Hey all! Here's another update. This time we come to you with the middle of what happened week two. PROJECT DAY BABY!
So, for the second week, we were continuing the ideas started in week one with evangelism. This day was devoted completely to the same thing, but in continuation from what we did the first week. To start the day, we looked into the idea of God's omniscience: the fact that he is never changing, never has changed, and never will change. And in that constant, he is also always present. He's present around us and within us ALL the time.
We entered into a time of solitude to reflect on one simple question: "What would be different in my life if I were able to encounter the LIVING God every day?"
That's a really good question. Clearly, things would be radically different. I feel like if I could encounter God like that in every instance every single day, then I would experience a drastic difference in the amount of confidence I had about everything in life. I would be more connected to the Lord and His truth, less worried about what everyone else in life is doing and how it affects me. I would be more secure in God and his provision and less on the idea that I need to have control in everything in my life. It's honestly a multitude of things, and honestly the list could go on and on and on.
And quite frankly, an hour wasn't enough time to really think everything through.
After that, we moved to Grace Bible Church to have a brief seminar about the next important thing in evangelism aside from simply sharing the gospel of Christ: sharing our own story. When telling others about the glorious riches that is eternal life in Christ, it is important to be able to show just what we mean by mentioning how Christ and His Spirit has changed our lives from the inside out.
"A tragic story is a story that is left untold."
Each of us have an important story to tell. No matter where we come from, how we grew up, or what we have done, every person has an important part in the great workings that God has done since he created the world and ultimately brought all of us into it.
Why is our story important?
1) Because people like hearing stories.
2) Because God uses it to change others and show them reality through our own experience.
3) Because no one can argue with personal experience.
How we did this was through the Before, How, and After method. First, we wrote out what life for us looked like before we found Christ in our life, or moreso, how Christ found us. Then, after that was figured out, we moved into how we came to know Christ and accept Him into our hearts. Lastly, we focused on what our lives looked like after accepting Christ up till our lives now.
Something that we noticed is that God has done a lot in our lives. No matter who we are, the transformations that God has made in our lives have been innumerable and indescribable in some ways. It was a really surreal experience to look back on my life and think about just how much has happened in the 22.5 years that I have been present on this earth, and to see just how God has used it all to forge a path that ultimately led me back to him. PRAISE GOD!
After writing out our stories (in a 4-5 nutshell of course), we practiced sharing with others in the group. Quickly we saw just how hard it was to talk about our entire life story in literally less than 5 minutes. It was overwhelming, but encouraging to hear about where some others from LT were coming from. Stories bring people close together in indescribable ways. The reason we made it less than 5 minutes was for the sake of interest of other people. People enjoy stories, but people might not find a story that lasts a half an hour very interesting the whole time.
After the seminar on sharing our story, we met up for life group. Now, this is an important part of every project day. Each week, for about two hours, we split up into small groups of about 4-5 people called life groups. The point of this time is to go deeper with others in our community to discuss life, and more importantly, how the summer is going for everyone and even talk about the exciting and difficult things that people are facing. It is a time for deep bonding between brothers and sisters. The groups are all same-sex for the sake of greater transparency and understanding. And let me tell you, the experience that I have already had with some of these guys is pretty awesome. I have been blessed with some seriously awesome brothers!
After life group lunches, we met up for the next phase of the day: EVANGELIZING!
To be honest, at first I wasn't too excited about it, but eventually my heart started to change when we got into it.
This is the kicker: we had to go out to the boardwalk as usual to strike conversations with people based on questions that we had been given. However, the difference is that we had to go for FOUR hours. Now, that's a lot of time if people have never struck spiritual conversation with strangers before. It was a long time, but it was a seriously awesome leap of faith.
We split into groups of three this time and went out. Our group had great success. We had a lot of awesome conversations with people that started by a simple question, "are you interested in participating in this survey for us?" People are more willing than you may think.
We talked with three people: Holly, a street vendor at a hot dog place on the boardwalk, Brendan (another street vendor), and Tycaria (an awesome lady that we met while passing her on a bench). It was cool to see the varying ideas of people that we met and just how they reacted to the ideas of Christianity and spirituality.
My favorite experience in particular was the conversation we had with Tycaria.
After talking with her, we found out that she was a singer and was planning to go to New York City in July for an audition on the Voice. And let me just say, she has a wicked awesome voice. After conversing, she also found out that I was a singer, and we jammed out to some Alicia Keys (one of her favorite artists). It was quite a blessing to be encouraged by not only her musical talents, but also her excitement about the Lord in her life, the excitement for us as we take steps of faith to being in a deeper relationship with the Lord, and just excitement about her life. It was a great ending to a great day.
To end the night, we all had a beach night. It was a time for us to continue building in community, give us a chance to unwind after a long day of spiritual development and risk-taking, and ultimately just to enjoy the very thing that is located right across from us and our condos: the beach and the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. Lots happened. There was ultimate frisbee, soccer, lots of encouraging conversation, and of course: many many many pictures were taken! (My favorite part)
Here's just a few:
Even after only two weeks with this group of people, it is becoming quite evident just how much God is doing in their lives. I am beyond encouraged by the things that everyone is learning, the things people are doing, and how everyone is coming together to truly embrace God for all that he is: love and support. I can't wait to see what the Lord continues to do this summer as we use our lives and our hearts to show the world that the Lord really is at work on this earth. There is truly nothing greater than experiences like these!
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. What I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave His life for me." -Galatians 2:20
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