704 convos, 307 gospel presentations, 28 decisions, 49 spirit-filled life convos, 23 followups. 


God is so good. Why did God choose me to go to Ocean City? Why couldn't I have just stayed at my house and talked about Jesus to my co-workers here? I feel like Satan has been attacking me lately in thinking that my time in Ocean City was a waste of time, money, and that I missed opportunities at home. God couldn't have been more clear about why I was there in Ocean City this summer. Some of the things that I was able to do in Ocean City that I couldn't have done (as easily) back home....

• Work with over 70 internationals students
• Be discipled and poured into by Diana for the first 5 weeks where God used her to teach me contentment, the power of prayer, and what it looks like to be discipled so I can now disciple! 
• Learn how to lead a group of peers while planning events to reach out to international students. I think leading peers is the most humbling thing I have ever done. God worked through me and humbled me a lot.
• Being in a Bible study once a week with some of the wisest women
• Learning what it means to be transparent and open with my close girl friends
• Learning what it means to serve a church and not be a consumer (leading chilrens ministry, AND and a children's sermon)
• Learning how to initiate spiritual conversations to strangers 
• Learned how to care for internationals both spiritually and with their day to day needs.
• After working 9-5pm then had meetings 6-9ish I learned how to rely on God with all my physical needs. One day we spent 24hours fasting and praying and trusting God for our strength and he surely did!
• Being taught how to evangelize and care for the souls of some of my close non-christian friends

What I'm doing THIS year....

• Living with Helly!!!! God placed my three roommates and I with a girl who is coming straight from China. God has softened my heart for internationals sooo much this summer. God knows what He is doing.
• Helping out with the youth at a local church I go to
• Working at Fratellis. This is a Italian restaurant right near my apartment. I already love the people there so much and I know I will be able to have a lot of great conversations!
• Student Teaching at Berlin Intermediate School on Fridays!
• Finishing my last semester of classes before I start full time student teaching in the spring
• Picking either a youth or freshman or sophomore girl to disciple- basically teaching them the bible, investing a lot of time into them, and caring for their souls so that they can become great spiritual leaders.

God taught me so much at Ocean City. I learned to be a better leader, learned how to love deeper, but ultimately I fell more in love with Jesus. I was broken down time and time again this summer, but every-time God filled me with more of Him. 

I spent this summer devoted fully to God and I can testify that He was honored. I couldn't have done this without the love from you all. I pray that God blesses you all. 

Job 11:13-20

New International Version (NIV)

 ¹³ “Yet if you devote your heart to him
   and stretch out your hands to him, ¹⁴ if you put away the sin that is in your hand
   and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, ¹⁵ then, free of fault, you will lift up your face;
   you will stand firm and without fear. ¹⁶ You will surely forget your trouble,
   recalling it only as waters gone by. ¹⁷ Life will be brighter than noonday,
   and darkness will become like morning. ¹⁸ You will be secure, because there is hope;
   you will look about you and take your rest in safety. ¹⁹ You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid,
   and many will court your favor. ²⁰ But the eyes of the wicked will fail,
   and escape will elude them;
   their hope will become a dying gasp.”

My Heart is in Ocean City

Wow. God is so big. I am so small. I wish I could even describe how God has moved each person on this project, the lives that have been changed, the people and nations that have been reached, or the hearts we have touched. Maybe one day I will write a book. I guess I will just start by trying to blog about it...


One of our last outreach some people on project put on the everything skit. It was so powerful and brought a lot of tears....

It drew a large crowd. After the skit Bethany would go up and share her testimony and the gospel. Then those of us in the crowd would ask people what they thought about the whole thing.








As people are starting to ask me how my summer went I've been trying to condense what God has taught me into a few minutes. I think one of the main things that I have learned this summer is how God is so willing to change my desires. Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to Him, and trust, and He will act." From the beginning of project when I thought I would never find a job, until even now when I am separated from a family of believers so near to my heart, God is changing the desires of my heart. I learned the importance of keeping my time alone with God just reading my bible and praying. And boy did my desires change....

These are some international friends (and a few girls from project) who I became close with. I love them.

I didn't know God would make me fall so in love with so many people. I didn't even think it was possible to care for people and their souls as much as I have. I think the more I delighted in God the more my heart broke for people to know Jesus. Starting with internationals. I don't know what God has planned for my future. I just know this summer God has softened my heart towards them. 

From going to the coffee house every Monday and Wednesday, to the international breakfasts every Tuesday, and volleyball on Fridays, God gave me all the strength I needed to invest. I learned what it meant to care for people in a selfless way. To meet people where they are at.

I learned that God loves me. He wants me, and all of me. He bought me with a price. I will never be able to thank Him like He needs to be, but I can devote my life to Him. In whatever I do, whoever I am with, I will devote my life to him. This is I guess the main thing God taught me. Who knows where I will be next year.

I am gonna miss..... the lack of hot water for the shower, heat rashes from life-guarding, being pooped on by seagulls, stepping on gum-barefoot, walking down the boardwalk, reading my bible on the beach, beach volleyball, tubing in the ocean, staying up all night, sunrise over the ocean, worship on the beach, all the thrift stores, being around people who are constantly pushing me towards a deeper love of God. Thank you for everyone who has been praying and supporting me financially. I have some sweet stories too that I would love to share in person if you ever want to hear. God is good.

One week!

We had a $5 Prom last week. We all went to the local thrift stores (my favorite places) and found our outfits and danced the night away in them. It may have been one of my favorite nights. So much fun.


