Summer Project Begins!

Hey all! So this is the beginning of my blog, I was meaning to start this on the first few days, but things have been crazy busy. I got to Clearwater last Sunday and met with my "life group" right away. It's a group of six guys (including myself) and two staff members, and they're pretty awesome people, and we'll be sharing life together and having bible studies weekly over the summer. Total, there were 40 new students and almost 20 staff members to meet here, which was pretty overwhelming trying to meet everybody, especially being a day late. But so far it is an amazing group of people and a great representation of Christian community, as everybody's primary focus is Christ and loves one another without any judgments or reservations. In a typical week, we work Monday through Friday, have dinner as a project and our weekly meeting with a message and worship on Monday nights, a 2.5 hour reflection time/time with God on Tuesday nights, have bible study and dinner on Wednesday nights, have dinner with our family groups (a different group of people to help us get to know more people) and a separate mens and womens time on Thursday nights, have a free dinner/night on Friday nights to hang out together or with people we meet/coworkers and such, an initiative evangelistic outreach (aka to people we've never met before, like on the beach) on Saturday afternoon, a social to build community that night, Church on Sunday morning, and Prayer and Praise on the beach Sunday night.

Speaking of work, we have to get a job in order to learn to minister to our coworkers while we are here. The first day of the job hunt (last Monday) was exhausting, as I looked around and applied many places, but didn't get anything. I auditioned with 4 other guys to work on a pirate ship cruise on Tuesday. We were told that they were only going to hire 3, maybe 4 pirates, but they ended up hiring all 5 of us...God has been faithful in providing! Right now I'm still training for the job, we aren't official pirates until we know how to do everything by heart, so I'll give some more details about it once I'm official :P Others still don't have jobs, so we are praying for them, that would God would provide for them, and rest for now in the knowledge that God has a purpose for everything and it is by His sovereign will that they will get a job when He chooses.

We've been training in communicating the Gospel and how to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit using some booklets they have provided us. Yesterday afternoon we went out on the beach and split up in 2's and 3's and shared with people on the beach. It was great to be a part of God's mission for Clearwater this summer! 4 guys we talked to weren't interested in spiritual things, but also said it's one of those things that they just don't talk about, so hopefully our talking to them will leave them with some conversation to dwell on. We also talked to a couple on their honeymoon who were believers but were under the impression that our good works affect our salvation, and explained to them that it was all about Jesus's sacrifice on the cross, and that works are simply a product of our trust in Christ. We also talked to a homeless man Friday who believed in Christ but was filled with hurt and sin and thought that his sin was going to keep him out of heaven. It's been great getting to talk with people about God!

I'd love to say more but it would be nearly impossible to put everything that we have done in one blog! I'm really excited as we start a new week of work, building relationships, and growing in our walks with God as the week progresses. I ask that you'd pray for me first of all that I would continue to trust in God for my satisfaction and confidence, not in myself or other people on project. I also ask that I would not consider myself and my own desires/concerns when talking to others, but that I would consider only the Gospel. Through this, I ask that you would pray for myself and our project, that we would be able to strengthen relationships with coworkers, initiate spiritual conversations with those we come into contact with, and continue to build true Christian community, love others more than ourselves. Thanks for reading, and I'll post again when I get a chance!

To Christ be all the glory.

Jeremy