to a checklist mentality. the successes and joys of seeing what is still happening here make it worth it. i know these next few weeks are going to fly...so little time to cement these relationships, do work in this city and soak up all of the training i can get!

more ministry, more fun!

this weekend...more ministry, more fun! saturday, the other crusade girls in housekeeping and i put on breakfast for all of our housekeeping ladies. it was super fun to get them all together and serve them! here's a photo of me with my fave, miss Karen!

we also did another beach outreach trip as a project. i got to do a photo survey called soularium (you can check it out at mysoularium.com) with my good friend and fellow adpi, krista. we got to talk to three different girls and ended up sharing the gospel with all three of them. it was pretty cool how God redeemed both of our attitudes about doing outreach that day; neither of us were super excited about going out on the beach, but the Lord totally changed our hearts and allowed us to teach and share with some people! the rest of the weekend's ministry was normal stuff...sunday school, planning meetings, group prayer, women's time...so much good stuff!

four girls in green! daphne, krista, me and laura at our beach outreach by the pier :)

for the sake of fun alone, my team went 80's roller skating on saturday night! here are some good photos! (sidenote: i think my hair was made for the 80's...if only i was born 10 years earlier!!)


also, saturday was July 11th, "7/11", and therefore free slurpee day at 7-eleven!! being college students, we couldn't resist a free giveaway. in fact, we couldn't resist 4 times over... :) that's a lot of slurpees!!
i'm trying to make the most of the short time i have left here! i can't even believe how time has flown by...more to come!!

mid project banquet (otherwise known as photofest 2009)

tonight--thursday--is our first project meeting without the staff. they drove away yesterday morning, a surreal goodbye when i think i might not see some of them ever again...weird. monday night we had our mid-project banquet, a celebration of the work that has happened here in the first 5 weeks of project and a farewell to the staff that has tought and trained us. it also turned in to a major photo shoot :) here are a few choice ones... and here's to the new season ahead of us! i'm trusting the Lord to do even greater things here than we've yet seen!

my family group! finally, i have a photo of us all together! L to R: Abby, Sasha, Glenn, Leo, Jessica, Brittany, Erin and me!

student leadership team...it's the new staff. :) L to R: my co-director AJ, me, Brandon, Katie, Kayla and Wilson

last d-group photo with Shannon! Erin (to the right of me) is our new leader; she is doing an excellent job!

AJ and me with Earle and Becky, our staff project directors. they have provided this project with excellent leadership, wisdom and teaching.

naturally, the dance party that ensued :)

a cool visual...the fruit of our project: leaves=spiritual conversations/gospel presentations; apples=people who have come to know the Lord. awesome! (i'll post an updated version at the end of project, too :) )

the latest

today was a loooong day at work... :) towards the end of the day, a few of us teamed up to complete the last remaining checkout rooms. those ones require the most work, so the more people that help, the sooner we all get to go home! amber (another campus crusade student) and i were working with two of the established women here, gloria and karen. gloria is funny; she likes to dance and tell jokes and really helped to keep us motivated in the homestretch. somehow she got to talking about her life, her testimony and her faith...let me tell you, this is one amazing woman! thirteen years ago, she was arrested for multiple counts of drug posession and use. fearing what would happen to her two kids if she was convicted for all of these charges, she prayed to God, promising her life to Him if He could get her through it. when she went to court, the judge offered her so much grace; he dropped all but one of the charges and sentenced her to 6 months rehab and probation instead of the long prison sentence she could have easily received. since then, she has been completely sober, has not relapsed at all, and loves the Lord with all of her heart. she's gone to college to earn a degree in nursing and is currently working on another degree in counseling with an emphasis on drug rehabilitation. her desire is to work for a christian counseling office, empathetically using her own life experience to help people overcome their drug addictions and come to know the Lord. what a story! her opening up to us was really encouraging; it even allowed karen to share a little bit about her own story. she shared with us that she spent time in prison, the worst time of her life. i'm hoping to follow up on a deeper level with her next time we're paired up to clean!