The family night last week (or a couple weeks ago) went really well! Not as many internationals came as planned but God was so evidently in the room. My friend Vlad came to family night. He is from Ukraine and I work with him. At the beginning of the summer I shared the gospel with him but he saw God as a very sinister being who is really far away.  I talked to him after the family night and asked him if his thoughts about Christianity have changed over the summer at all. He said he felt like he was on a path and that although he still doesn't believe in God he is really happy when he is hanging with the people on my project. He comes every morning at 8am and eats yogurt on our porch before work. Love how God is softening his heart.

Family Night Tomorrow!

International family night is tomorrow! Every Wednesday night we have a weekly meeting with a speaker and worship, etc. This Wednesday the international team was placed in charge of planing the meeting. So, we got a pastor from a local church to speak, Jing Jing (a Chinese immigrant here on project with me) to give her testimony, and my friend Andrei (from Romania with the international summer project) to give his testimony. After we are having ice cream and hanging out with them! I would love prayer for this and that a lot of hearts would be changed by the testimonies shared, and the pastor. Thanks!

This is really fun.

We play this game where you rub someone's cheek in a circle and say, "this is really fun" over and over and try not to laugh. It's really dumb. I don't even know what to say in this blog anymore. God is constantly moving it's hard to try to write it all. Maybe one day I will video blog, but probably not.

International team is going great! Watched the fireworks on the 4th with a bunch of international students. Here are my girls. I love them to death:

Left to right- Jazira, Assem, my friend Rachel from project, and Aigerim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We also had a volleyball outreach. It turned out that like 10 kids from my work came! So awesome. After three kids came over. Two were American boys. One of the boys asked a lot of questions about God. He is so close to accepting Christ. The other two are very open and we have been able to share the gospel with all of them!

Another awesome answer to prayer: Aigerim (far right in the picture) and I had a long conversation about Jesus and Christianity and the Muslim faith. The day before I prayed that God would allow me to clearly explain the gospel to these Muslim girls because thus far everytime I had they always answered, "yeah, thats what I believe too." But I knew that they didn't believe what I did. So, the NEXT NIGHT we were at the international coffee house and we got into a great conversation about how Jesus bridges the gap between us and God, something she, as a Muslim, does not believe. God allowed me to clearly explain to her how we are so distant from God and we need Jesus to connect us to Him. Jesus was more then a prophet. SUCH AN ANSWER TO PRAYER. So legit.

Prayer Requests: 

• For the Kazahkstan girls that I would be able to spend more time with them and be intentional about sharing the gospel, and that their hearts would soften.
• We are doing a Volleyball outreach Friday night and trying to invite a bunch of international students. Last week one girl came to know Christ (while watching us play a girl from project was able to share the gospel. God is so cool.) So that this week would be just as effective and a bunch of students would come out!

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Romans 1:16

More fun pics:

We use this tool called a Soularium. My favorite thing to use where students pick pictures that go along with the question. Like, pick three pictures that describe your life right now, or, pick a picture that describes your spiritual journey.

My sisters and the Mcnamara girls came to visit! And a random dude (welcome to ocean city).

I am so bad at blogging...

Wow so much has happened since my last post so I am about to summarize the last two or so weeks... 
1. One of the cool things that we have been doing is outreaches every Saturday. Last Saturday we did something called cardboard testimonies. On one side of the cardboard testimony we wrote what we were before Christ then on the other side we wrote how we are now. I think pictures will help....

This is Rachel. She is legit.

This outreach was really cool. We really didn't get to talk to that many people but I am praying it really affected people. One guy went up to my friend Mike to talk to him and later accepted Christ!

2. Woman's day!

We had a day where all the ladies of project hung out. This may have been one of the coolest days yet. After scrapbooking and hanging out these ladies at a nearby church wanted to make us all dinner. It was so good. There were homemade crab-cakes, sweet potato muffins, and basically everything good. After dinner we had communuinion and the we had one lady, a leader of the project, and our bible study leader pray for us and wash our feet. It was so moving and humbling. 

3.  All the staff left us and we are now leading ourself! Brittany and Jason are leading us as overall directors. Then there are six sub-leaders for the different ministries: outreach, prayer, community group, family group, operations, and they asked me to lead the international team. I would love prayer for this. God has been teaching me to rely on Him for strength. I have never seen myself as a leader but always seem to be placed in leadership positions but I've been realizing that I am really prideful in thinking God can't work through me.

This is my bible study! Diana (on the left) was our leader. Since she left Valerie(on the right) will be leading.

4. I gave my testimony at church the other day! Here it is if you are looking for a good read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1li6BAyZJc3lBzyaH-oh5EG2e9YDphSS9syZ6oxU19WE/edit?hl=en_US

5. Here are some random pictures for your enjoyment:

These cool cats we are who I go to church with. Love em.

Although we rarely get to go to the beach we make most of the time we have, which means inner tubes, blow up boats, and lots of boogie boarding. I am becoming a pro.

I love sundays.

It is such a perfect day. A little overcast which screams nap on a sunday followed by Starbucks with some girls. At our weekly prayer night tonight we are praying for different countries and the main religion that is most common in that region. I am learning about Buddhism.
This is Callie and Alaina: (i luhdem).

If you ever wanna learn/pray for buddhist I found a great resource: http://www.bridgesforministry.org/prayer 

God is so powerful. Yesterday was our outreach day. We usually just go out with a partner and evangelize on the beach or boardwalk but yesterday the outreach team decided that we were going to use sports to draw people in. Here is a cool story for you: I met this kid Vlad at work on Thursday. He is a russian boy who is here for the summer working. On Friday he didn't have internet so he went to his neighbors house to use their internet. That neighbor was one of my leaders here. She invited him to the outreach. So Saturday he came and he was able to meet everyone on project and by the end of the day I was able to share my faith with him! He sees God as a very far off angry God and doesn't believe there is a God because of how bad the world is. He said he never heard the gospel after I shared it. Although nothing seemed to change on the outside I was able to plant a little seed. I really think God wanted me at that water park!