Killing the Giants

Today marked the completion of "killing the giants" week. During this week all 63 students made every effort to share their faith at every opportunity, pressing on despite fatigue and desire to just take a nap. Since we don't have free time on weekdays until around 9 o'clock or so, that everybody would pair up to go sharing every night until 10:30pm or so. It was an enormous challenge to be faithful during this long days, but it was ultimately very worth it. While both myself and the project as a while fell short of the goals we set, conversations were initiated with 1525 different people, we were able to explain the gospel in its entirety (the person was taken all the way to be able to accept a saving faith in Christ if they so chose) to 400 people, and 6 prayed with us on the spot to recover Christ, all in a 7-day span. This was a truly exciting and rewarding experience, and there are literally hundreds and hundreds of amazing stories from all of these conversations. Stories of Christ followers we were able to pray with and encourage, of people who had never heard any of the gospel message before, international students here working for the summer (very, very common in Va. Beach due to the J-1 visa program), loads of people who proclaimed a Christian faith but did not have a true understanding of the role of Jesus and his death/resurrection, and many other unique situations. In addition to the people hearing the good news, we each were developed as well by participating so frequently in evangelism.

My most rewarding experience of the week was perhaps with a group of 4 high school age boys. A group of 3 of us initiated, and after a few minutes we split into 2 groups to make for more personal conversation. One of the 2 I was talking to, Tyrone, had never before heard the gospel and had very few preconceived notions. It is always exciting to share the gospel for the first time with someone because they aren't caught up in incorrect ideas about what they think they know or old bad experiences. Throughout the conversation he remained very invested in the conversation which lasted about an hour, and asked many very good questions. By the end he wasn't yet ready to receive Christ as his savior, but i sent him home with the KGP we were using so he has a reference point to all we were talking about, and have no doubt that the spirit was stirring in his heart. There is also no doubt that he had indeed come into new knowledge of who Jesus was and truly has the opportunity now to accept Christ as his savior. 

I apologize for my hiatus from this blog, the schedule has remained highly demanding and time has been at a premium like I've never experienced before. We've had some incredible experiences over the last week; particularly in a very challenging men's conference (mentally, physically, and emotionally) last Monday, as well as one of our largest outreaches of the summer called "Battle of the Beach." Over the next couple days I'll be writing about both of these experiences, as well as taking a look back at the support raising process which proved to be a very growing experience in its very own right.

In the meantime I ask you to join me in prayer as we enter a special week of project called "Killing the Giants." During this week every student will be pushing themselves to go over and above the norm to reach as many people as possible. Each student prayerfully set a target for how many conversations they hoped to initiate during the week, and every spare moment will be dedicated to going out to the boardwalk to talk to people. It is understood that what we will be doing this week would be unsustainable for a whole summer, but we will be trusting heavily in God to give us the necessary strength to make it through.

My personal goals for the week are to initiate with 45 different people, and I'm trusting that God will allow me to share the complete gospel to the point of being able the make a decision to follow Christ with 15. Be in prayer that God will be already working in the hearts of those we'll be talking to so that they are ready to hear the good news we have to share. Be also in prayer for the energy and drive of each student who will be taking part in this, as it will be a truly stretching and tiring experience. I can't wait to see how God uses this time!

Sandcastle Outreach

Today we hosted a sandcastle building contest on the beach as an outreach event. Wearing our blue project shirts, we canvased he beach inviting literally every person we came across (easily several hundred) to a free sandcastle building contest for small teams; 3 categories with the winner of each recieving a $15 ice cream gift card. The idea was that we'd host the contest and engage and get to know the people that came, with the idea that they might stay around and chat afterward.

