SO. Friday was job searching day. We had our morning session, and then some employers from the area came to offer jobs and fill us in on what those jobs would look like. Then we were sent out to find jobs!! A few of us headed straight for Boulineau's, a grocery store about two miles away from project property. I got a job there!! It was totally a God thing too, because the lady hiring us was filling specific positions and really wanted people who were experienced in the position. Get this! I have zero experience in a grocery store setting or bakery or anything, but she wanted to hire ME to fry and ice donuts!! WOOOO!! Ok but there's a downside to this....I have to work at 5:30am every morning. Ouch. I don't have a car or bike or anything, and walking 2 miles that early is kind of a beast and also semi-dangerous, so please pray that God will provide a safe way for me to get to work everyday!
Friday night was a super sweet time on the beach. Marissa led some worship and a good 40 of us just chilled by the water worshipping our Lord. What more could anyone ask for, seriously?? It was such an awesome experience and God just amazed me that night as I watched the waves and the stars and listened to all the voices praising His name. So cool. :) We did sweet worship on the beach last night too, but not before the Iron Chef competition! Yesterday, we were assigned to our "Impact Groups," a random group of 10ish guys and girls assigned for the summer to just get together every Sunday night and have dinner and fellowship. Our first meeting meant that we had 2 hrs to prepare a legit meal with a budget of $40 and the secret ingredient, pineapple. We got 2nd place out of 11 groups!!
Today we had auditions for the worship band for the summer. I actually just got done around 3pm and we're supposed to hear back by 6, it's almost 5, so I could hear back any minute and I'm kinda nervous!! I really am ok with whatever happens though because I know that God will put me exactly where He wants me. :)
So that's kinda what I've been up to the last couple days. Now I want to share with you what we've been going through and what has really impacted me. Here's a little overview on the things we learned:
- Practical steps to get into God's word. 1. We need to have a right heart (2 Cor. 5:17). 2. Spiritual breathing every single day (1 John 1:9, Psalm 139:23-24, Psalm 51:10, Gal. 5:24-25). 3. Delight in His Word (Psalm 1, Psalm 19, John 15:5-7).
- Evangelism. The Master, The Messengers, and The Message. Two pillars of a Biblical messenger are compassion (True need + true action) and listening. We got training in using the KGP (Knowing God Personally) booklet, which makes 4 basic points explaining the Gospel.
- Living a Spirit-Filled Life. 5 things the Spirit does when we accept Christ: Baptism, Sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30), Indwelled by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), Regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and Filled with the Holy Spirit through faith.
- Identity in Christ. Ephesians 1:1-14 describes things that God says are true of someone in Christ. I'll talk more about this one in a minute!
- Sharing your story. We learned a step by step process of writing our testimony in a way that will be short, relatable, and shares the Gospel at the same time. We actually got assigned to literally write it and revise it by tomorrow!
Ok, so about this whole identity in Christ thing. It was really cool, because we had a worksheet with Ephesians 1:1-14 on it, and told to circle every reference of "in him," "in Jesus Christ," or the like. We then were told to write down all of the things God says are true of someone in Christ. Here's what we found: Faithful, spiritually blessed, chosen to be holy and blameless in God's sight, grace is lavished on us, redemption, forgiveness of sins, predestined according to God's will, adopted into His family, and marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit. That's a lot! But it was just so cool and encouraging to be able to look at these and know that these blessings are all true of ME. SWEEET!!
So after that, we had a quiet time with Jesus to process what we'd just learned (there was some other stuff too). One of the questions we were to ask ourselves was, "Which of these promises are hardest for you to believe are true of you?" and I only found one for me, and that was the one that says that we are chosen to be holy and blameless in God's sight. I just had such a hard time believing that He could see me that way, a sinner that doesn't deserve anything and not even anywhere near being worthy of being God's child. It's quite humbling actually. Well, it was a funny thing that that was my struggle, because it was totally addressed in discipleship that afternoon! It's kinda hard to explain because it involves a sweet graph-type visual, but it basically explains that once we accept Christ as our Savior, His grace makes our righteousness go up to 100% and it stays there, no matter what we do. It's eternal. Romans 5:1-2 says that because of His grace, we have peace with God, are forgiven, and that grace is eternal. That's our position. But our condition changes everyday, and is brought down by sin but brought up by spiritual disciplines such as quiet times, prayer, spiritual breathing, and worship. Even Paul practiced these spiritual disciplines, and we see this in Philippians 3:12-14. So, basically everything Laura went through with me perfectly addressed the ONE promise that I had a hard time believing! God is so good.
So yeah....sorry that was such a novel. I realized I like writing blogs a lot more than I thought...ooops. I hardly even shared half of everything, that's how much is going on here and I love it! I just have a couple prayer requests:
- Pray for those who still don't have jobs, there are about 20, and most of the easiest jobs to get are taken. I was so blessed to get a job right away, but some are still looking. Pray that they will continue to trust God to provide for them and put them exactly where He wants them!
- Please pray that I'll find a safe means of transportation to work at 5:30am every day.
- Continue to pray that God will prepare the hearts of people we will be having conversations with over the summer.
Ok, that's about it, FINALLY! Please send me mail, I LOVE MAIL. My address is wayyy back in the first post. Thanks again for your prayers and support, I love you all! :) Peace out.
Lauren
No comments:
Post a Comment