And Finally... an Update on the LP!

Now that I'm caught up, I just got back 2 days ago from my three weeks at the LP. Like I said, the Mariner Motel is no Greece, but you just can't help but love it. I wish I had a picture of where I stayed, but I lived in an apartment-style room with 7 other girls, one bathroom, and one mini-fridge. Close quarters but it was so fun!!

My time at project mainly consisted of helping babysit some of the staff kids, spending time with students, and helping the other staff with anything they needed to make the project run smoothly. Because the students work full-time jobs (from Wendy's to Walmart to Sketchers), during the day we had staff meetings and staff training. During staff training we talked about the vision and direction of our ministry and spent time planning for the next year for each of our campuses. It was really fun to be a part of and has made me really excited for the direction COG is headed this next year.

One thing that is unique about a summer at the Project is the schedule. It's busy, fast-paced, and pretty much always on-the-go. This is what a typical week at the project is like for a student:

Monday: work during the day, Theme meeting at night (one of our staff gives a talk that helps unpack the summer's theme and then there is praise and worship)

Tuesday: work, free night

Wednesday: work, Project meal, Discipleship groups (accountability and small group bible study time that students have with the other girls or guys in their room)

Thursday: work, Bible Study Training, Team time (the project is broken up into 3 teams to allow people to get to know each other better. Team time could be planning for a theme meeting, getting ice cream, or playing a game)

Friday: work, Project social (everyone does something fun all together - (putt putt, bowling, slip n' slide on the beach, etc)

Saturday: Evangelism training, free night

Sunday: Church, Sabbath, Prayer and Praise at night

Students have been there almost a month, which means people are getting pretty tired. Please be praying for their endurance, attitudes, and that they would continue to learn and enjoy the Lord and have fun with each other!

A few really exciting things have happened already. Four of the students that are at Project have become Christians! Most of them would have said they had been Christians before, but for the first time the Lord revealed to them the real gospel and called them "out of darkness and into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

A few pictures to give you an idea of what the LP is like:

The Welcoming Committee

Staff girls (and the one staff guy we recruited) the night of our first big meeting - we did a pep rally themed meeting, and the staff girls were all cheerleaders

Field games at one of our Project Socials

One of our first meetings

Putt-Putt! Another Project Social

With all of this going on, it was really sad for me to leave. I just love the environment and being around the excitement and seeing everything the Lord is doing. But, I know that getting back to the office in Greenville is purposeful and ultimately fuels what is going on in Myrtle Beach. We have 7 new staff currently raising support full-time, which means over 200 new supporters for me to contact and keep up with! The sooner those staff members raise their support the sooner they get to be on campus to influence students, and that makes me excited to do my job. Also, I think once I get used to it I will be thankful for a slower pace of life for the next month or so :)

There are 6 weeks left at the LP. I will be going back for the final week, and can't wait to see how the Lord has changed and grown everyone!!

A Breather from Greenville (aka The Trip of a Lifetime)

May was an exciting month! One thing that added a little to the stress (but mostly to the fun) of the month was that I took a vacation in the midst of the chaos. Three of my best friends from Birmingham and I took a trip to Greece! Although the timing wasn't great (leaving right when things were gearing up for everyone to leave for Project), in the end it was more than worth it. I probably will never get to take a trip like this again, and it was unforgettable!! Here are just a few of my favorite pictures:

port in Paros

breathtaking - pictures cannot do it justice!!

at the Parthenon

in Santorini

One of the biggest things I kept thinking about there was beauty. Obviously, beauty in Greece is not hard to come by. The white houses with blue rooftops, the clean streets, the breathtaking sunsets and the crystal clear water were incredible. The first few days there all I could do was think about how beautiful God had made his creation - he created a place like that!! I can't IMAGINE ever seeing anything more beautiful. And yet God is indescribably more beautiful than anything in creation. Creation is only a glimmer of his beauty, a thumbprint of his glory.

I am so thankful that I got to spend 10 days in the most beautiful place I've ever seen with 3 of my best friends! It was such a gift and the trip still feels surreal to me. Needless to say, the poor timing and small bit of added stress were more than worth it.

I came back from Greece, had 6 days in Greenville where we had all day staff meetings to prepare for the LP, and then headed to Myrtle Beach for 3 weeks!! Greece to the Mariner Motel was a little bit of a transition, to say the least...

Next... The Theme of the Summer

One reason I haven't posted in so long.... April and May were insane! The office was busy getting ready for the Leadership Project, which started May 26th. From making notebooks to scheduling events to organizing information from our students, we had plenty to do!

The theme of our project this summer is "Witness."

What does that mean?...

God is writing the story of creation with a specific purpose in mind and our part in this story is one as a witness. Playing our part as witnesses begins with being image bearers. God created us with a purpose. Genesis 1:28: "Let us make man in our image..." We were created to reflect the image of God before all creation. We were to bear the image of God. Where does this begin? How were we supposed to bear the image of God before all creation? By beholding Him and worshiping Him. As we behold who God is and are led into worship as a result, we begin to reflect the glory of God to the rest of creation.

This leads to the second part of what it means to be a witness. We are not only image bearers of God through beholding him, but we are also message bearers of God as we are led into worship of Him. We will share with others that which we treasure most. If we are beholding God and worshiping God, we will be sharing Him with others.

This theme is what our talks, training, and teaching will center around. The theme verse for the summer is 1 Peter 2:9: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Going Back to Spring

I know it has been way too long since i've posted. I am about to post about 5 things to catch up :)

First, I will start with a great opportunity our staff team had in April. All 25 of us travelled together to Louisville, KY to participate in a conference called Together for the Gospel (T4G).

7,000 people were there (mostly pastors). It was huge. I had never been to a conference other than ones hosted by Campus Outreach, so it was fun to get to see the differences. Obviously size was a huge difference, but it was also really nice to get to sit back and enjoy everything and not be thinking about details.

Here are a few highlights:

- Getting to hear from speakers like John Piper, CJ Mahaney, Matt Chandler, Al Mohler, Mark Dever and John MacArthur. So much great teaching from very gifted and faithful men (all the talks are online at www.t4g.org)

- Walking away with 20 free books! I'll probably never get through them all but I'm going to try

- An 8 hour road trip with some of my favorite people. Here is a picture of us when we reached the Kentucky state line:

- A week with our staff team - just getting to be around them and have fun and learn together and meet others who also work in ministry

- Being in the minority as a girl, and for once in my life, watching guys have a line out the door for the bathroom and getting to get in and out of the girls bathroom really quickly

- 3 other Campus Outreach regions were also at the conference, and our last morning there we had the privilege of hearing from Matt Chandler over breakfast. Matt Chandler is the pastor of the Village Church in Dallas, TX and this past November was diagnosed with brain cancer. He shared with us what the Lord had been teaching him through it, and it was really encouraging to hear. The biggest thing that hit me was how he explained his suffering through a passage in Matthew 7:

²⁴"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

Matt talked about how the point is that yes, we build our houses on the rock - we place the fullness of our hope in Jesus, in the fact that life here and now is temporary and fleeting so we live as exiles waiting for the life that is to come. But even though we do that, the flood still comes! Life with Christ doesn't mean things go perfectly. Hard things happen. Christians suffer. But we have the power to withstand the storm because of Jesus. It was so powerful to hear that from someone who is in the midst of so much uncertainty about his future.

If I lost the things dearest to me tomorrow, would I stand firm with that kind of hope?