We had a good turn out, and a number of us joined up to help the teams. I wasn't on a specific team but went around getting to know the spectators. I first initiated with a family on vacation from Oklahoma, there with a couple of kids. Most of my time though I ended up spending with an extended family of African Americans from the Va. Beach area who were just there for the day. There were probably 6/7 young kids there working on the castle, along with 5 or 6 adults who would chip in and help when needed. Over the 45 minutes or so we were together, I got to meet each of them and make conversation; also helping the kids with ideas and a few rounds of high 5's when they finished. I made sure they knew we were with a Christian organization and talked about what we are doing here for the summer. It was absolutely amazing how much comradarie was developed in such a short time as we teamed up directly with all sorts of people that showed up. In the end, my team ended up losing in a very tight race for "most creative" with their turtle shaped entry, "Tim the Turtle." I was nearly as heartbroken as the little kids visibly were after we'd built such a positive rapport; but in a very kind gesture the winning team presented their prize to these kids as soon as it was awarded.

I wasn't able to talk with this family for long after the competition, knowing they were on their way out soon. They were however very impressed and showed genuine interest and gratitude for our group running such an event. They praised what we were doing with regards to ministry and gave many thanks, even asking if we would be around on other weekends throughout the summer. Before they left I was able to ask if there were any particular ways that we could be praying for them (to which they gave a few small things). Our goal is to always point people toward Christ, and even though I was not able to share the gospel with them, this felt like a hugely positive and meaningful experience that will leave them with very good thoughts concerning our group and faith in general.

After the event I could not believe how many people stuck around to talk. For over an hour after the event was finished, dozens of participants lingered to chat and hang out with us - a few of which extended long after the rest of us left. As I walked around I heard multiple places where the gospel was being shared, and other places where people were just hanging out like best friends even though they'd just met. About the time that you see a couple teenagers wearing all black, "goth" style clothes group hugging several project student teammates before parting ways; or watch as big frat guys pose for funny pics alongside project people; or when you finish sharing the gospel with someone who'd never really heard it on the night before they fly back to California; you know that God is very obviously at work. This event provided such an incredible "high" from the very natural relationships and spontaneous comradarie between so many, the simple joy from a fun activity, and the huge success it was that we were able to share the gospel with people who were honestly loving just hanging out and having a good time. 

Project does not stop

Project does not stop. This is an understatement.

So this week has been pretty exciting and very challenging. I started my job at Brooks Storage and Transfer Company on Monday, which has been... an experience. Lots of not being trained or being told what I'm even supposed to be doing. We've slowly been getting it figured out though, not too complicated if you're able to lift lots and lots of heavy boxes. 

The people there have been nice enough to work with, even if a quite rough group. Our project workplace will be a primary ministry focus for each student, and Brooks does have a lot of ministry potential - a consistent group of people to build relationships with and enough chances for conversation that you can get to know them. I say potential though, because it will be a large challenge to get to that point. The workers there are almost all African American which has created a very obvious racial barrier; 2 of us were literally put on a different job because the workers wanted to work with the black seasonal worker rather than us (it wasn't an out-and-out mean gesture, but everybody knew exactly what happened). Coupled with the fact that only 2 or 3 employees have made an effort to know our names (or even ask them), its difficult to establish a baseline relationship to build from. Most of the employees (our boss included) simply refer to us as "campers" and leaves it at that. Such an environment makes it critical to be proactive and take initiative in building relationships and starting conversations, since they won't happen naturally. For the record, this shouldn't read as negatively as it does; there have been some good and helpful people, but it will also be a stretching and challenging place to be an effective minister of the gospel.

Now that I'm into the swing of working and the project weekly schedule is established, I'm finally getting a feel of things - my conclusion being that it never ever stops. My schedule yesterday was work 8-5, bible study 6-8, and impact group 8-9. Today was the same work schedule with our weekly "date night with Jesus" from 5:45-7:45, prayer and praise from 8-9, and optional student lead beach evangelism for about an hour once that was finished.

I've been very blessed by God during these busy days; all metrics say that I should be exhausted, but God has been such an incredible strength to sustain me through it. I've been focusing a lot on Jesus' words from John, that His food is to do the work of the one who sent Him; and also remembering that true rest and refreshment does not come from sitting on the couch or sleeping in, but from drawing near to God and basking in His presence.

