Absolutely Life Changing.

Sorry it's been so long since the last update!  These last few weeks have been crazy with work and all the project activities, but I can't wait to share was God has done in this city and my life over the past few weeks! But first I'll start with some pictures!



 A group of us went painting on our day off! We painted a room that will be used for art displays to reach out to the Miami artists!



 This is my amazing discipler at the staff banquet before all the staff members left!  Half way through project, all the staff leaves and students are assigned different roles to help make this summer project our own!



The IOWA crew!  I'm so blessed to have such an amazing group of people here! We'll be able to take back everything we've learned this summer and use it on our campus!



  My roommates and I at tacky prom!  It was one of our socials where everyone dressed up! Such a fun night!



 Another dinner date night with a great group of guys!



Another social: Miami Summer Project Olympics! 



On the 4th of July, we had an awesome outreach picnic!  We invited coworkers, friends from campus, and many in the community to come hang out with us for the day!



This Friday night we spent our evening at a Care for Miami Movie Night!  We served the homeless community with popcorn and lemonade while they watched a great movie!  Such an awesome way to serve!



An absolutely incredible morning spent caring for the homeless community.  Ashley and I got the awesome opportunity to pray with this couple who was going through a hard time.  We have since seen God provide in so many ways, one of which was giving them a place to live.  Praise the Lord!


A lovely group of women at our women's time "Girly Burly"!








Another amazing CRU meeting in the beautiful sanctuary of Christ Fellowship!









God just continues to awe me with everything He's doing in my life and in this city.  The pictures above, the sunrise and sunset over the last few days, are a few of the reasons God is also putting me in awe with His creation.  Absolutely breathtaking.  




I hope you enjoy all the pictures!


To begin, evangelizing on campus has been absolutely amazing!  A friend and I have really gotten to know a girl named Michelle, a new student on the FIU North campus.  The first week we met her, God really moved in her life to really show her the concept of salvation and how He is always forgiving.  It was awesome to see her understand the Gospel for the first time and to begin to have God really move in her heart.  Another encouraging experience happened last week when I was sharing on campus with one of the guys named Randy!  We were just walking around talking and getting to know each other when we passed a guy sitting down.  After we walked by him, Randy decided that we need to go back and talk to him!  After talking to him and get to know him better, we got to share the Gospel with him and help him to better understand what Jesus has done for him and how he can have complete assurance of his salvation and that he will spend eternity in heaven.  He then told us that he wanted to accept Christ for the first time.  Never have I ever felt God move like that in a conversation.  God completely changed this guy's heart to want to have a relationship with Him and to spend eternity in heaven.  Randy and I got to pray with him for accept Christ!  God just continues to put me in awe of him and all that He has done in my life. Seeing God move in not only my life but someone's life who I had just met was absolutely incredible and I can't wait to see what else God has in store for the lives of the students on FIU North's campus.  God is moving.


Its so crazy for me to think that I have been in Miami for 9 weeks now!  I have less than 7 days left in the city and God isn't done working in my life and in this city.  This last week especially has really put me in awe of God and all that he can do.  Since I got on this project, 18 people have accepted Christ into their hearts and are now pursuing a relationship with God.  How amazing is that?!  And God will continue to move and change lives, not only in Miami, but also back home, and all around the world.  I can't wait to get home and continue to share all that God has done in my life and in the lives of everyone on project!  


God is good.






In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  
Phillippians 1:4-6

Such A Blessing.

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile! Everything has been crazy busy but so good!

Last week, I started training for my job and work again later today! Thank God for providing me with a job!

My room of great girls also had a dinner date night with another room of guys! It was great to get to know each other better and eat some amazing food!  Heres a picture!

Friday night, which is our free night, we went to the beach for some late night worship, but that night ended up being so much more than I was expecting!  We got there and there were a few people sitting on the beach just talking, so we went up to them and started talking with them.  Ashley and I began talking to this guy, Marcus, and we talked to him for a little over an hour!  It was so great to hear his stories, as he was born in Sweden, grew up in the Caribbean, and then has lived in many states in the US and currently lives in Canada.  It was great to get to know him better and also get to share the gospel with him.  While he was unsure of his beliefs, he was very interested in why we were here and he thought the passion we had for Christ was amazing.  God is definitely moving in his heart!

Other people also had great conversations that night and other opportunities to share the Gospel.  It was incredible that a night just planning to go hang out at the beach turned into God opening more doors to share the Gospel with others and just really get to know some more people!  Here are a few pictures from that night!

 The group that went to the beach!

Us at the beach! It was beautiful!

Saturday night, after a great social, we went out to dinner for a girl's birthday!  It ended up being a huge group but so much fun!  Heres a picture of all of us!

