A Rare Opportunity

Today project students were given the “rare opportunity” to go to Rioz, a Brazilian steakhouse.  Rioz is a very high-end steakhouse of never ending food.  Usually the bill would run at about $50.00 a person.  We were able to score a deal for half price. Now it may seem that having to pay $25.00 for one meal is excessive, but I would like to make a distinction between a meal and a feast.  Eating at subway, chipotle, packing a lunch, going to McDonalds—those are all meals.  Rioz is a feast.

The first coarse at Rioz is a salad bar.  It is actually a 36-piece salad bar, which means that they have everything a person could possibly want to have.  It was excessive.  Salad mixes, shrimp, a cheese bar, salmon, rice, beans, and every vegetable I have ever known—all of this buffet style.  Eat as much as you dare.

Next comes the real food: meat.  There are 15 selections of steak, chicken, sausages, and pork served by waiters with skewers. Let me explain the system.

Each customer has a circular card (photo below).  It works like a stoplight.  Green=go; red=stop.  Waiters walk around with meat on skewers.  If your card is flipped green, they offer you some.  If your card is red, then they don’t.  Steaks are prepared to all levels, so I enjoyed well-done steaks as well as rare steaks.  There is no limit to the amount of food that you can eat.

As these waiters are walking around with endless skewers of meat, additional waiters are refilling your drinks, offering sides such as potatoes, corn bread, Brazilian bread, and fried bananas (all included in the cost).

Furthermore, after giving you an adequate amount of time with the meat.  Waiters come out with skewers of grilled pineapple covered in cinnamon—this is delicious.  I need to find out how to make it.

Finally, after you have eaten your fill, they take away your plate.  But wait; there is one thing more!  Would you like chocolate cake or cheesecake for desert?  I have never been so filled by a meal in my entire life.

As I finished my last slice of cheesecake after countless mouthfuls of delicious food, I cannot help but think that this Rioz feast is very similar to the spiritual food offered to us this summer.  Endless platters are brought to us of filling delicious steak—we just have to enjoy the experience of eating it, and burst at the seams as we are filled by it.  It really makes me hunger and thirst for righteousness—that I may know what it is like to be full in those terms as well as the physical fullness of Rioz.

Relationships Week...

This week, our theme night talk was split into two portions: one talk on Monday night and one on Tuesday night.  It was “Relationships Week,” and Matt and Lisa Reagan used the two nights to share their story, outline some Biblical principles and give practical advice regarding relationships (ie. marriage).  A main point, though, was that a spouse or a relationship won’t fulfill us.  Our longings ultimately point us to our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.  

For the last part of the second talk, there were Q&A times – girls with the staff women, and guys with the staff men.  This part was helpful to clarify things that had been on our minds, especially things brought up from the first talk.

Staff left?

On Thursday night the entire North Project came together under the canopy to say farewell to the staff.  Yes, the staff leaves for the last month of project.  We said our goodbyes and prayed over them in a bittersweet moment.  We like having them around, but it is sort of exciting to think of them leaving us as an autonomous student population. There is still order on project.  Mike Owczarek, a student from Northwestern, is the project director, and he looks after pretty much all of the logistics.  In addition there are three pairs (male and female) of team leaders looking after the teams, a female servant team and a male servant team looking after the food and maintenance, and room leaders caring for every room.  Basically, project is designed to not need the staff.  Students will now be giving the talks, leading all events, and investing in each other.  It is an opportunity for growth for everyone, whether in leadership or in being lead.  I am excited to see what the rest of this summer will bring as our life-on-life discipleship continues apart from the staff monitoring.

The leaving of the staff is a great opportunity for us to grow on project as a community of students lead by students.

Relationships Week

Last week was a little bit different.  It was relationship week. Monday night Matt and Lisa Reagan co-spoke about their story and what they have learned in their relationship.

Tuesday night Matt spoke more directly into what the bible says about dating, and then the guys and girls split off into breakout sessions.  The men’s breakout session was a question/answer time.  I don’t know what the girls did.