Just a little cool moment this evening was when it came to that optional evangelism time ("golden hour"). I had just today taken a look at the rest of the summer during my bible study/prayer time, and recognizing that I could pretty easily fall into a routine and not continue growing; so I prayed over what I could do to continue being stretched and how I could find more ministry opportunities. So then tonight it's announced that people were going out sharing on the beach as soon as prayer and worship was over. I didn't want to go really at all as my day had already been so crazy, but realizing this was the very opportunity I'd just asked God for I decided to go for it - banking heavily on the promises that since I have God taking care of and providing for me, I am free to minister for others. And by going, my roommate Will and myself were rewarded with a fun conversation with a couple of Naval Academy students who seemed to already have a good grasp of the gospel, even if they were still learning what it was to walk closely with God. We were able to pray for them and hopefully offer encouragement for their own walks and gain more insight into the military world (which encompasses a massive portion of the population here in Virginia Beach).

Also, got up at 5 to catch the sunrise this morning with Will and neighbor Emma

Week in Review - Week 1

We've finished up our first week here in Virginia Beach, as well as orientation. Looking back I am very blessed with everything that has happened.

The most impactful thing to this point has been the people, every one of which has been straight up amazing. The relationships formed here are unlike almost any other, that you can actually be friends with every person of a large ~63 person group; and at any moment go deep with your story and experiences with any one of them. Our room has formed a natural subgroup with the ladies next door, initiated by doing joint dinners between the rooms 5 nights a week. After dinner tonight we went for ice cream, and then spent the next several hours playing a game where each person wrote down an anonymous question that all 11 of us had to answer. Midway through we talked about the "facebook stalking" we all did before arriving and laughed at the crazy days just a week ago when we didn't know each other. As we went our separate ways for the night, we got back to our room and said to each other "wow, we lucked out and got an awesome group of girls next door."

God moving this week has been amazing as well. The staff team did a brilliant job in every session this week to teach the gospel and the spirit filled life, always pointing us towards Jesus. There has been many opportunities to focus on God and be in the word both privately and with others, and every person has made efforts to create those opportunities when they aren't readily available.

Being orientation week, we haven't yet thrown ourselves fully into evangelism and outreach like we will moving forward. We got out on the beach on Wednesday for a short while. I was able to have 2 spiritual discussions; one with a family vacationing from Pennsylvania, and another with a retired man from Roanoke, VA. The family was very open and easy to talk to; they proclaimed a catholic faith but didn't express any real understanding of the gospel message or faith playing any role in their lives. I had difficulty transitioning from spiritual* discussion to sharing the gospel* with them, but as we left my discipler, Hung, who has been amazing so far, discussed with me what type of questions might have helped the conversation and how we could improve in the future. He is a good teacher and I'm certainly learning from him. Our second conversation was with a retired man who was in the navy during Vietnam (though he was never deployed). His life seemed very empty: he had no ambitions or goals beyond exactly what he was doing at the moment, and claimed his life to be incredible because "It's just me. No one to answer to, count on, take care of, go home to or tell me what to do." There was no room to share the gospel with him, having no interest in spiritual matters; so prayer was the most we could do. 

There's certainly much more than I can fit in a blog post, it almost seems a disservice to all God has done to try and summarize it like this (I didn't even mention God holding back Andrea for us!). I'm really looking forward to what is to come, because I know it will be amazing. I'm also pretty sure it will be amazing beyond anything I could build up or expect. 

Beach Worship

So a little bit (read: a whole lot!) of awesomeness to finish off our day. We've been hearing nonstop about tropical storm Andrea on its way this evening and looking at a very ominous forcast for the next week (complete with special parking directions because they're expecting our street to flood). In the evening a couple girls wanted to do a quiet prayer/worship time on the beach and asked if any guys from our room would go with them (standard safety procedure). I hadn't yet gotten my quiet time in so I said I'd go with.

