And by that I mean, how do I even begin to summarize the end of Santa Monica summer project? It officially ended a week ago, and I've been meaning to do this since before it ended. I've been putting it off, truth be told, because I have no idea how to process the fact that one of the hardest, most growing, and yet, best summers of my life is over now. I think my last major post was made about a week or two after staff left. As you know, my post-staff project role was an action group leader. Man, that was challenging. God really loves to stretch me, for example, with time management. I think there was one week where I only got around to discipling one of my girls, and the last week I had to disciple 4 girls at once because I left project a day early. Maybe this is God giving me a taste for what discipling during the school year would be like. Other than the time management problem, being an action group leader was incredibly rewarding. I love the girls in my action group so much, and I hope to be friends with them for the rest of my life.
Life at Mickey D's didn't change much. All in all, it was a decent project job. I would never ever want to work at McDonald's if I weren't on project. But I made good relationships, and I don't regret my time there. And when I got my last paycheck, they gave me a gift of a t-shirt, bag, notebook, pin and card signed by all my coworkers. I was so touched - I would never have expected something like that from a fast food restaurant.
When it comes to the real reason why I came on project, I feel no regrets there. I came on project to share the gospel. During our second to last outreach, I had the privilege of seeing someone come to Christ. Everyone, we have a new brother in Christ, and his name is Dennis! During that outreach, our point was to reach Christians who were struggling in their walk and use the evangelism tool, "Satisfied". The point of Satisfied is to tell people about the holy spirit, and how we must be filled with Him everyday in order to truly walk with the Lord. We had a large banner with various words written on it, and we stood next to the pier. There were quite a few negative words on it (and we even got criticism from a man about that), but there were also positive ones. I was standing by the banner that day, as opposed to going out and initiating conversations. It was then when I saw Dennis standing a little bit away, looking at the banner. I motioned to my friend Michael, and we went to talk to him. We ended up talking with him for over an hour. We went through our entire survey, we shared the KGP with him, and he accepted Christ. He came from a Catholic background, and had done things he had been judged for by those in the Church, We emphasized that not every Christian is judgmental, and that everyone sins, but Christ died on the cross to save us from those sins. It is not by works, but by faith. I think he was most shocked to hear how I pray. He was used to memorizing prayers, so when he heard that I just say "Hey God" and start talking to him like a friend, he was like, "whaaat?". And so that day, he accepted Christ. It was so surreal. I've never seen someone come to Christ before, let alone be used by God to help lead someone to him. I am so blessed to have been part of that conversation.
All in all, project was an incredible gift from God. It grew me an incredible amount (it still is). I have incredible friends that I hope I will have the privilege of knowing for the rest of my life. I have a new passion for reaching the lost of my campus, and I can't wait for the school year to start. I can't wait to lead a Freshman bible study. I can't wait to implement everything I've learned. God is going to do great things this year; I will be blessed simply to witness them, let alone be a part of them.
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