Wednesday night was the D-groups.  My D-group focused on passages about women, and we talked about how we could be good brothers to our sisters in Christ.

Thursday was the synchronized swimming social, followed by girl-planned group dates.

Now we are back onto our usual schedule.

It is interesting to see how guys and girls interact during relationship week.  Those in relationships with others on project are seen spending more time in what appear to be serious conversations.  Those in relationships with someone not on project are seen talking on their phones more often than usual—I cannot imagine with whom they would be talking.  Those that are not in a relationship seem to avoid the opposite gender in general.  After all, hearing so much talk about relationships makes everyone nervous to date.  One way or another, behavior seems to be effected in some way by relationships week.

Synchronized Swimming Serenade?

Tonight was the synchronized swimming social.  This is the social where every guys room performs a 2 minute synchronized swimming routine, and each girls room chooses a guys room, based on their performance, to take on a group date.  Ten guys rooms planning a synchronized swim can become quite the spectacle, and last night a small crowd of strangers came to watch the ironic spectacle of guys performing swimming routines—let’s just say there is a reason that men’s synchronized swimming is not a high school sport. Nevertheless, my room did our best.  We danced as fairies, took our shirts off and swung them over our heads, created a shark in a formation, and slowly rose for a dramatic belly flop at the end.  We performed with success.  The girls room that chose us took us on what I believe to be the best group date of the night.

First the girls took us to Home Depot (from a male perspective, this is already fulfilling).  Here we split into pairs and each had ten minutes to find random items within the store and place them in a shopping cart.  Then we switched carts and were given half an hour to put them back—this is not an easy game.  Sadly, my partner and I lost.  After half an hour, we still were unable to put all of the items back.

The best part came next.  The girls took us out on the beach, where we mysteriously ran into another group date.  Conflict broke out between the two of us, and conveniently, there were bags of food nearby.  Peanut butter, Hershey’s syrup, whipped cream, honey, and other food items flew through the air as we creamed each other with edible ammunition in a food fight frenzy.  After we ran out of food, we did the only natural thing—we ran into the ocean to try to clean off.

So with peanut butter still plastered to my face (it does not clean off in the ocean), I proclaim it a well-planned date, a night well spent, and another successful social.

-mju

The Garden City Inn

The location for project could not be any better.  We are at the small, but well located Garden City Inn.  This is an Inn with directly bordering the ocean, in addition to having a pool and a deck. Here are some pics.

The girls occupy the whole second floor, and the guys are in the third as well as one room on the fourth floor.  Each room has a balcony in the back, which views the pool, patio and ocean.  The setup of our living quarters explains a fair amount of summer in the summer training project.

It really is a blessing to have the opportunity to be in this setting for the summer.  A thanks to all that support us either financially or through prayer.

Bible Study Know How

Friday mornings are bible study days.  Both the North and South projects come together at the Garden City Chapel and listen to Matt Reagan’s instructions when it comes to studying the bible.  The primary bible study method for the summer training project is the inductive method.  This is a bible study method where we only examine a couple of verses at a time.  First we make observations and ask questions based on our observations.  Then we interpret using the context of the greater passage, the context of the book, and ultimately the context of the entire bible.  Finally, we apply our interpretations. A bible study training session basically goes like this: Matt Reagan lectures on an important topic in terms of bible study, and then as a group we practice going through a passage with the inductive method.  This past Friday, Matt Reagan walked us though bad reasons to study the bible.  He wanted to dispel any misunderstandings as to why we study the bible.  Then he gave us reasons we should study the bible.  It was a very helpful lesson; I often find my motivations to be improper instead of good.  I would encourage everyone to give it a listen; it should be posted online by the end of the week.

Transition

This week has a lot of changes in store: 1)      Campus Outreach Minneapolis’ CCP (Cross Cultural Project) team is coming to Project on Tuesday!  They are a group of older students from the Minneapolis campuses that are heading to India to minister to students at a local university.  We’re glad they’re coming to Project before they leave – they are great resources for STP participants and help spread passion for missions.

