First of all, I would just like to restate how thankful I am to be here. For those that supported me financially, and/or through prayer, thank you so much. I feel so blessed to be doing this. I’m sorry it has taken me so long to blog. I know…this is ridiculous. It’s been 15 days and SO much has happened. Right now we are still trying to get the hang of everything here at the Pan. My roommates are amazing we’re getting to know each other really quick (which tends to happen when 5 girls share 1 room and 1 bathroom). There are 60 students here and we have a legit staff team too. I never thought that we would all be so close already, but 2 weeks and it's like we've been friends for years. Our typical day consists of work til 5:30, dinner, and a function (outreach, training on how to share the Gospel, Monday Night Live - kinda like our CRU, action group time - bible study, or reflection - quiet time to spend digging into the Word). The first few nights we just got to know each other. We shared our Soul to Souls with our action group (basically your life story and how you came to know Christ). We also went to the beach one day and had a scavenger hunt and then had a sandcastle building competition (blue team won! J). We also have Friday night training every Friday and that is where we are learning cool ways to share the Gospel. One way we do that is with the Knowing God Personally booklet; KGP for short. It tells that God loves us, we have sinned, but God sent Jesus to die for our sins so we are free from that, and that we can know Him personally. It’s actually a really cool way to talk to people about Jesus. I work for Miller's Sun Shops which is basically a souvenir/clothing store. So most of my day is spent hanging, folding, straightening, and organizing. Work so far has been pretty chill. I go to work around 10 and get off around 5:30 usually. It's a long shift but when I'm working with other people it's not bad. Plus, I have an amazing view of the ocean...what more could I ask for? I've also met some really cool people already. One girl I met named Jessica is super awesome and is already my California best friend. She is super rad and really easy to talk to. Hopefully we'll get to hang out a lot this summer. We’ve had two days of outreach so far. Outreach is basically where we go somewhere and talk to people in hopes of striking up a spiritual conversation. For the first outreach we went to different laundromats and tried to start conversations with people. My action group (my roommates) struck up conversation right away. Brooke and Brittany started a great conversation with a woman named Brenda. That went very well. Lindsey, Bev, and I started talking to a homeless woman (who used to be a man) named Veronica. That conversation went in circles for a while, but we are hoping that it stirred something in her. We also left her a KGP so hopefully she will read that. For the second outreach, we went downtown and split up by block. My friend Jonathan and were a team and we went to a small pizza place and set up Soularium (which is a spiritual picture survey) on the table. The only person who came up to us was the waitress, Evelyn. So, Jonathan asked her if she wanted to participate. She said sure and so we asked her all the questions. Her last answer was a picture of a path and she said that she wanted to figure out the path to take. I told her that I had wondered that same thing my whole life, but that this KGP booklet answered the questions I had about my life. I asked her if she wanted me to go through it with her, or if she was too busy I could just leave it and she could look at it later. She said she would rather talk with me about it so she asked for my number. I gave it to her and I’m hoping she is going to call soon! PRAY that she does, please! So after we left the pizza place, we walked outside and set up Soularium on the sidewalk and that attracted a lot of attention. First, we talked with an older couple, Doug and Katherine. Katherine had all the churchy answers but I’m not totally convinced of what she was saying. Doug was really apathetic to anything “spiritual” but he had such a lively spirit. PRAY that something stirs in their hearts to both really seek the Lord. Next, we met Kathy. Kathy was a pastor’s kid and she strayed away from Christianity because she hated being the pastor’s kid and being judged for it. So, she tried a bunch of other religions and now she believes in a mixture of a lot of religions. PRAY against confusion. PRAY that the seeds that we all planted on Saturday night will not be the last time that those people hear the Gospel and that they will someday know the Lord. Last night we had girls time. It was much needed and was the most amazing part of this project so far. We did this survey called Stand Up for Your Sister. I can't really explain any more of it but you should just know that it was awesome. It was really great to be able to be open and completely transparent with fellow believers who are going through some of the same junk as I am. The conclusion I came to last night: no matter how alone I feel, I'm not. No matter how big my sin is, God is bigger. No matter how ugly I feel inside, God says I'm beautiful and perfect. That's all I need. The first two weeks of this project have been INCREDIBLE and I can't even imagine what God has in store for me and the rest of the group over the next 8 weeks. |
Prayer requests:
~ We have a theme party coming up on Saturday night where we get to invite our coworkers - it's a Barn Party and it should be a lot of fun. Pray for a good turn-out!
~ Outreach Saturday night - Pray that Evelyn calls me!
~ Continuous prayers for our project in general are awesome. We really want to leave our legacy here in Santa Cruz and we need lots of prayer!
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| First day of work for Jeremiah, Emilee, Caitlyn, Marci, Beverly, and I |
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| ROOMMATES: Brittany, Abby, Beverly, Lindsey (Staff), Brooke, and I |
