1 Week Post Project

I've been traveling for the past week as I'm in limbo between summer project and moving into my apartment, so I haven't had time to process project on this blog. I will hopefully get around to that next week after I'm moved in, but for right now, I wanted to share this video with you. Thank you all for your prayers and support this summer. God has definitely been moving in Santa Monica!

Santa Monica Summer Project Outreach

The Past Two Weeks

Santa Monica Summer Project is officially over! Before I address the reality of project ending and what that means for me and the other 65 college students that I spent the summer with, I'd like to share a little bit about my last two weeks in Santa Monica.

Since the last time I posted, so much has happened -- so much, in fact, that I did not even have time to sleep more than 5 hours a night, let alone think about posting on this blog. Specific things may be harder to come by, but I will give a general overview.

During the week of July 29-August 4, our theme was "Armor of God". We learned about the meaning behind each piece of armor and how we can humble ourselves to put on this armor every day. I grew up with knowledge of the armor of God, but I don't think I ever took it seriously until I studied it this summer. I learned about the metaphors behind each piece of armor and what they represent. If you haven't studied up on the armor of God, I encourage you to do that sometime soon!

The week itself seemed pretty similar to every other week here on project...lots of work and things to do after work. However, I have noticed that the weeks feel different because I can approach each week with a new light from things I have  been learning. Work became a more joyful experience for me because I chose to put myself in a good mood rather than to focus on how tired and stressed I was. I got the free time to hang out with coworkers again, so I had a movie night with a few Tocaloma friends.

The weekend brought more things to do, as always. Friday night I got to spend the evening with my Roommate, Janee. We spent the time talking about project, God, and what we were going to bring back to our campuses. It was a wonderful time! Saturday was spent in God's word and with friends before the genders split for retreats. On Saturday night, the girls got to go to someone's beach house to spend the night. While there, we talked about real life struggle and how we can support each other through our issues. We also got the chance to write encouragement cards to people. It was great to get the chance to be intentional with people and receiving those encouragement cards meant so much to me!

Sunday was an eventful day as well! I got the opportunity to play harmonica in front of church during offering. It was something I had never done before and it was super cool to put myself out there. Right after church, all of us drove to the beach to have our own baptism service! 14 students here on project decided to publicly give their life to Christ in front of their brothers and sisters. It was crazy to see the pure joy in each and every one of us. Even God was celebrating with us by sending massive waves our way! This baptism service was exactly what we needed in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit to go out and share afterword. We did an outreach event called "What's your Story?" in which we asked people to give us three words to describe their life, three words to describe how they want to be remembered, and eventually led to us asking them what their opinions were on life after death. I had two amazing conversations that day. One with a Buddhist, who focused all on works and not at all on faith. I got the chance to share the Gospel with him and although I don't know how well he understood it, I know that the Holy Spirit was speaking through me the whole time I was speaking. The second guy I talked to was a Christian, but had been ignoring God and his faith for the past few years. God gave me the opportunity to remind him that he is forgiven of his sin and that he can be filled with the Spirit and be walking in the Spirit because he is freed from sin. It was an amazing conversation! Outreach concluded all major events for the weekend, so I spent to evening preparing for the one last week we had ahead of us.

The theme for the last week of project was "the Mission of Christ". We talked about how God calls each of us to live an uncomfortable life and how our life is a mission field. It was cool to come to the realization that everybody has a different Mission of Christ because God calls us in different directions. I knew this week was going to be hard because we were nearing the end, but the men took that as an opportunity to bless the women, and they did that wonderfully! Tuesday night was bless the women night. We got to dress up, each delicious food, and watch a talent show put on by the men. It was amazing to see the hearts of these men as they went out of their way to reach out out to us. I felt truly blessed and affirmed by these men.

Instead of having Jesus night on Wednesday night like we normally do, we decided to have a testimony night instead. We spent hours and hours listening to each other's testimonies and praying for each other. Watching people open their heart up was truly a gift from God.

Thursday was our banquet! We all got dressed up to enjoy an evening to reflect on everything that had happened this summer. 29 people came to Christ this summer, and that is something to celebrate! We ate dinner, shared some laughs, and had a dance party to give all the glory to God.

Friday was the last day of project and included cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning. We packed up, cleaned the motel, and spent our last little bit of quality time together. After dinner, we all drove up to a point in the palisades that overlooks Santa Monica. We wrote letters to send to ourselves and prayed over Santa Monica -- what has happened and what God will do in the future. After the sun went down, we spent an hour in worship and in prayer. It was an amazing way to end my last day on project.

After arriving back at the Palm, the time of goodbyes began. And I will talk more about that the next time I get a chance to write. Thank for for the prayers! God Bless.