2)      The Campus Outreach Staff are leaving Project this coming Thursday.  It will be strange not to have the staff or their little kids around, but the CCP team’s presence at Project should ease the transition.  We are very blessed to have a great COM staff team, and have benefited a lot from their passion for the Gospel and for their willingness to invest in our lives.

Fun Fact:

Birthdays on Project are unique.  Basically, the birthday person is thrown into the pool as everyone sings “Happy Birthday.”  It was my birthday this week, and yes, I did end up in the pool.

Too little time?

This morning, the life training session was called “A Merciful Schedule” and was about time and how to have the mindset of using time to bless other people.  For the Squirtle Squad (one of the teams on South Project), this theme was the theme of the entire morning because the service at Garden City Baptist was also about time management.  One of the pastor’s points was that, in his words, “the wisest use of time is preparation for eternity.”  

The schedule at Project is intense, and it is helpful to look at (and have solid teaching about) our motivations and behaviors when it comes to how we prioritize our time both here and in life in general.  Also, as we are college students, we have more “free” time than we are likely to have if we have jobs and families of our own.

Bigger and Better

South Project’s social this week was “Bigger and Better.”  Guys and girls rooms were paired up, given a paper clip, and instructed to see what they could get at the end of the evening from trading the paper clip.  My group went to a neighborhood of beach houses, and traded the paper clip for a key chain, which we traded for sunglasses, etc.  In the end, we ended up with a copy machine, a giant mirror and a box of dishes.  When everyone got back to Project, each group presented their items.  It was crazy to see what resulted from trading little paper clips – a beach umbrella, chair, mattress, bike, android tablet, desk, and fishing poles, just to name a few.  Project now has several useful items that it didn’t have before!  

After the social we had s’mores as an encouragement from the Rebellion team.  These s’mores weren’t your average s’mores – we put Reeses peanut butter cups, Twix bars, or Cookies and Cream bars on them instead of just the traditional Hershey chocolate.

Boat Social was Ship-Shape

Thursday night was the project social, and the event was a boat social.  What is a boat social?  A boat social is a performance-based competition between the teams on project.  Each team is to design a boat from materials given (a sheet of plywood, 2 20 gallon bins, and cardboard), and then perform an 8-minute skit in which the boat has to make it from one side of the pool to the other without sinking and with passengers. The first team to perform was The Outsiders.  Their skit was a rendition of the Titanic; it involved an interesting combination of men playing the women roles and women playing the men roles, a basketball game, and a ship that never sank.  It was wonderfully narrated by Andrew McNamera; overall was quite entertaining.

The next team up was Boom Goes the Dynamite.  This team had a skit of Peter Pan.  Their performance was very well done.  They covered all the character groups: the lost boys, the mermaids, Tiger Lilly, the Pirates (Tim Anderson actually grew a handlebar mustache in preparation for his role as Captain Hook), and Tinker Bell.  Tinker Bell was dramatically brought back to life by the chanting of “I do believe in fairies, I do, I do”, and some pyrotechnics surprised the judges with unexpected excitement.

Then came in the SWAG City team (Servant Workers At Garden City).  They based their performance on a family vacation on a cruise line.  It was a really great combination of singing, dancing, and down right fun moments.  Wes Mouri lead the crew in a song about SWAG City, and Mike            Owczarek saved a drowning victim (a reenactment of an actual occurrence this summer).

The last team to perform was We Are Who We Are.  This team did an excellent performance based on The Most Dangerous Catch.  The crabbing crew ran into numerous complications from shark attacks, to monsters of the ocean, to weather, all as their boat slowly sunk during their performance.  They were the only team to fail to make it across the pool and back.

The male project staff members were the judges for the comopetition, and they voted the teams in these places: Titanic was fourth, The Deadliest Catch was third, the family vacation was second, and Peter Pan was first.

