Adventures in Christ: Santa Cruz '12: The First Half--Compiled into one post!

Greetings Everyone!!

I have been here for almost 6 weeks, and I have not been able to update since I have been out of a computer. For those that are unaware, my computer hard drive crashed after the first week that we were here in Santa Cruz, and to my blessing-a Computer Science student here on project gratefully took my computer and fixed everything for me. I spent very little money and gave him a project to work on :) But now, I am back and able to fill y'all in on what God has been doing through me and in Santa Cruz.

Since the first week, I have been through so much change and seen some amazing things occur. I am one of the Project Cooks, and every other week I am in charge of cooking for approximately 90 people. This is such a feat for one person, but after the first week, the Lord blessed me with the strength to use my hands for the feeding of the troops :) I had wonderful guidance under Sharon Mahaffie and Brooke Miller. I have had learned a lot about cooking for a large group, but it has definitely been fun and challenging as well. I do have help during mealtimes, as 2 Action groups (essentially one girls room and one guys room) to help run dishes and serve clean-up as well. Yes-that does mean I do not have to do dishes ;) But it is nice to have the help and service of others. The kitchen is a place where students can come and talk when they have nothing to do. I am glad to be able to have a servant's heart in this way. And I am excited for the weeks to come as I continue to feed my fellow projectees and also the co-workers that come to dinner as well to experience Christian community. Every night at dinner, announcements are made but a student is asked to share their testimony as well. We want to soak everything that we do with the Gospel, as well as prayer as this is our purpose in being here in Santa Cruz.

The weeks that I am not in the kitchen, I am working on the Boardwalk for a food company called Whitings. They own several different food locations that include ice cream, cotton candy, icees, Pizza Hut, Burgers, Senor Teds, Dipping Dots, and more. Every day that we work we are assigned to different stores which create variety and ultimately different co-workers that you may come across. Until last week, I have been simply going through the motions of getting my job done and not getting a chance to interact with co-workers since I am not there on a week to week basis. But, by the blessing of God I was able to meet a co-worker, on Saturday that I worked with in ice cream (that I did dread, but fell in love with it!) and invited her out to our dinner here at the Peter Pan. I had overcome fear and invited her and it was a blessing. We exchanged numbers and I am trying to place an effort to hang out with her and get to know her better. It is in God's hands, but to be used by Him is an even greater blessing that I am able to experience.

We have also had weekly outreaches, where we go out around Santa Cruz and attempt to engage in Spiritual conversations through various means. The tools that we use are KGP (Knowing God Personally) which sums up the Gospel essentials in 4 Laws. It is a booklet that I have grown to love because 1. It's Simple, 2. Everything is laid out before you. I will share on this in a later post :) We also use a tool called "Soularium", which uses pictures and questions to direct spiritual conversations into the Gospel. In Santa Cruz, this is a big thing as we are in a community that embraces artsy things and the use of 50 pictures laid out on the sidewalk definitely draws in crowds. Check out: http://mysoularium.com/index.php to see the questions and pictures that are used. If you click on "See What Others are Saying", you can see the images and questions that are used. In all of these things, conversations occur that do lead to discussion of Spiritual things. Santa Cruz is a city that is lost-but also very open to what they believe. Being close to the Bible Belt, we may be spoiled with the idea that all have heard of the Gospel, or who God is. In this city, it hits you hard that it is not true and makes you realize the impact that the Gospel can truly have!

In a large outreach event, we had the traditional "Barn Party" event! We have brought the South here to California :) We had a family come and cook traditional pulled pork, barbecue, corn, and Sweet Tea as w used this event to bring co-workers out to a night where two testimonies were shared and southern dancing occurred. It was a fun night to have fun and get funny looks by people that would drive by ;) We had about 15 co-workers come out and join the fun, and Gospel conversations did occur.

In the past week, the staff has officially left and has left student leadership in their place. After having them here for 5 weeks, teaching and training us, we are now on our own to carry the torch and tradition that we have been sent here for. The famous saying is that, the next 5 weeks will be the best part-and we will not remember what it was like when the staff were here. We have to fully depend on each other and essentially grow closer to one another as we continue on. I am excited to see the Lord work and focus on establishing awesome relationships with the people that are here.

One thing that the Lord has been teaching me is the way that I form relationships with people. I am very good at remaining on the surface level with people, that I do not establish deep connections at all with others. Being in Santa Cruz for 10 weeks and not really having close friends is not the way that I want to end my summer. The Lord has laid on my heart that I am to pursue and be intentional with at least 3 girls, that I get to know better and begin a deeper relationship with them. I pray that as I seek them out, that God will be with us and bond us with Godly intentions for serving Christ together. I have 5 more weeks, and I do not want it to go to waste!

Thank you for all your support and patience! I will update as much as I can (now that I have my computer back!) Feel free to email with more questions, or leave a comment :)

Here are some pictures that sum up my journey so far: