an amazing challenge.

Praise the Lord for AMAZING challenges!! I have definitely been stretched and challenged in these past two weeks, and I am in AWE of the fact that God has used ME.  I was given the opportunity last Tuesday to speak at our Sunday evening weekly meeting (July 19th).  After prayer, I knew the Lord was calling me to take up this offer.  I put together a talk focusing on this week's theme which is EATT: Everybody All the Time--basically encouraging evangelism with no boundaries or stereotypes.  

I could not believe how fast ideas, scripture, examples, and resources came to my mind after just twenty initial minutes in prayer!! Even though I was fighting the lies that I could not teach my peers, the Lord overpowered those lies with TRUTH.  On Sunday I was able to go up on stage and truly let the Lord speak through me and it was great, great, great!! Ask me more about the talk if you would like details :)

God is good.  We do not say that enough.  God is GOOD.  He is SO good.  

prayer request

for those of you who follow this blog, please take a few minutes to pray for the zillmer family.
a close friend on project, stephanie, had to leave project yesterday to be with her family.
more specifically, steph's mother has been sick for a while and must have surgery this week.
please pray that the Lord's sovereignty will reign true and clear in this situation for steph & her family. we all miss her dearly, but trust and know the Lord has a plan & purpose for this.

and then there were 94.

The staff has left and it is really just the 94 of us students running the remainder of project now. With any fears or doubts anyone had going into this big change, I am completely confident in our student leaders and am excited to see how everything continues to unravel from now until August. We have finished an entire week staff-free and to be honest, I have almost forgotten how it feels to have staff with us! Everyone has just taken over their positions with humility...and done it so naturally.

It has been challenging, but so rewarding to listen and obey the Lord as I am here. When I truly look to Him, I feel like my time is spent so much more wisely in an environment where there is never a lack of something to do or people to hang out with. To make this blog a little shorter and easier on the eyes, I will just mention a few things I have been learning this July...

Discipleship: I must first focus on deepening and maintaining my own personal walk with the Lord before thinking about teaching others. Asking "Is my walk with the Lord worth replicating?" Knowing that we are flawed and imperfect; that discipleship would fail without God...and that discipleship exists for the glory of God.

Teachability: I am really craving knowledge this summer, spiritual knowledge and the understanding that goes much deeper than the surface of the words on the pages of the Bible. But I am also learning that I do not need to be completely knowledgeable to be used...I just need to be willing, humble, have a servant heart, and quiet myself enough to listen and hear His voice.

Walking in the Spirit: "Being filled with the Spirit means to be constantly and continually controlled and empowered by the Holy Spirit." 1 John 5:14, 15. Availability, trust, & obedience to the Lord. Romans 8:28 AND 1 Thessalonians 5:18....God has amazing plans for us, even in times of hardship.

Truth: I am struggling but slowly overcoming many of Satan's lies in my life, clearing it all up with the only truth from God. Continually seeking truth...

praise & faithfulness

I never got around to blogging the night this happened, but I would like to share a quick (amaaaazing) story of a typical Tuesday night here in North Myrtle.

The last week that staff was here, I was fortunate enough to go out sharing/evangelizing with Jen Schad. This lady is such an encouragement and she has such a passion & love for the Lord that is absolutely apparent. Hence, why I was so pumped to go out sharing with her to soak in that passion and see what I could learn from her.

We drove to Barefoot Landing (outside mall area) and began walking around, pretty unsuccessfully getting any conversations started. We initiated about five or six conversations, being rejected, and really thinking the night would be a very small victory if one at all. Then, by chance, we decided to stop three teenagers walking out of an alligator store. To our surprise, these three teens, Max, Grant, & Teresa, were completely into taking our five-question survey and even more interested in hearing about the Gospel.

Jen & I were able to go through the entire booklet (KGP) and it was really cool to see these three truly understand and discuss each point with us. Many times the people we talk with simply give one-two word answers, but when people are asking you questions back, you know they are engaged and interested in understanding. After explaining the decision to trust Christ with your life and the responsibilities and joys that come along with it, ALL three decided they wanted to pray to receive Christ!!! (Sidenote: I had not seen anyone come to Christ before this night, so I was PUMPED!) Jen & I said the prayer out loud with them, and we exchanged email addresses, hoping to encourage the two college sophomores (and one high school senior) to seek out Campus Crusade within their campuses.

Praise the Lord, for when you ask for Him to use you....He answers!!