As we waited up for a 3rd girl who wanted to join as well as another of my roommates, we noticed rain drops in the pool. This seemed an end to the trip in my opinion, knowing Andrea was due to hit that it would only get worse. Nonetheless, the girls really wanted to go anyway saying "oh it's barely sprinkling now" and even spread the word so that about 30 people turned out to make the trip. As we started for the beach I prayed aloud with the girl leading the charge for this trip that the rain would hold off for us to get a little time in. 

Arriving there we found a spot on the beach, circled up and sang along to the guitar, along with a few prayers and a psalm. After a short while the guitar passed to another and a girl made her way down closer to the oceanfront to pray on her own. She went far enough that we couldn't see her in the dark from where we were, so I went also so that she wasn't by herself, staying about 100-150 feet up the coast so she still had her privacy. After a few minutes she hollered "Eric come over here." When I got there she said:

 "This is really blowing my mind right now, but I'm looking at the ocean that goes on for thousands and thousands of miles out, and thousands and thousands of feet deep. And then the sky that stretches forever and is even bigger. And how the heck did God know to put the moon right where it is so the waves look like this? And God is so much bigger than it all, but even if it was only me on this entire Earth and nobody else He still would have sent his son to die for me. That is blowing my mind completely." Never having thought of it in this way before, my mind too was blown. How crazy and immensely personal must that love be?!

Just a few minutes later one of her friends came down and hugged her, and they walked back down to the water together while I went back to the group. Once I got back I was surprised to see that much of the group had broke off while a smaller group huddled together with the guitar to worship in Spanish. It was such a sight to see people's unique talents and backgrounds come to light in worshiping the Lord.

So the real kicker in the midst of this awesome beach worship experience goes back to our asking of God to hold back the rain while we worshiped. Not only did he do it, but look at these 2 radar pictures taken over an hour apart just after we started and again as we finished worshiping:

In the end this was a truly mind blowing experience. Seeing God answer prayer so powerfully and directly (wouldn't you know it, the rain came just as we arrived back at the Cerca!), and then for the Holy Spirit be with us is such a tangible way after what was otherwise a rather challenging and seemingly dry day for many of us. 

Orientation week

It's somewhat of a massive challenge to try and portray all that project is through a little blog like this. Many of the staffers use the metaphor that project is like trying to drink from a fire hose, which has definitely been accurate.

This first orientation week is a bunch of training, organization and defining of ministry teams, and overall just figuring things out. And the training is intense. We've had daily themed "experience" sessions for 2.5 hours each morning, which is essentially the college course version of Sunday sermons - and by "college course" I mean it is very in depth, very challenging, dense, lots of unpacking and hard work; but ultimately very rewarding.

We've also had first meetings with our action groups (groups of 3 with a common discipler) to initiate what will be our closest and most intimate relationships here. Our first meeting was over lunch and moved from simple tell-us-about-yourself to a 2+ hour marathon of your complete testimony. I really like the guys I'm in this group with - just really rock solid and mature in their faith with lots of experience and many amazing stories and backgrounds.  Really looking forward to how it will develop over the summer - just our very first bible study as an action group extended to over 3.5 hours today (this was a good thing! It ran way over but only because it was going so well and with so much excellent discussion. And there were a few breaks so it wasn't entirely the torture it sounds like).

One other thing that stood out was the first of our weekly men's/woman's time. We'll be focusing on the issue of biblical manhood during our time, and the staffers certainly pulled no punches this week. It was great though, all the conviction only served to magnify God's grace. I think it summed up all of these tiring days well that the project director ended the night by saying "our brains and rear ends can only take so much."

Keys!

