BURN

Hello all! I hope you are doing well and enjoying the summer so far! I have been in Myrtle Beach for a little over a week now. This coming week will be our first "normal" week at the LP with work (at our jobs in Myrtle Beach) and all of the meetings! I am excited to settle into a routine. The disciples (the students at the LP) arrived last Wednesday and are getting settled in. So far we have moved in, completed a scavenger hunt around Myrtle Beach, had our first theme meeting, gone on a search for jobs, and had our first day of beach evangelism.

Here are some pictures from move in day--we greet the disciples in fun beach outfits and unload their entire car! I was inside helping with the finances, but I snuck outside to take some pictures. I was fortunate to be in the air conditioning so I will not complain about having to be inside!

Here are some pictures from the scavenger hunt. I went with the other Team Leaders and we got second place--really we tied for first, but I will not go into that :)

We had our first theme meeting on Thursday night. Our theme for the summer is BURN. It comes from the verse in Luke 24:32 that says, "...'Were not our hearts BURNING within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?'" We want Christ to BURN in us and BURN away the things that keep us from knowing more of Him, in order to BURN for Him so that others might know Christ. I am so excited about this theme! Ben Creasman, the LP director, introduced this theme to us. He said that by God's spirit and by His word, He initiates a burning within us. This in turn burns away the things that are not pleasing to God--our idols and our sin. These things are burned away so that we might burn for God. What does it look like to BURN for God? It means that we say to the Lord, "I'll go ANYWHERE, do ANYTHING, at ANY COST, FOR YOU MY KING." God is WORTHY of a life laid down and he is WORTH a life laid down. He is our greatest treasure. Sometimes even the good pleasures of life keep us from burning for God. If we make an idol of family, the perfect husband, or a good job--it can keep us from knowing more of God. We must burn for nothing other than Christ alone. It is worth stripping our idols away because in doing that we gain more of Christ.

Things to ponder:

-Have you tried to live both as a Christian and a friend of the world, failing to see that friendship with God and friendship with the world cannot co-exist?

-Have you failed to see that God is worthy of your life laid down?

-Have you neglected the source: God's word and spirit?

-Are you willing to say to God, "I'll go anywhere, do anything, at any cost"?

The entire LP went on Friday to get jobs in Myrtle Beach. We work with our rooms in different places in Myrtle Beach--Johnny Rockets, McDonalds, Sketchers, Old Navy, Wal-mart, Ocean Creek Hotel, Burger King, etc. I worked at Johnny Rockets last year and it was so fun. One of the girls here from Wofford will be working there at the same one--I am so excited to go and visit her at work and visit my old co-workers. I am so excited that they will continue to hear the Gospel from our students. I will also be working a job for 20 hours a week (the disciples work around 40 hours a week to pay the rent from the hotel we live in). At first I was going to work at the Fudgery at Broadway at the beach. We went to apply for a job and in order to get an application you have to sing!! The employees sing the entire time that they work--they sing about fudge. The other girls that I went with are really talented singers. So it was quite hilarious that I had to sing a verse and a chorus of a song that I know--by myself. I drew a blank on every song that I know and decided to sing a song called "Satisfied." It went....ok. I think that not only am I growing as a leader by attending the Leadership Project, but I am also receiving training for a future career on Broadway! I danced 2 summers ago at Johnny Rockets and this summer I was very close to improving my singing skills. Hilarious. BUT...long story short, the job did not work out and instead of working there, I will be working at Wal-Mart!!! I will be working in the grocery section and stocking shelves. I am excited about working there because the people we are working with are very nice. And maybe I will be able to use my Spanish. And we get a discount...pretty sweet. I will keep you posted on the joys of working at Wally World!

In other news....things are going well in my room. The only problem right now is that we do not have hot water at the hotel. I think there are too many people here taking showers and the hotel is not able to handle this number of people. So I think that I will start working out each morning and showering at the YMCA in order to have hot water. A hot shower might be enough to motivate me to work out!

Prayer Requests:

-Pray for the 3 girls I am leading: Amy, Jessie, and Allie.

-Pray that I would have time in the Word daily and that it would fuel me throughout the day.

-Pray that I would love the girls I am living with well and that I would consider them better than myself. It is really hectic in the mornings and it is hard for me not to get frustrated.

-Pray for all of the disciples at the LP--that they would grow in their relationship with Christ and BURN for him. Pray that they would be sharing their faith in the work place and be excited about sharing on the beach!

-Pray for Brinck and I (we are team leader partners) and that we would lead our team well in planning for meetings and planning fun bonding activities for the team.

-Pray for Ben and Kaye Creasman. Ben is the LP director and they just had a baby. They are not getting much sleep and so Ben is really exhausted. Pray that he would get rest in order to lead this project. Their son's name is Jackson--he has his nights and days mixed up.

Thanks for your prayers and for reading this blog--I hope that you are blessed by what God is doing here in Myrtle Beach. Keep me posted on your lives and things that you would like me to pray for!