Quick/Not-so-quick update

Now that I've posted that below, an update will be okay :P Life has been super busy here, and I don't get on the internet much because I don't get it in my room, but it has definitely been awesome here lately. It was sad to see them go, but the staff are gone now, so we are here on our own. Praise God for them though, they have been such an inspiration to me and I'm sure all the other students here on project, and have really just poured their lives into us these last 5 or 6 weeks. Now we all have our different responsibilities to make the project work, I'm one of the 3 leaders of the community team that plans our Thursday night dinners, Saturday project socials, and little things throughout the week to help build Christ-centered, authentic, fun, and encouraging Christian community with the believers here on project. So far, our socials have been a photo scavenger hunt, a white elephant style creative date, an Arrrrgg Shake Your Booty pirates/ninja dance party, a field day/games on the beach, and a movie night which was a rain plan for what was supposed to be an epic Ice Age:The Meltdown themed pool party. So those are some of the fun things :P

We also had a Men's day/night last Tuesday, which was awesome. We did a high ropes course first, which was cool just to see people encourage each other. Also, it just taught me that there were times where I had to depend on the rope to hold me, just as there are times in life where I just have to depend on God to get me through. We also just had some time bonding as men, reading and discussing the Word that we'd been studying through the life of Samson. During/after that, we did a really cool prayer walk (in the pouring down rain) where we were given some physical representations of things we had been learning about: rejecting passivity, leading courageously, and sexual purity, and were challenged by the staff men regarding these three things. It was a powerful night.

Also, two Thursdsays ago, we had Transition night, where we learned the roles we would be taking on once the staff left, and then the staff left for the weekend halfway through the meeting to throw us into those roles immediately. Also, the project directors washed the feet of the new student project directors and assistant directors as an example of servant leadership, and then those students washed the feet of the new Bible study leaders, who then washed the feet of those in their Bible study. We also joined together as a Bible study and afterwards all the guys to pray over our studies and our men and the rest of the project. It was also a very powerful night, and not only demonstrated a great example of servant leadership, but also gave the realest picture of Jesus washing His disciples' feet that I have ever had, that even though Jesus was the Son of God, and had all authority on heaven and earth, He loved us enough and was not above serving His disciples in the lowest, most humbling way possible.

Working on the pirate ship is tiring, but it really is a great job! It is a lot of fun and it allows for me to build relationships with our coworkers as well. It's been awesome to see God stir in me a heart for our coworkers. The purpose of us getting jobs is not only to support ourselves but mainly to minister to our coworkers. However, it has become less of a thing that we are supposed to do, but something that I want to do. As I've gotten to know them more deeply, I've come to really enjoy my friendship with them, want to hang out and talk with them, but also to really be concerned with their heart, and what is most important in their lives, which is their relationship with Christ. My prayer is that God will open them up to His Gospel, and also that they wont see our desire for spiritual conversations as us preaching at them, but rather us loving them and being concerned for what we truly believe matters most to them.

God has also been great and faithful in our initiative evangelism. It was pouring down rain this last Saturday, which is easy to think "God, why are You allowing a massive downpour and thunderstorm when we have a plan to reach people for You on the beach today?" We didn't have much of a rain plan, so we split up between a mall, bus stop, and the pier/wherever you felt led to go. Kevin and I went to the pier to talk with people underneath the pier, but everybody appeared busy or with large families, etc. So, we walked on top of the pier, where there was one lone guy under a shelter from the rain. As soon as we started talking to him, he walked away because he didn't want to talk to us. So as were thinking about the ultimate fail it was, God provided us with four Indian people that walked to the same spot that guy had left under the shelter. It turned out they were Hindu, and we got to have a decent conversation with them about their faith and our faith, and we got to lay out some of the Gospel. Then Jordan, Josh, Kevin, and I decided to go share at the library afterwards for lack of another place to go in the rainstorm, and when we got there, we saw two homeless people outside under an overhang, who were only staying there because of the rain. One guy had gotten his bike stolen, but found it with two flat tires later, so we were able to go buy him a bike lock and new tubes for his tires. We also randomly decided to get 4 ponchos, and when we returned, there were 4 homeless people, so we each gave them one. Jordan and I got to go through the Gospel with two of them who professed to be Christians, which was awesome, and Kevin and Josh talked with the other two as well. One, it was a testament to people caring what you have to say when they know that you care, but it was moreso a testament to how great God is, and how He has a plan in everything that He does. It was great to see how God worked through the rainstorm, as we would have never come into contact with those people if it were not for the storm.

Anyways, so that is it for now, but please keep praying for me to have faith and understanding in the greatness of God, for God to give me greater desire for Him, that He would consume me like I said in my previous post, and that I would consider all things to be rubbish compared to knowing Christ.