Day 5: Stepping out of my comfort zone

I just want to start this blog off saying how incredibly blessed I am. Everything about this trip so far has been awesome and it is only day 5. Just wow... im amazed at how God has blessed my life :)

This morning we woke up and went to downtown Orlando, where we shared our faith with seemingly random people on the streets. (btw, downtown Orlando is gorgeous)

But anyways, today one of my roommates, Nick, and I were partnered up while sharing. We were walking around and we happened upon a young guy sitting at a bench by himself, so of course we went up to talk to him. His name was Devon and we spoke to him for a while, and the conversation got to the point where we were able to go through the 4 steps in the booklet (pictured above) with him. We even got him to call up one of his friends and she is going to take him to church with her on Sunday! He didn't accept Christ at that moment but we were able to plant that seed, and found someone in his life who would actually be able to follow up with him! (another awesome thing about this part of the story is that he found us later and introduced us to his mom and little brothers! And he had already talked to her about us, and we could tell she wanted to talk as well but she was incredibly flustered and busy because one of Devon's younger brothers is autistic. So we left her our numbers, a copy of the booklet, and told her to call us if she wanted to talk since were going to be here all summer!)

We were downtown for about 2 hours today, walking around and evangelising, but afterwords, I got to have lunch with Lee and Chelsie (the project director and his wife) and that was awesome! Not only did we eat my favorite of Mexican, but we had awesome conversation over lunch, and on the car ride back!

I then had a few hours of downtime so I hung out at the pool with everyone for about 2 hours, and then after that I went and played a game of pick up soccer with about 10 of  the other project students! I didn't realize how much I actually missed playing competitively.

But then at 6:30 we had mens time. All the guys on project got together to do fun activiites. While I am not allowed to disclose what actually happened so as to not ruin it for others who may do a project in the future, I loved it! It was physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually exhausting and I am barely staying awake right now to share this with you all, but it was awesome!

Overall, today was great. I was pushed way out of my comfort zone to approach random people and share my faith with them (and actually enjoyed it), I got to hang out and get to know some people better, and then the awesomeness of mens time!

My Daily Quiet Time
Today I read Luke 3:1-20

The part of this passage that stuck out to me the most was when John talks about how we are cleansed by fire. At first this confused me, because fire = hell so why would Jesus use fire to cleanse us? But upon further research, fire is used often to get rid of impurities in metals and also to steralize things. So Jesus cleanses us with fire to remove impurities from our lives (sin) and to make us pure.

Day 4: Embrace the Awkward

Yet again, we had an early morning! I woke up around 8 a.m. and we had another long day of evangelism training from 9 a.m - 5 p.m. Today we learned many things!  The thing that stuck out most in my mind was how to approach those from different cultures because we did this really interesting activity where half of us went outside ( i was in that group) and the other half stayed inside. The half that was inside were given instructions on different behaviors on how to act. One group could only talk to you once you shook there hand, one group couldnt look you in the eye, and one group had to agree with everthing you said. The group that was outside had to interact with the group from inside and figure out what they were doing, without having any idea as to what they were doing. This is synonomous with trying to interact with people from other cultures, because it can be different and sometimes awkward but we just have to 

 

                                              "Embrace the Awkward!"

After evangelism training several of the students on project decided to head over to krispy kreme for:

              NATIONAL DONUT DAY

We were all given a free donut! After leaving krispy kreme we decided to walk across the street to dunkin donuts and see if they would give us donuts as well... of course they didnt... So Krispy Kreme is the official donut place of project!!!

                                           So this is the Krispy Kreme we went to this afternoon!
                                          Even my favorite, Chocolate Cake Donuts, were warm!!


We then had a "surf school" graduation! It was a huge surprise but the staff actually took us surfing! It wasn't "real" surfing but it was surfing nonetheless! It was at this awesome indoor place right down the road from where we are staying and we all had a blast!!  I am only putting one picture on here, but im sure there will be tons more on facebook soon!

Face is kinda intense!! 

While we were surfing, we were remdinded of the greatness of our God by this beautiful sunset!