The Theme Night Experience

Monday night’s theme night was an extraordinary experience.  Boom Goes the Dynamite was in charge of the night, and they had excellent execution.  The “hype” was dancing to the hit song “Apache” and using John Bonnett as the lyrical parody of “jump on it”. Next they perfomed a game/skit which was loosly based on the Who’s line is it Anyway game “whose at the party?  This skit was instead who’s on project?  Four students played the roles of four movie characters interacting with each other, and a couple students were selected from the crowd to guess their characters.  The team chose to portray Gandalf the Grey, Dori from Finding Nemo, Buddy the Elf, and Repunsel from Tangled.

In addition to the team’s great performances, Eric Lonergan spoke a great message about God the sanctifier.  I was really impacted by how he talked about us not focusing on what we should do, but instead focus on what we will become.  Sanctification is a confusing process, and I think that the talk was very contrary to my thoughts: we do not earn sanctification.

Sundays Mornings

Life training, team time, and church are all scrunched into the morning. Life training is a series of talks given by Charlie Brooks (check out the links online).  It focuses on important parts of our walk with Christ.  This morning all about knew the will of God.  I was really impacted by the misconceptions I have often had about God’s will.  In 1 Thessalonians 4:3, we learn that God’s will is our sanctification.  God is ultimately less concerned with what we will be doing, and more concerned with who we will become.

Team time was important for my team; boom goes the dynamite, this week.  We are responsible for planning the theme night, choosing the project meals, and planning the project social.  I wish I could go into more detail, but most of these things are surprises.

Project is split between three churches: Pine Drive, Garden City Chapel, and Garden City Baptist.  I attend Pine Drive, pastured by Okey Landers.  It is a small church, but Okey preaches the Gospel.  We are currently in three weeks in a series on Ruth.  It is amazing to see the faith demonstrated by Ruth—I find Okey’s sermons increasingly insightful.

Fun Fact:

Sunday is the only day where we are not expected to study a passage.  Instead it is encouraged that we memorize one of the passages studied during the week.

Sunrise Prayers

This past Friday morning at 5:30, there was an optional sunrise prayer.  A bold group of students courageously abandoned sleep and dragged themselves out of bed to witness the awesome colorations of an indescribable sunrise as they gathered together to speak to their creator.  For just over half an hour, we split into groups to pray over the ideas mentioned in three separate passages. After this intentional time with each other before the Lord, the majority of students slipped quietly back into bed to catch a short nap before bible study training at 9:00.

Fun Fact:

Every week a different prayer focus is chosen.  This past week we prayed for the Cross Cultural Project (the CCP team).  This is another project offered by campus outreach where the team goes over to India for a month to the ends of spreading the Gospel on a college campus internationally.  The CCP team will be coming down to South Carolina and stay with us for about a week before they head off to India (this will be a fun week).

Other Happenings...

The weather has been strange this past week – a lot of rain, some cool days, some extremely humid days, and a couple days of “perfect weather.”  It was definitely a week of thankfulness for the large tent in the hotel lawn, air conditioners, and sweatshirts!  

On Friday, the weather was finally nice enough to take the Project picture.  This picture is used on promotional materials and is, as you’d expect, a picture of all Project participants and staff.  Group pictures are also taken of the participants from each campus (Michigan State, the University of Minnesota, St. Thomas, Augsburg, and South Dakota State respectively).

Fun Fact:

“Getting in the Word” is the lingo commonly used among Campus Outreach students and staff to refer to studying the Bible.

Parents Weekend

This past weekend, some parents of Project participants came to visit!  It was neat to see parents milling around and to observe similarities between the families and their kids who are Project participants.  The parents were invited to a “Parents Social,” which was a breakfast where parents could meet some Campus Outreach staff, learn more details about life at Project, and watch a video about other parents’ opinions on the benefit of STP for their kids.  