recap of an amazing day!

today was a huge day! it was amazing though. the Lord gave me so many opportunities to share, encourage and teach...now that i think about it, this i how every day should be lived!! it started off teaching sunday school; today we concluded our three part series of John 14:6, "Jesus is the Life". the core of our message was Ephesians 1:13-14, the promise that through the Holy Spirit, Christians are given a deposit on our eternal inheritance...in other words, our eternal life begins the moment we accept Jesus as our Lord! it was cool to introduce this idea to our students; it really does change a person's perspective on day-to-day living. after sunday school, i got to share my testimony with my church congregation; it was the first time i really had to make sense of my own story so that i could communicate it to other people. (i'd love to share it with you if you want to hear it!)

after church, we got ready for our outreach event. today we went to all of the different youth detention centers (aka juvenille hall facilities) to present to kids the same Gospel that has transformed our lives. it was amazing going in there and so cool to listen to some of our project stduents share their testimonies with these kids; really, they too had come from broken homes and painful pasts, stories that the Lord definitely used to establish a connection with these kids and reveal the redemptive power of a relationship with Jesus Christ. all of us got share a glimpse of our own story through a presentation called "cardboard confessionals"...here are the photos (click on them to make them bigger/legible):


one at a time, we held these confessions in front of us...
before we revealed how our lives have been transformed
all in all, we saw 12 people trust Christ today and probably 60 more hear the Gospel. this was such a real representation of the brokenness and need that exists in the world, a hard, challenging, and encouraging experience all at the same time.

finally, my most exciting news of the day! today one of my sorority sisters put her trust in Christ! the Lord spoke to her in amazing ways, provided answers to questions/uncertainties she was having about faith, and revealed the true meaning of the gospel--that we come to Jesus as broken sinners and He restores us so we can have eternal fellowship with God--for the first time. i got an excited text message from her, such an encouragement for me to see the Lord moving in hearts all around the world! praise God. the angels are rejoicing in heaven for all the people that have come to know Jesus this day!

celebrating freedom in all kinds of ways

happy fourth of july! today we had an amazing celebration of freedom--the freedom we have in this country and the freedom believers have in Christ! the celebration began with a group of students getting baptized...what a perfect day! then...a festive cookout :) here are the photos!


praying over the students getting baptized
there they are! publicly-proclaimed followers of christ.

the festive bunch :)
thanks for sending the gear, mom!tomorrow will be a huge day for me to proclaim the same freedom that i have experienced in my life...the fun begins when i share my testimony in church and then continues tomorrow afternoon when the project goes out into local prisons and detention centers to preach the Word! pray for us!!

words i thought i'd never say...

NASCAR IS COOL! i know, i can't believe i just said that. i got to go to my first NASCAR race tonight with the rest of the project team. we channeled our inner redneck (which included a last minute trip to pick up NASCAR merch at the goodwill :) ) and headed out to the daytona international speedway to take in the Subway Jalapeno 250. it was amazingly cool to see those cars go! not to mention spending time with great company, meeting some true NASCAR fans, and seeing an epic flyover of 4 fighter jets, 3 times over! what a hearty welcome into redneck-hood...well, at least for tonight;)

some of the sights...sporting my dale earnhardt jr. shirt in front of his truck! gotta love $1.50 finds at goodwill...i fit right in :)
one of the jets right above me!
aren't these colors pretty? i love how bright this sport is.
the rednecks! chandler, glen and aj with those sweet bandanas; adria, elda, jessica, krista, me and christine rocking our NASCAR tees. (yes, jessica's shirts says 'sweet baby jesus loves racing', another gem from goodwill!)
coming down our straightaway for the first time
smoke from the crash that happened right in front of us!
mom, this is for you. it's good to be a redneck!
more adventures to come in the weekend ahead! i'm looking forward to a fun 4th of July celebration and a prison outreach on sunday! can't wait to share!!

an excellent video made by students on dbsp!