Daily Quiet Time

Today in my quiet time I read a passage from the Gospel of Luke and also Psalm 103. I want to leave you with a verse from the Psalm.

Psalm 103:8

"The Lord is merciful and gracious! Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love!" 

This particular verse stood out to me today because I need to act like Christ through my actions this summer with my job. I need to be slow to anger while I am working and show steadfast love to all the park guests and my co-workers. If I do these things I will be showing Christ's love through my actions while also giving off a better witness than someone who is bitter and angry all the time about my job! So no matter what happens at work this summer, and no matter how irritated I may be, I will always be merciful and gracious, and also not show anger towards others but the love of Christ.

Day 3: The journey of a million dreams begins here!

Today has been a fairly lazy day. I had a meeting with Andy, at 9 am this morning to make sure I had all my support raised for project. I then came back to the condo and napped until around 12. At that point I woke up, ate lunch, got into the word and prepared my Soul to Soul.

At 3:00 today was my casting appointment with Disney. I was assigned my job.... Drum roll please! Haha, I am officially working in quick service foods, in the magic kingdom! I am not sure if I am inside or out yet, but I am so excited to finally know what I am doing :)

Then tonight we met with our discipleship groups for the first time. It is 1 staff member and 4 guys including me. We met for several hourse just opening up and getting to know each other better through a process called "soul to soul."

Our group went to the Polynesian resort, ate at a restuarant there, had this awesome ice cream stuff, whose name I can not recall at the moment, and then watched the fireworks show "wishes" from the beach.

Polynesian Resort

Overall, today was a more relaxed day than yesterday, but was still awesome!

p.s. my discipleship group decided to ride around on the monorail for a while, and for you superhero fans out there, we got to ride on the Avengers monorail... It was pretty awesome... There is a picture below :)

Day 2: "Going Surfing Every Day"

We had an early start this morning! Woke up around 8 a.m. for my first day of evangelism training! The project staff is using an awesome analogy of surfing to describe our walks with God, and also for evangelism. When surfing there are many factors that play into it, much the same as when sharing your faith. 

The analogy that stood out the most in my mind was the one where the ocean was described as the unknown. It is unpredictable and always changing. You never know what you will get when you go to surf. And some waves that one surfer fail to ride, another can ride it just as easily. But no matter what a surfer will always get back up after being knocked down by a wave and go try it again.

This relates to our faith. We are the surfers, and the ocean represents the waves or the challenges that the people we are outreaching to represent. We can not overthink it, just like we wouldn't overthink riding a wave! We must pursue someone even with the fear of getting knocked down, and even if we are knocked down, get up and try to catch another wave, and not be discouraged.

Our motto for the summer is:

                         "Going Surfing Every Day"

This means that we are going to surf the waves, or face different challenges every day in regards to our mission and those we are reaching too! So we must be prepared for something different every day. One day we may have an amazing witnessing oppurtunity or great conversation with someone, and another day the wave we are trying to ride may knock us down and shut us down. But through it all I must remember to praise God, for the good and the bad!

Another awesome analogy we used today to describe sharing our faith was dancing! I know crazy right? But trust me it worked! So the staff was all standing in front of us and announced a dance party? so they all get up and dance around and do crazy stuff and only a few of us stood up and started to dance. There were murmors all around the room of *where's the music* and *this is awkward* So after a minute or so the staff all stopped dancing and accused us of "not having any moves." So they decided to teach us some... and of course they are the most random awkward dance moves ever... so we restart the dance party and are supposed to be using the really awkward dance moves they just taught us.... all with no music. And you can hear still people saying *where's the music* Becuase honestly, how are you supposed to dance without music???  But then, after a few more minutes of no music, and using these awkward dance moves that we were taught, the staff finally turned on the music! So we just had this crazy, random, awkward dance party... and everyone was kinda like, what is the eternal signifigance of this crazy random awkward dance party... Sooo, after about 5 minutes of all of us acting crazy, the staff turned off the music and had us all sit back down; then went on to explain why we had just done that. 

