Awe

The question "What's one word to describe your walk with the Lord right now?" was thrown around this week and it came to me that the only word to describe how I feel is awe. I am in awe of the Lord. The Lord has revealed a new side of himself to me and I cannot describe how amazing this week has been. Before I came to OC I had never seen anyone come to Christ. I have my own story of redemption and have heard amazing stories of how the Lord revealed himself to others, but I had never witnessed someone make a decision for Christ. In Ocean City the Lord has opened my eyes to his passion for the lost and to just how powerful the gospel really is. Watching someone being transformed from the beginning of a conversation to the end of the gospel is such an amazing experience and causes me to praise the Lord on a whole new level. I feel so blessed to have been able to witness the Lord moving in people's hearts and am simply in awe of him.

This week the Lord showed us a glimpse of how powerful he is and how much he can accomplish through his servants. Our goal this week was to have 5079 evangelistic conversations and the Lord was faithful beyond imagine. As a project we initiated 11,526 conversations, engaged in 5094 evangelistic conversations and the Lord has blessed all of us with 204 new brothers and sisters in Christ. 203! and on top of that God has allowed me to witness 24 people ask Jesus to become their Lord and Savior. I have been so blessed by this gift and it has given me an even deeper love for sharing my faith and for the lost.

Today we had a beach party as a project and really just enjoyed being together as a body of Christ. This was the kickoff to this week's them which is "All for One", which is a week dedicated to coming together as a body. Today was a great way to just relax and reflect on what the Lord did this week and to really just rejuvenate. One cool thing that the Lord has presented to me this week is a friendship with a guy named Evan from Russia. He is here for the summer through a work program and after multiple run ins on the boardwalk, Evan asked me if I would like to get a meal with him. He took me to his FAVORITE place to eat here....McDonalds! He loves to go there because he is intrigued by the awesomeness of free refills. Apparently in Russia they don't have free refills and so he gets the smallest drink size and gets 4-5 refills. It was cool to meet someone from somewhere so different than America, but also to have an evangelistic conversation with him. Despite the language barrier it was a great experience and i'm looking forward for the rest of the summer with him.

Killing the Giants

Hey Everyone!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and for your comments back, they are all so encouraging to me. Well a lot has been going on since my last update so here goes. Most exciting for me would just be the fruit that God has shown me in evangelism. We have been going sharing almost every day and the Lord has been using the Gospel to move in people's hearts in a MAJOR way. I have been able to see God bring 17 people to Christ since I have been here and as a project we have seen 90 new brothers and sisters come into his kingdom. WOW! God is so good and worthy of our praise. There is nothing better than to see God transforming someone right before your eyes. I cannot describe the amount of joy I have because of it.

This week is themed "Killing the Giants". Basically this is a week where we are focusing on evangelism and stretching ourselves outside of our comfort zones. As a project we have set a goal and relying on God that we would have the chance to have 5,079 gospel oriented conversations. This number seems so huge, but we are all REALLY excited because we know God is working in big ways here. Personally, I have decided that I would like to stretch myself this week by approaching bigger groups of people. To be honest...they scare me! It is very comfortable for me to approach 1 or 2 people and so I am trying to step out of my comfort zone. 

So I have attached a picture of the wonderful B&B clothing store that has taken me in for the summer. Yes those are cars on the ceiling if you can see them. I have enjoyed it here a lot. Sometimes it can be a bit repetitive (like the day I put foam covers on hangers for 5 hours...) BUT the ministry opportunity here is so awesome. I have already been able to get into some spiritual conversations with some of the people I work with and a few of them are excited to come hang out with people on project. Sunday night we had an "adoption" dinner at the church we are attending and I got adopted by Ray Adams. Basically the point of the adoption is for us to get to know some people in the congregation and so that we would feel loved and welcomed. Throughout the summer we'll be meeting up with Ray for meals and other things and just getting to know him. He's 78 and loving the Lord. Ill try and get a picture of him next time. 

Again, thank you all so much for everything. I don't know if I can explain how encouraging you all have been to me. I thank God for the impact you have all made on me and the love that you have all shown me. I hope everything is well with all of you and that God is blessing your summers. 

The Power of the Gospel

The past two days have been so amazing. Yesterday was our second outreach and God was powerfully using our project to reach out to the lost. Personally, I was able to pray with two guys that wanted to receive Christ and again it was phenomenal to serve God and to see the gospel change lives. Last night alone 19 people came to know Christ and soooo many more were able to hear the gospel. Praise the Lord for opening the ears of these people and for revealing himself to these 19. It is so amazing to think that one day we will be seeing all of these people again in Heaven. I am so thankful that it is up to God to work in these people's lives and that it is not by anything we do or say. It gives me so much confidence sharing the gospel because I know that God is sovereign and has everything under control. After last night, as a project, this summer we have seen 28 people come to Christ. WOW!....... Tonight God was working again and again I praise God for the opportunity to witness more people come into his kingdom. I went sharing with a guy named Ryan and it was by far the best night I have had since I have been here. The first conversation we got into was with two high school students named Rory and Ryan, and they both received Christ after going through the KGB. Ryan and I were so excited after the conversation and we were praying, dancing and running down the boardwalk. The next conversation we had was with two guys named Doc and Nick and after hearing the gospel and rethinking their works based salvation beliefs they too decided to receive Christ! It was an amazing experience and the words that come to mind to describe the night are ecstatic, jubilation and just pure joy. I encourage all of you to take the time after reading this to just thank the Lord for how  good he is to all of us. For the wonders of his grace and the forgiveness he gives out of love. Praise the Lord that he is working in people's lives and is bringing more and more people into his kingdom every single day.

Employed

Hey Everyone,

Thank you for all of your prayer support through this past week, God has definitely been working here in OC. I am now an employee at a beach wear clothing store called B & B. I started today and praise God for this opportunity because it has already been a blessing. I have already had 2 opportunities to have semi-spiritual conversations with two of my co-workers and am excited to see where those could lead to. Everyone is really nice there and were just very welcoming to me on my first day. I think my favorite part was that I really felt like I was serving the other people working there. A lot of the employees are either smaller women or mid-aged to older women and they have trouble reaching high things, lifting heavy things and running back and forth throughout the store. They were all so appreciative that I could do these things for them and it really made me feel needed there at the store. I am praising God for just providing a great environment for ministry, serving and it is going to be nice to be able to bring in a little money this summer as well. 

News from the Project: This week was pretty exciting at our large group meetings because we had the priviledge of having Christian author Randy Newman come and speak to us about evangelism. It was great to hear his perspective on evangelism and he taught us some really sweet techniques on how to go about talking to people. His biggest emphasis was on teaching through asking questions and allowing people to come to answers through those questions. One pretty neat story from sharing this week happened yesterday with a guy on the boardwalk. He was paralyzed from being hit by a drunk driver and he was Jewish and believed in reincarnation. His life story alone was enough to make it a great conversation, but I really got excited as we began to go through the gospel with him. He began to ask so many great questions about God, sin and redemption and was just very receptive to what God was teaching him. We didn't get to go through the entire KGB (Knowing God Booklet) because his friends told him they had to leave before we were done, but it was so encouraging because he asked us if he could take the booklet with him to learn more later. Usually we have to tell people they can take them, but he was excited to hear more about what Jesus did on the cross. So pray for him! and praise God for what He is doing in people's lives here in OC. Hope all is well! Email me or comment back on the blog, I'd love to hear from all of you!

Welcome to Ocean City!

Hello!

I just want to start this off by just again saying thank you. Thank you all for your support and encouragement through this whole process. It has already been a great experience for me to just see all of your desire to see God move here on this project. It is encouraging to me to know that all of you are back home praying and supporting me. Well our van of 5 made it here alive after the 14 hour drive from Champaign. We only got lost once so it wasn't too bad. We got here around 8:00PM on Tuesday and immediately I knew this was going to be a phenomenal summer. The fellowship this week has already been great and the staff and other students are all so on fire for Christ. The project's desire to come together united in the gospel has just been great to be a part of. This week was full of orientation sort of activities but it was also PACKED with lots of worship, prayer and just quality time with the Lord. I have already had a great experience with sharing on the boardwalk.

Our first outreach was on Saturday and already the Lord is working here in Ocean City. Our first outreach was just the typical sharing in pairs. We are using surveys and a gospel tool called the "knowing God personally" booklets (a little book that runs through the foundations of Christianity). My discipler and I went out to the boardwalk and got to talk to 3 high schoolers, but had to cut our conversation short because it started to storm and the guys had to leave. I was a little discouraged, but it was great to get out there. Later that night a roommate, Levi, and I went back out to the boardwalk to see if anyone was out there. We ended up talking to two guys for about 45 minutes. They grew up with a Catholic backgrounds and believed that if they lived "good" lives that they would be going to heaven. We kind of got to process through that with them and we got to go through the KGP booklet. After we were done with the booklet we asked them 0-100%, how sure would they be that they were going to heaven if they died today? They both said they were unsure, but that they were probably 90-95%. It sounded like they were unsure if they had ever invited Christ into their lives so we asked them if they would like to be 100% sure they were going to heaven by praying to receive Christ. They both decided that it was something they wanted to do and they prayed to receive Christ and be forgiven for their sins. It was so encouraging and a great experience to see God work in these two guys' lives. Praise God that He is sovereign and working in the lives of all of us on project and the people we are reaching out to.