Several of the parents sat in on the Life Training session this morning before church.  The talk was on pain and how God strategically uses afflictions to bring us and others to him.  The room was very quiet during the talk; the issue of pain is pervasive and difficult, so the talk was valuable in helping us see the good that can come out of present and future hard times.

Fun fact:

The South Project is right next to a mini amusement park, complete with bungee jumping, the giant “Screamin’ Swing,” and occasional loud music.

Low Country Boil

The social this week was a Project classic: the “Low Country Boil.”  This traditional Southern experience involves preparing tons of shrimp, potatoes, sausages, and corn, pouring it on a big long table, and eating it with your hands.  Everyone on Project dresses up for the occasion as a hick or a Southern belle/prep.  The result is a mixture of crazy costumes, fake Southern accents, and delicious food!  

As the dinner portion of the social draws to a close, it is tradition to have a “sing along” led by Paul Poteat on guitar.  This year, some girls who work with people from Project at Chick-fil-A came to the social and led us in a typical South Carolina country song as well.  Other highlights of the sing along included “Baby” by Justin Bieber and “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus.  The night continued with a bobbing for apples competition, a long dance party, and many laughs and good conversations!

Fun fact:

The low country boil is 1) a favorite of the CO staff, and 2) pretty legitimate.  We talked about the low country boil with people at Walmart and they all affirmed that it is indeed a part of Southern culinary culture.

Beach Evangelism

This past Wednesday, the weather was great and we were able to head to the beach in pairs to talk to people about Jesus.  There was a general nervousness present in the group as we headed out, but when we came back together at the end, the nervousness dissipated into praise for the conversations that happened, sadness for the lost world, and hope that God would save.  Each team met afterward to “debrief” – to share about the people we talked to and to pray for them.  

A challenge of evangelism here in the “Bible belt” is that many of the people we talk to on the beach identify with Christianity right off the bat and yet do not agree that Jesus is the only way to God or that we are saved by God’s grace rather than by our works.

Fun fact:

Wednesday nights are prime times for guys rooms to take girls rooms out on group dates.  Group dates are great opportunities to get to know brothers and sisters in Christ, bond as a room over planning the date (guys) or organizing a thank you (girls), and to have fun together.

Group Dates: the Social Means of Meeting Other Genders

Wednesday nights are free nights, but most male rooms take advantage of this opportunity to ask a female room on a group date.  The “ask” is of vital importance to securing a group date.  Brownie points are awarded for creativity.  The servant guy room, composed of 7 men, asked both the leader girls and the servant girls room through the musical rendition of “Group Date Maybe” (a fully committed parody of the pop song “Call Me Maybe”).  Other rooms opted for less dramatic means, such as poetry and note writing. After securing the attendance of our female counterparts, a room must follow through with a planned date.  Ideas vary as much as creativity allows, and group dates always successfully help the guys get to know some gals (and vice-versa).

What about people who are in relationships?

A group date is not comparable to a one-on-one date.  It is merely a social gathering of two rooms planned in advance.  It is an opportunity for guys and girls to mingle, not a match making system.  Therefore, those already in a relationship are free to enjoy the evening—it is merely a get together.

What is a D-Group?

Every Tuesday night at 8:00, each of the rooms split off into discipleship groups (D-Groups).  This is a time where each room spends time under their room leader studying scriptures, updating each other on their lives, and being invested in as people.  The first D-Group was a time for each member to share their testimony, and it is always a pleasure to hear of how Christ has changed the lives of others. The purpose of D-Groups is to set aside time to allow the room leaders to intentionally invest in the lives of their room.  It is one of projects greatest blessings for first time students, and it is one of the times of largest growth for the room leaders, as they realize their failures to lead well.  This is one of my favorite things about project.

Fun Fact:

In addition to normal rooms, there is also a room of “servant guys” and a room of “servant girls”.  These rooms are responsible for helping the success of project’s logistical matters.  These rooms help to “grease the system” and allow room leaders, team leaders, and the project directors to spend more time investing in others, and less time focusing on little things.