The dance moves that we were taught by the staff, represented straight religion - following a strict set of rules and just doing what you are told. Music represents the Gospel and the relationship we have with our God. So this is a great analogy for sharing the gospel. Becuase when one typically dances, they dance to the music. They don't learn how to dance and then add the music. So you wouldn't go up to a non-believer and accuse them, and tell them they must live a certain way without first explaining to them God's love and the gospel as a whole. Once the person has an understanding of the Gospel and is living their life for God (aka listening to the music) they can then be instructed in how to live in a Godly manner (or the dance moves taught to us by staff). 

                "Religion without the Gospel is like dancing                                           
                                     without the music, it just doesnt work!"

I found this very helpful, because my first step doesn't need to be changing someones lifestyle, it needs to be sharing God's love with them, and teaching them about the Gospel, and after that they should want to learn the dance moves or how to live for God!

and then.... Scavenger Hunt!!!!

We went on a scavenger hunt tonight in Downtown Disney! This was a great way for us to get to know several of our fellow project goers better! The list was several items long. The pictures my group took are below!!

The captions are not exact wording of the clues because I cant remember them but here ya go!

Picture with the friends from 100 acre woods!

Go play in the fountain!

Take a picture with Cinderella!

(Glass Slipper, but not really!)

Our new College Program friend, Jessica!

Find the staff and guess there favorite music genre: Classic Rock

Build your own Mr. Potatoe Head

"Ride a hog" *notice...im being ran over* #typical

Again with the fountain #5yearsold :)

Take a picture with Captain Hooks most hated enemy

We also had a great conversation with the cast member in the photo! 

She told us we should get bonus points for having a fellow Christian in the pic!

Find Chad a "goofy" hat

Overall today was awesome! 

My Daily Quiet Time

Luke 1:37

"for with God all things are possible"

This portion of the passage hit me really hard this morning. In context it is discussing Elizabeth's pregnancy in her old age, and Mary becoming pregnant as a virgin. But I feel that this could also apply to all areas of life. What I was most moved by was that with God ALL things are possible. No matter how tough they seem, or how hard life gets, as long as I rely on God and use him as my number one strength I can do anything! Including overcoming several sins in my life that seem to be all consuming and I just can not shake. But the reality is, that I can! Because I have God, and if he can allow Elizabeth to become pregnant in her old age, and Mary to become pregnant as a virgin, he can help me to overcome and conquer my personal sins!


And finally, right before bed... We just had an awesome impromptu worship session in the parking lot, spending a couple of minutes worshiping our Lord and King!

How my life has changed...

        Wow. Just wow. looking back on my life over the last year and the change's that God has wrought in it are amazing. This time last year, I was just begining to go into my "rebellious" stage. I had stopped caring about school, I decided to get a tattoo, and I was looking forward to my summer and college for all the wrong reasons. 


      At this point last year, I had stopped caring about my grades. I already knew I had no chance of being valedictorian and I felt that my 12 years of hard work and effort had been for naught. I was honestly heartbroken. Because of this I decided to rebell...


      On this very day one year ago, I decided to permanantly mark my body. I had always wanted a tattoo, but was never "brave" enough to go and get one. But at this point in my life I had just enough rebellion in me to actually do it. I decided to get a cross tattoo, not becuase Jesus was my Lord and Savior, but because I felt it was the only thing my mom wouldn't completley stroke out over, and that my parents wouldn't disown me for. Looking back on it, I do not regret getting the tattoo, but I do regret the reasoning behind it. 


       This tattoo was only the beggining of the end for me... I went to grad week, then the beach for a weekend with friends, and then finally got around the completley wrong crowd when I first started school. I will not go into the details of that time in my life because it is beyond the scope of this blog, but if you would like to discuss it with me feel free to contact me. 


       But finally, around on August 31st Kelsey Fuller and Jason Green invited me to Campus Crusade for Christ for the first time. I remember I went back to my dorm, and just cried and cried that night becuase I was so convicted by God of the way I had been living my life. I got a phone call that night from Faith Morey and she gave me several verses to read because she said she felt led to give them to me.


Ephesians 2:1-10: 
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork,created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."


Ephesians 6:10-20: 

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains.Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."