Woo we have working keys! Also, this thing is a key:

Early impressions

So end of day 2 and a couple of early impressions:

First on the living quarters, they're pretty rough. Imagine a hotel a block off the ocean in prime location, suites with kitchenette/refigerator/couch/living room, and a pool, and then imagine how rough it must be for the standard cost to me $49 a night. But we're not here to be pampered and it will serve us very well for the summer. All we need is to get more than 1 of our 5 room keys to work it'll be perfect. 

More importantly, the people. I've been nothing but impressed so far. I look around and see a collection of people who God hand picked and created to be right here on this project to do His work. We've barely even figured out anything of what we're doing here, and already I'm hearing stories of God doing awesome things and people finding themselves in spiritual conversations wherever they go, without even trying to make it happen. I also continue to be impressed by the Cru staff. Just for example, before students began to arrive and only staff were here prepping for the summer - members of the staff decided the way they wanted to spend their evening was to go out and share the gospel on the boardwalk. Another example was that I had a support check show up in the mail the day I left for project, from a UM Cru staffer. I never asked him to support me, but he knew I needed it and went out of his way to give.  It becomes so abundantly clear through the many things like these how focused and dedicated their lives are on God; and that what they do us far more than just a job but everything that they believe in and live their entire life for. 

Every student has been awesome to get to know as well. Even though I've still got a lot of names and faces to learn, we're all able to introduce ourselves and basically skip straight to being like old friends. Its actually really amazing and somehow not really ever weird or unnatural; but it just works, and I think it speaks to how powerful a bond it is to be brothers and sisters in Christ, even if nothing else. 

Church!

Church on the beach today! Our morning got a little bit messed up - everybody is divided into "impact teams" of 3 guys and 3 girls who are assigned a specific area church for the summer. Unfortunately we came together in the parking lot and realized none of our group had a car... So the girls found a ride but the guys ended up walking to a closer church just for this week (we'll get the ride situation sorted out before next time). Lucky for us, Trinity Church was having a special service ON THE BEACH with baptisms on the ocean after. Sad I didn't get to meet my own church home for the next 10 weeks, but very happy I got to take part in this. The pastor (and author/lawyer) Randy Singer also made a point to come meet us and invite us all to a barbecue at his home this afternoon, so that will be exciting. The sermon was about Paul in Athens the city of idols, which was awesome considering that we were under the shadow of this bad boy:

Travel Day 1

(Published 1 day late b/c internet connection)

I am officially en route to project now; currently at the end of day 1 of travel just outside of Pittsburgh. I'm riding down with a friend of mine who's father offered to drive, and happened to have family here who offered to put us up for the night. It's kind of a weird feeling right now, I can't really believe it's all really happening to be honest. I'm not really nervous, and because I'm still not entirely convinced this is happening excitement hasn't even caught on truly yet. It reminds me of moving in before my freshman year of college, when I had so little idea of what to expect that I didn't really know what exactly I was supposed to feel! But the one feeling that I absolutely cannot shake, is knowing that I am embarking on something that will be absolutely worth it and amazing in ways that can only be experienced.

We'll be getting back on the road again early tomorrow so as to arrive in Va. Beach early in the recommended 12-4pm window (which means I really need to get to bed!). Things are about to get real!

Why I made this blog

Thank you everyone for taking the time to follow along with me this summer in Virginia Beach, Virginia! I am only on this trip by the grace of God and all of the supporters that He provided for me; and for every person who joined me either financially or prayerfully I am so thankful. And as so many people are investing themselves in me for what God might do this summer, I want to share with them the fruits of our labor by keeping them updated as to all that is going on during this trip.

Throughout this summer I will be frequently updating this blog with the latest happenings, probably 2-3 times per week. I don't have any precise format for what I will share, just as I don't have any precise expectation for what I will experience. I am open and excited for what God will do to, with, and through me this summer and want to share it with all of my supporters as I experience it.

Again, thanks for following; and always feel free to comment or contact me about anything you so desire. Also bare with me as I get the blog going - I know the formatting still leaves a bit to be desired and I hope to get at least a few pictures on here very soon!

-Eric