All American Social

After work at McDonalds, KFC, Zaxby’s, Sonic, Chick-fil-A, Hardees, Krystal, Bi-Lo, Wal-mart, Piggly Wiggly, Jack de Bruhl, Painters, Eagles, Anthropology, the Pier, the snow cone stand, and the liquidation place, everyone came back to Project for the all-American social. It started off with beach games, a massive relay involving sprinting, swimming, somersaulting, cart wheeling, finding a sandal, a sponge race and bubble-gum blowing. Then there was a quiz bowl (15 random questions) followed by the American Idol. Each team presented an act and the winner was the Sandlot, singing “Aeroplanes”.

Keep praying for our co-workers

Wednesday, a breath of rest in the middle of the week. After a morning off, Larry shared about “The Gospel, Your Life and Community” in Evangelism – it’s all about celebrating the gospel together, in front of other people. Instead of going out onto the beach, we all went to our rooms to write to someone about the gospel and what we have been learning. We had the evening off and everyone found ways to amuse themselves – one of these ways was the famous gallon challenge. One of the three guys actually succeeded. Keep praying for us to be a light at work...

“I’ve been working at Bi-Lo grocery store in the deli this summer. A co-worker that the Lord has laid on my heart is a guy named TJ. We had a really slow night the other day and I started asking him some questions about what he believed. I was able to share the Gospel story with him. He didn’t seem to be impacted at all, saying that the Bible was too radical to believe, but I am praying for more opportunities to talk with him and that God will soften his heart and open his eyes.” Katie

A typical Tuesday...

Work, AiT and back at Project for 6.30pm Team Time (organizing, praying for India, playing pool games, sharing...) and at 8pm everyone disappeared into their rooms for D-groups and most groups heard a Tim Keller sermon - "Blessed Self-Forgetfulness" where he explained how when we are filled with Christ, we are no longer aware of ourseles and as we are more and more complete in him. So we are less self-centered and truly humble. Having low-self esteem is not humility, it's about forgetting yourself. And it all came back to the gospel - it's what God says about us, not what we think of ourselved or what others do. Pray as students are feeling tired - that we would focus on the gospel all the more.See the India team's blog as well... http://ccp.cominneapolis.org/blog/

Meaning, muzzle, motivation

Back to work and Ait (although the gym was closed because of the holiday so all the training was outside in the heat, the AC will now be appreciated again). There was no Project meal and for theme night, after watching some bad American Idol auditions (in preparation for good ones at Thursday’s social), Steve Discher talked about “The Cost of Discipleship” and went over discipleship’s meaning, what muzzles it (or prevents it, he wanted 3 Ms) and our motivation for discipleship. He encouraged us to take advantage of discipleship this summer and then to use our time in college wisely, as well as to learn from someone else and look for someone to pour into, because of the grace and love poured out on us.

Happy 4th of July! ...End of week 6

Everyone worked on Saturday (Ait played soccer in the morning) and those that had the time made it to Bi-Lo for ribs, hot dogs and hamburgers – free for us as STP! That night (at 11.30pm when everyone was back from work) we had a send-off for the India team.

On Sunday 4th July, Matt Messerly spoke on Time Management (our time and our life has been redeemed, it doesn’t belong to us anymore so we are to manage, budget, spent, invest and give it away). There was Campus Time after Life Training for the different campuses on Project to get together again and then everyone went to church.

In the afternoon in celebration of the 4th there were volleyball games going on as well as a pool “spoons” game. Project meal was moved to Sunday (instead of Monday) and Larry made the burgers for our cookout! That night everyone went to the beach to watch the fireworks (or went to Surfside to see the display). A lucky few were able to enjoy a boat ride from the manager at Bi-Lo and then go to a Brazilian restaurant in celebration of the 4th – the people at Bi-Lo have established relationships with us over the years of STP and are happy to bless us with these things.  A number of co-workers have been coming to Project to find out what it is all about, pray for our relationships with them and gospel conversations.

God answers prayer!