2 Thesolinians 1:11-12:
¹¹ With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. ¹² We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.^[c]


Psalm 51:

"Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love; 
according to your great compassion 
    blot out my transgressions. 
² Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me. 
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned 
    and done what is evil in your sight; 
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge. 
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth, 
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; 
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins 
    and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence 
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation 
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways, 
    so that sinners will turn back to you. 
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
    you who are God my Savior, 
    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 
¹⁵ Open my lips, Lord, 
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is^[b] a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart 
    you, God, will not despise.

¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion, 
    to build up the walls of Jerusalem. 
¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, 
    in burnt offerings offered whole;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar."

     I joined a bible study with Brian Coffin and he began to pour into me as well. At about this same time, a good friend from back home Kayla Phillips, told me I should meet Alex Mull. So of course I listened to her, and I met him. Alex, truly helped to turn my life around. He poured into me in a manner in which no one had ever shown me. I do believe that if God would not have used him in my life, that I may very well be stuck in a life of sin. And for that I am eternally greatful that God put such a man of God into my life to help me get back into my walk with him.

      I began to meet some more Christian friends who began to pour into me, and I joined another bible study with Steven Andrews and Kenny Ragsdell. These guys also began to pour into me and I began to meet some of the guys in the study who also poured into me. I finally realized that the lifestyle I was living was not the one that I was supposed to be living. I hit rock bottom at that point in my life, and while it was still a struggle for me to get my life back on track and took me several months to do so, I am finally living my life for Christ again.

       My Lord and Savior saved my soul from eternal damnation.

Psalm 103:12 

"as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us."

Romans 8:37-39

 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors thorugh him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to seperate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

So no matter what I have done in my past, God still loves me. His love is unfathomable and despite all my sins and flaws he still loves me unconditionally. Because of this knowledge, and the pure love that was shown me by all those that God placed into my life, I do believe my life was saved from one of great hardship and trial. I thank God daily for the people he placed into my life during that time and that he used to help turn me around.

        All this occured in the span of September to around December. At about this time Grant Rhodes asked Alex and I to attend Passion conference in Atlanta Georgia with his church. And we decided to go, and I was truly blown away. 40,000 + college students all gathering in one place to worship and grow closer to our God was truly a life changing event.

      I then went back to school in January, and began to make many new friends. Probably the best friends I have ever had in my life. I met Luke Beeson and Bryan Moffitt, and these two incredible guys poured into me and helped me through many issues in my life. I met Justin Thomas, Chris Nelsen, (got closer to Tyler Melvin, Grant Rhodes, Jason Green, and Kelsey Fuller), Grant Buckner, Joe McDonald, Jameson Boone, Racheal Cashwell, Sarah Lipinski, Emily Ficken, Kristin Teague, Kimberly Sackaman, and several others who I am not recalling as I write this in the middle of the night. All of these friends poured into me, and many of them know many of my flaws yet the love me anyways. They have shown me true friendship, and in doing so have shown me God's love. So I am incredibly thankful for all these people, and the role they have played in my life.

     If you would have been told 9 months ago, that I would be where I am now I wouldn't have believed you. Yet here I am, on a 10 week summer mission trip at "the most magical place on earth" to share my story and my faith with those that I will be working with, and other students from around the world. This just goes to show that "Many are the plans in the minds of man, yet it is the lords purpose that prevails" ~ Proverbs 19:21. God uses occurances in our life to make us not only stronger individuals but also draw us closer to him. Not only did God call me to be on this amazing mission trip, he is also calling me to lead a group of freshman guys next year, as they face many of the same struggles I did. I can only pray that the Lord uses me to help these guys I will lead in the manner so many have helped me. But on another note, I am incredibly excited to be on this trip, and I am unceasingly praying that God will use me however he pleases for the betterment of his kingdom and to bring him glory.

      I just wanted to share, how incredible God is and how awesome it is that he wrought these changes in my life in only a year. Looking back, I can't believe I am even the same person I was a year ago, and in many ways I am not. I know this post doesn't have much to do about my project itself, and today's "blog" will come later, after we have actually done stuff, but I just felt led to share this little bit of my story with all of you.