Finally, yesterday, we went sharing on college campuses in the area!  Becca and I had some great conversations with a few people and got to present the Gospel a few times!  God continues to open doors and give me the words to talk to people to glorify his name and continue to spread his love!

The most amazing part of the week and will probably be one of the greatest and most significant events all summer was last night.  For women's time we had a time of confession and so many girls were willing to open up about the things they were struggling with.  It was absolutely amazing that so many spoke up about their struggles and really helped me to see that I'm not alone in many of the things I also struggle with.  The group of women on this project are absolutely amazing and God is most definitely working in our hearts to bring our struggles to the table instead of hiding them.  The trust and honesty that was in the room during women's time was absolutely incredible.  These women are amazing and God has blessed me so much by putting each one in my life.

That's all for today! Have a great day and I'll try to blog again soon!




God is good, all the time.  And all the time, God is good.

incredible things happen when you let the Holy Spirit take control.

Every Monday, we will spend the day talking to people in the community and spreading the Gospel to the people of Miami, and most of the time, this will be done on the nearby college campuses.  But yesterday, because of Memorial Day weekend, we went to the Lincoln Road Mall to talk to people there.  When we left, I was unsure of what the day held, but I did know that I was incredibly nervous.
         
 Leaving the hotel, I rode with the lovely ladies in my discipleship group and we split into pairs to get ready to talk to people.  We parked the car and prayed one more time before we began our journey through the mall.  My partner, Ann Walker, and I started walking and we just didn't know where to begin.  We walked for awhile.  I began by thinking I could find the words to say and trying to rehearse what would happen in my head.  I definitely wasn't depending on Christ to give me the words or listening to Him when he was telling me to talk to certain people.  I was depending on myself, and that wasn't getting us anywhere.
           
After walking for awhile, we decided to stop and just talk for a minute and maybe redirect what we were doing and where we were headed.  We asked God to just take control and to give us the words that we need to reach the people of this community, and it was truly amazing that He did just that.  We started walking again and the first few people we got rejected by, which was really discouraging, but as we kept walking we say this guy sitting down by himself.  When I saw him, Ann Walker said "Let's go talk to him" and we did.
         
 He was a college student who was waiting to go to work, and was very willing to talk to us.  We told him where we were from and why we're in Miami and he was really interested in our purpose.  As we kept talking, we found out that he had actually just joined the church that our group is attending for the summer, which gave us the opportunity to reach further into conversation and begin to share the gospel with him and what Christ has done for all of us.  As the conversation ended, we told him that we would be praying for him and that we hopefully would see him at church, and he responded with "Oh, I'll definitely be there".
       
 After this experience, Ann Walker and I were super excited.  God really did just lead the entire conversation and gave us all the words we needed to reach out to this guy and help him to understand who God is and why we decided to spend our summer, away from home, just to serve him.
       
As the day went on, we continued to just be led by the holy spirit and follow what he was calling us to do and got the opportunity to talk to 2 more men who shared their stories with us and helped us to get a better idea of what the city was like.

When we got back and met with the rest of project, it was truly amazing to hear what God had done at the Lincoln Road Mall that day.  Many people had great conversations and got to introduce God to some of them and others got to help people decide to fully commit their life to Christ.


Definitely an amazing day.

     
After going out yesterday and sharing Christ with others and then seeing the results of what ONE day can do to expand God's kingdom, I absolutely cannot wait to see what God has in store for the rest of the summer and for the city of Miami.  He's moving in this city already, and there is so much left to come.


"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."  Ephesians 3: 20-21

"We Have A Big God, So Expect Big Things"

Hey everyone!


While I'm in Miami, this is the way I'm going to keep in touch with all the amazing things God is doing in this city and in my life, and also just what we're doing here on project everyday! 


I've already been here for 5 days after a long car ride of 30 hours!  I can't even believe how fast time is going and how amazing everyone on project is!  Its truly a gift that more than 60 people from all over the United States can come together in one city for such an amazing purpose!  


Here is a picture of the city from where we're staying! Its beautiful!

Our first few days here have been spent job hunting, as this will be one of our main ministry outlets for the summer.  I have now been offered a job at McDonald's, a place I never would have thought I would work but I really feel like this is where God has called me to be for this summer.  There will be so many people coming in and out of McDonald's everyday, SO many chances to share the gospel!  

After talking with everyone last night about how we all got here, what we want from this summer and how God is already moving in this incredible city, it was obvious that God's plan is really falling into place for this summer.  God has already provided so many opportunities for us to reach the people of Miami, whether its just sharing the gospel, showing them God's love or even the small things, such as sharing a smile.  


That's all for today but I will definitely try to keep this updated about how God is working through this project to change this incredible city!






"I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.  I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name."
Isaiah 45:2-3