Rachel from Ait shares...“We are getting to know the workers at Crabtree Gym and yesterday we engaged with Kenny about life, what it means and its purpose. Maggie and I shared the bridge diagram with Kenny [a tool we have been using for beach evangelism]. He didn’t become a Christian there and then but was receptive and seemed to be challenged by it, keep him in your prayers.” Gospel conversations have started happening! After work and Ait there was the great awaited photo-scavenger hunt social: “Where in the world is the CCP team?” We had to photograph different people in the groups (a guys room and a girls room were teamed up) doing crazy things at Broadway on the Beach Boulevard (5, 10 and 20 points for different activities) and if anyone found a dressed up member of the CCP team it was 100 points. We gathered back at Project after 2 hours of hunting, waited for the results (saw and learnt some Scottish dancing in the meantime) and saw the pictures – Erin and Nina’s team won!

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Beach Evangelism...

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Every Wednesday is a day off for almost all the disciples and there is leadership training and then at 1.30pm everyone drives to Garden City Baptist to hear a talk on Evangelism. Larry Martini (and his moustache) spoke about Why We Share the Gospel, some of the bad motives and the good ones (obedience of God, love of people but most importantly, out of love for God).

We broke up into pairs to talk about what our motives are to pray over them and then each different group headed off either to Surfside beach or to the beach opposite our hotel. Everyone goes in pairs or in threes, usually with a room leader, team leader or this week a member of the CCP and walk up to people on the beach to share our faith.

Jon and Reid

At about 3.45pm everyone gets back to Project and debriefs with their team – sharing stories, names and praying for the people that we talked to. Yesterday there was ice-cream for us all after debriefing and it was great!

A Long but Good Day

5.30am found lots of the students waiting around the poolside to go to the beach for sunrise prayer. Groups of about 10 people split up with a CCP member to pray for their trip as well as other parts of the world. Everyone headed off to work after that and there was AiT in the afternoon. Some of the guys from Crabtree Memorial are coming to some talks and Lenny has been talking to Corie, a guy that trains at the gym, pray that those are AiT could have gospel conversations. There was team time and then D-groups. A CCP team member went to each of the D-groups to share exactly what they would be doing in India and answer any questions so the students could get a picture of what the India team are really going to go through.

Just do something!

Monday morning, back to work again! At 6pm there we had our Project meal (Arby’s) and then met in Garden City Chapel for the theme night, led by the CCP. They danced down the aisle, Andrew (Cheese) and Roz introduced themselves and what was planned for the night, they had a skit on what travelling partners should NOT be like when they are in India, Justine shared her testimony on support raising and Andrew Knight then gave the talk – the cost of the World. We became aware of the need for the gospel to spread, the emphasis being on the unreached nations , and we are commanded to do something, because God has chosen us to be the ones to spread his word. The students left challenged, encouraged, humbled and with the message: Just do something!

Stormy weather... End of week 5

On Saturday the students headed off to long shifts of work and a large group of students went to play soccer at 8.30am (to help the soccer girls in AiT) and then to work afterwards.Sunday found us at Life Training and Matt Messerly spoke about Work & Rest (The gospel makes work restful) and then the CCP (Cross Cultural Program) team (India team) introduced themselves formally and gave a short talk on the unreached people in the world after showing a video. Everyone went to their respective churches and thoroughly enjoyed time to rest in the afternoon. There were group dates, some students went to the movies and about 4pm a storm started up and there was a full on mud-fight, followed by running into the ocean and then the 40 or so students played ultimate football (ultimate Frisbee with a football) in the rain with lightening licking the skies and finished off by swimming and body surfing in the ocean. Being here is now a reality, people are getting tired so yesterday was an appreciated day of rest.

Matt at work!

Welcome India team!

They arrived today with t-shirts celebrating Andrew Knight’s birthday (His face on the front and together they spell out “It’s his B-Day”) and will be here for the next 10 days. They are in charge of this week and there will be a focus on missions. Everyone was excited to see the team as they are at the same schools and have been on Projects before so they were warmly welcomed! There was Bible Study Training led by Reid (Meditation - engaging our hearts with the Bible, it’s not just an intellectual activity) and it was amazing how after 15 minutes of thinking about a passage so many people could share different things. Then everyone headed off to work!