End of an Awesome week

Killing the Giants week as I said before is one of the most memorable weeks through out all of project.  The semester students, me, have been here for just under a month while the quarter students just got here last week.  So we had been preparing our hearts and minds for this week where as the quarter students were basically just thrown into action right from the start.  It was really cool just to see God's hand over our lives as we stepped out in faith this past week.  As I mentioned before our overall goal for week was to reach 4600 lives with the gospel.  And by the end of the week through trusting in the Lord to provide opportunities and bless our time, we were able to reach 5860 people.  That was totally amazing for all of us to hear, especially me. 

Every year on a project you study something different, wether it be a book of the bible or just a biblical topic it doesn't really repeats itself.  This year instead of looking over a book of the bible we as a project we are studying the Holy Spirit.  Something that has been completely eye opening to me.  So through this past week we were really challenged in a lot of ways to let the Spirit lead our lives. That meaning to be filled by the Spirit and let him work through our lives.  Oe of our main sayings over this week was to that "I can't but He can".  So it was totally amazing to trust in the lord to provide this week.  And also it was completely by the Lords strength and power that we were able to reach that many people last week, there is no possible way that we could have talked to that many people about Christ on our own.  So yeah praise the Lord for that. 

This is our impact group, our bible study along with two girl bible studies to make our sweet impact group.

This is my action group, AKA bible study.

From left to right:

Jake Jorgensen-- North Dakota State

Me Jared Sylvester

Matt Williams--Staff (Clemson)

Jeremiah Samulson--Wisconsin La Crosse

Mike Defelice-- The Ohio State University 

David Millot-- Chico State University 

 

Killing the Giants

Killing the Giants week is one of the coolest and most powerful weeks while on project.  Our goal is to fully push ourselves as individuals and as an overall team to new levels of sharing our faith.  We set both personal goals and project goals for the week and then we go out in faith and strength through the Holy Spirit and leave the results to God.  That basically means that we step out in faith knowing that we can only do so much to impact a life, but the gospel and the compelling story of Jesus' love changes hearts, character, actions and attitudes.  My personal goal for this week, which was set on sunday night, was to get into 40 great spiritual conversations and or gospel presentations; while the projects goal, everyone's combined, was 4,596.  On Monday night, which means we went out Sunday night and all day up until the 7 pm meeting, they gave stats to encourage us and let us know how we started the week off.  I was completely blown away by the number.  They said we were had already talked to 2,068 people! That being 45% of our entire goal for the week, and we did that just about one full day. So now with yesterday and today in the mix I am sure we are past 50% or 60%.  I personally have been able to get into some great conversations with people, I have had a total of 20 good spiritual conversations and had the opportunity to share the gospel with 12 people, and then I have seen one person come to Christ and make that decision, bringing me to a total of 32 people I have already shared with.  The Lord is doing crazy things here. 

For example: I set my goal pretty high I thought but then my giant was to go out sharing alone and actually make an impact.  The first night, Sunday, I went out with one of my roommate and we got into a few good conversations but most everyone was drunk that we talked to.  So that got me kind of down and discouraged.  The next morning I get up and I decided to go out alone before I had to go pick up a girl at the train station who was coming to project.  I went out in confidence and came back in complete doubt.  I had gotten shot down at least 12 to 14 times and only got into one decently good spiritual conversation.  So I was really down that day and kind of feeling worthless.  But I went out again right before the 7 pm meeting and got into two really good spiritual conversations and then shared the gospel with two kids.  Going out alone was a lot of fun and just to see God's faithfulness was awesome.  Then right after the meeting I went out with one of my friends, Dane, and I stocked my back-pack with a crazy amount of KGP booklets.  By the end of the night we had been sharing for about two or three hours and we had gotten into about 2 to 4 spiritual conversations but we shared the gospel with about 14 people.  At the end of the night I was completely out of every single booklet I had brought.  I was not expecting that at all and God totally used that for his Glory.  That was really cool to see. 

Okay one more story.  Yesterday I went out with my leader, Matt, and we got into a solid conversation with these two guys that said they had just talked to two other people from Crusade. So we tried to see what they kind of got out of it, and were asking lots of questions.  Before we knew it we were sharing the gospel with them and one of the guys prayed to receive Christ.  So it was really cool to see that even if we are just planting the seed that God will use that in people's lives and give them other opportunities.  

So yeah again God is working here in our lives in Ocean City and in the people here.  So just keep praying and thinking of us.  Thanks and I'll keep you updated on the week.  

Catching Up In Ocean City

So it has been three weeks to the day that I have been in Ocean City, New Jersey and many of you have been wondering what is going on out there.  Well I have been extremely busy that is one reason why I haven't been able to call people and stay in contact with them, and have also been getting acclimated to the culture here.  There are so many cool kids here that I get to spend the rest of the summer with.  We have kids from California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Illinois, Indian, Ohio pretty much all over the place and I love all of them.  It is so cool to be in a community of believers like this one, it's something I have never experienced at this capacity.  There are 110 of us college kids and about 25 staff here, so amazing.  One of the best parts about that is that we are all connected on such a deeper level initially, through our relationship and belief in Jesus Christ, that it is so easy to develop a friendship with them.  

Lets try and catch you guys up on what has been happening.  I live in the Ambassador's Inn on Central and 13th in Ocean City, New Jersey (A short two blocks west of the ocean!!!!) I live on the second floor of the Ambassador in room 303 with four other guys; David (California kid- Chico State and is going to be a Junior), Mike (The Ohio State University and is going to be a Sophomore), Jake (North Dakota State University and is going to be a Junior), and Jeremiah (Wisconsin Lacrosse and is going to be a Sophomore) I love the guys I live with.  We have the biggest guys room in the inn and actually just this week won the cleanest room contest; largely due to my cleanliness and that comes from my mom, thanks mom Love you. But yeah anyways it's me and four other guys in my room and that consists of my bible study, what we call our action group.  We do a lot of stuff together, we obviously have bible study together we have prayer time together and we just hang out together a lot. All of us are under, or being led for the first portion of the summer by a staff guy, Matt Williams who is on staff at Cal Polly Slow. He is a recent graduate from Clemson and is just a really cool and sweet leader.  I personally have been able to connect with him a lot so far, and I hope that continues.  

The first week we had some what of an orientation week and that consisted of going to meetings doing group activities to get to know each other and lots of other cool things; this was our Setting the Pace Week.  That week was really just the get to know each other week and nobody worked or was preoccupied by other things.  That was really cool just to grow with one another in a community. 

The week after that we had our Thirsting to Know Him week. We all, well almost everyone, by that had jobs and were starting to work on a regular basis.  So we have started balancing project along with other priorities.  I personally am working at the supper market near by, Super Fresh, as a cashier.  This week was really meant for all of us to dive deep into our alone time with the Lord and to grow in anticipation of next week.  

This week is one of the coolest weeks on project, KILLING THE GIANTS WEEK.  This week ill get into more later. 

But yeah God is already moving in countless and crazy ways.  I am extremely excited to be here and just to grow a lot in my faith over the summer.  Ill keep you guys posted...

Introduction

So I was thinking that this blog thing would be a really cool way to keep people informed of what is going on in my life. And a great way to let people know what the Lord is doing in my life here in Ocean City.  So even though I wont be writing that often because of our extremely busy schedule I will be updating it every once in a while. Ill try to catch you up with the last two weeks on project.