Summer Project Update 3 (Defeating Complacency and Passiveness)

The past week on project has been somewhat frustrating for me, and it's really been one big thing that has made it that way. I've really been feeling a lack of community.I just haven't really made any solid connections with any of the men here with me on project so far. It's so easy to just get used to having a solid group of Christian guy friends around you constantly, and to experience anything less is very difficult. It makes me realize just how important it is to have close brothers around to just be able to pour your heart out to whenever. In a lot of ways it makes me realize how blessed I am with the brothers I have back at school and at home. I haven't by any means given up or lost hope in this for my summer, but I've just been merely flustered by the fact that something I'm used to having an abundance of is seemingly nonexistent for me at this point and time. My initial reaction to all this was to just feel sorry for myself and actively choose to just have an attitude that nothing will change. But through much reflection and thinking time on the topic, I've realized that if I want to see things change in this area for myself, I need to be proactive and pursue close relationships with other men on project. It helps to know that many of the other men on project are probably having similar feelings right now, but we'll all stay in this state if no person takes action. It just comes down to who's going to be the guy who steps up to the plate and goes after it. I'm declaring myself as that guy tonight because I know through Christ my introverted self can break out of his shell and help to shape meaningful Christ-centered relationships during this short summer trip. My hope is that other men on project will catch on and break out of their own shells as well. It certainly won't be easy, but I'm relying on the God that gave me this sweet idea to come through. He always does. You can help to. If there's one prayer request I have for this week it's that God would use me to begin break through on our project that breaks down the barriers of awkwardness and self consciousnesses that keep relationships from building, and that He would give me the strength to persevere towards the vision He has given me.

Putting everything aside from the previous paragraph, there have been some cool things that have happened in the past week. Last week our project was very focused on outreach and we went out sharing nearly every day of the week. None of my conversations got very far, but I was proud to have initiated a total of 13 conversations by the weeks end! It was a great experience just to become more and more comfortable sharing my faith with others. Another cool thing that God has been showing me lately is how He just wants me to talk to Him. It doesn't matter what part of the day it is, what I'm in the middle of doing, or what my location is, He just wants to chat with me. You can call it prayer sure, but I just look at it as chatting it up with my heavenly father whenever I want, because that's how amazing He is. He can be accessed at anytime of the day, it doesn't matter. Anytime I want to talk to Him, He listens and responds. He is the greatest listener to ever exist in all of time and even outside of time. He won't ignore you or forsake you. In fact He delights in you, and there is nothing that makes Him more happy than to commune with His children whom He created to have close and intimate relationships with Him (Zephaniah 3:17). This morning I got up and started my work shift at the grocery store at 6am. As you can imagine, there is hardly anyone that gets up at 6 in the morning to go to the grocery store, so anytime that I work this shift I have an abundance of time to just stand in front of my register in silence as I wait for any customers to come through my line. So this morning I realized what a great opportunity this was to just chat it up with the Lord. I literally didn't have a single customer from the time I started until about 6:45. For about 45 minutes I just stood there in conversation with God. It was so refreshing to just talk to Him and hear back from Him to start off my day. I can't think of a better way to start my days now! I think I unintentionally set a standard for myself! Either that or God set a standard for me today! It's just been amazing to see the Lord work in life in this way recently and needless to say I'm very excited to see how I become closer and more committed to the Lord through all this. He always provides us with exactly what we need at the perfect moment. Sometimes it just takes us a little while to realize it!

That wraps up this weeks update. Be sure to check back next Wednesday for another update! I greatly appreciate all of your prayer support while I am here in on project! Please continue to pray that God would continue to breakthrough in my life. Also, if there is anything I can be praying about for you, don't hesitate to get in touch with me and tell me your personal requests. God bless and have a great rest of the week!

                                          Before...                                                        After!

The giant grilled cheese burger I consumed!

 Bible study at Starbucks

 Bible study guys at Five Guys

 Worship Team at Applebees

 Krispy Kreme!

Summer Project Update 2 (A Rollercoaster of a Week)

As I sit down and try to reflect on the past week since last Wednesday, I seem to remember both very awesome and very not so awesome events that have taken place. First off, I sit down and write tonight with a beast of a cold that has been warring on the past few days, making work hardly bearable. I've been doing my best to get extra rest as of lately to try to fight off this cold. I'm probably blowing my nose about every 10 minutes which easily makes it the one of the worst cases of a runny nose I've ever had. On top of this, yesterday I got off work to find that my car wouldn't start. I had to have the car towed which was a very stressful experience. After everything was taken care of my car ended up at a shop about 3 blocks down the road from the grocery store I work at, which turned out to be a huge blessing. A little while after finding out that my car had died I prayed over the situation with a few other guys from project that were giving me a ride back to project grounds to. Sure enough God saves the day again. With the help of my dad and AAA, I was able to get my car to a shop that as I said before was about 3 blocks from work which set up perfectly for me to be able to pick up my fixed car after I got off of work today. So in the midst of a stinky situation, I gave control over to the Lord and He took care of me once again. He just continues to bless me time and time again! As far as the sickness goes, I'm trusting that He's got me taken care of in that as well and that He has a bigger plan that I can't see at the moment.

Putting my cold and the car trouble aside, I wanted to touch on my highlight of the past week. Two nights ago I went out sharing with my friend Alissa and Andrea, another girl from project. We went to go share with someone we casually meet last week. We found him and started to talk to him about his new job and such, but he had to go. We then ended up chatting with his coworker Bree, who had an interesting background. The conversation with Bree didn't go too far. He explained to us his spiritual background and current beliefs and that was pretty much it for the conversation. But what I was taken aback by was how filled with the spirit I was as we went sharing that night. I could just feel His love and feel Him with me as I went out. What a joy it is to walk confidently in the Holy Spirit and His power! There is just simply no feeling like it! As the girls and I prayed throughout the night, I just felt the Lord speaking through my prayers. I went to bed that night filled and empowered by the the Lord and it just felt so good. 

I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week. I play on the Thursday night worship team for the first time tomorrow night and I'm pumped for that. I'm also extremely excited for more opportunities to go out sharing after my experience the other night. He has built up my confidence to a point where I am not afraid to go anymore. If my God is for me, than who can stand against me? It's been really awesome to see how the Lord has been working in my heart in this area during the past week. That wraps up this week's post! I hope you all are encouraged and blessed by my stories as always! Have a great rest of your weeks!