July 4

For the Fourth of July, our group planned an outreach in the city park, where many people from the town hang out before the fireworks. We passed out free water bottles and popcorn, with Bible verses attached, as well as setting out crafts for the kids. It was awesome to see the look on people's faces when we handed them popcorn or water and did not expect money from them. I thought it was a very cool way to just show people God's love. My favorite part of our outreach, though, was performing the skit to Lifehouse's song, Everything, as seen on Youtube and performed by others with much frequency. This skit shows God creating a human, her straying from Him when she gives into the temptations of the world, and then God, in His infinite love and grace, fighting to win her back. This skit is so powerful. I encourage everyone to check out a version on Youtube. Hopefully, I can post a video of the skit we did on my blog. Every time I watch it, I cry or get chills. Seeing this skit just made me so excited to share God's love with others. I felt rejuvenated by the skit as well. I could feel God's love through the skit. I just love the picture of God dancing with me and fighting for me and hugging me and holding my hand. A lot of conversations about the gospel came out of the skit as well. I am so excited about how the day went! We ended it by watching a gorgeous firework show!

PS. In writing this blog, I have realized how often I use the following words: cool, exciting, amazing, and awesome. However, those words all quite accurately describe summer project. So please bear with me as I attempt to expand my vocabulary. Thanks :)

June 30

Saturday 6/25:
We began our days with random evangelism in the downtown. My friend and I found a man sitting by himself at a coffee shop to talk to. We approached him and asked if he would be interested in doing soularium, a picture survey designed to help begin spiritual conversations. He agreed. Through the course of the conversation, we learned that he believes most everything that Christians believed, except that he did not believe in the Trinity. He had read his bible and studied it over and over and it seemed as though he enjoyed talking to us. I don't think any participant of the conversation changed their opinions at the end, but before we left, he said that we made him think. It was exciting for us to have this conversation with him because it forced us to think about what we believe in. It also made us both really excited to read more of the Bible ourselves. It was also cool to experience how the Holy Spirit moved in us, providing us with words to say. It was also an over-all positive evangelism experience. The rest of the afternoon we spent shopping and eating downtown.
Sunday 6/26: 
While in Fort Collins, I have been attending Mountain View Community Church. The past few weeks, I have really enjoyed both the sermon and the worship. This week, the sermon was about growing in our walk with God. The pastor talked about how important it is to play an active role in seeking out opportunities to be in community and have conversations with believers that may be further in their walk than us. He emphasized that their is always room to grow closer to our God. It has been really cool to see how I have grown so far in these past three weeks, in so many different ways: as a future teacher, as an independent adult, as a friend, and most importantly, as a passionate follower of Christ. This environment is awesome for growing because  I am surrounded by Christians and our daily routine is filled with tasks that foster this growth.
Camp:
I think that working at camp is my favorite part of this experience. I love, love, love working with my fifth graders. It is awesome to be able to pour God's love into these girls. I think they are really enjoying being at camp. My personal favorite parts of the camp day are camp meeting (where we sing songs of worship and praise and learn bible stories), power hour (where everyone spends their quiet time in with the Lord), and small group application time (where we can get  into some really cool discussions with the girls). This past Friday (7/1) we talked about spiritual growth with the girls. We shared with them that they never stop growing in their relationship with God and also how we can both help others grow, help ourselves grow, and have others help us grow, through discipleship. We reminded the girls that while we can water and plant seeds, it is God that makes them grow and not our own actions. After this discussion, one of our campers came up to us and told us that she feels she has grown a lot in the past two weeks of camp! Earlier in the week, we talked about the story of Issac and how God called Abraham to do something difficult. We then discussed difficult things God has asked us to do. This conversation brought one of our girls to tears, and though she wouldn't discuss it, we could tell that something had resonated in her heart.

June 24

I have been in Colorado for two weeks now and I am enjoying every minute of it. They have been keeping us really busy here. I work at the kids camp for 8 hours a day and I absolutely love being there. The first week was all training and this past week we actually have our kids their. I am one of the camp counselors for the fifth grade girls. Our days at camp are filled with crafts, activities, songs, bible stories, and quiet time spent with the Lord. I adore each one of my girls and am excited to see them grow over the summer. Today, we had a really cool conversation during our bible study time about things that we do that are displeasing to God. One girl raised her hand and said that she often spends more time with friends than God and that is something she would like to change. I was so impressed that a fifth grader could already love God that much! 

In the evenings we have been learning a lot about how to share the gospel more effectively. Then, we "practice" by talking to the people of Fort Collins. We learn to do more listening than talking, with the goal of the conversation being to leave the person with a positive experience with a Christian. While listening, we try to understand where they are in their spiritual journey (we learn that everyone is on one) and only if we feel it would be received well, do we share our beliefs in return. Listening to different speakers that come and talk to us has really helped me to understand how important it is to share the gospel with others. 

We have also been studying the book of Ephesians, which is really awesome because I also got to study that book during Bible study last semester at school. We go through the study on our own and then meet weekly to discuss it in our small groups. There is also a speaker that talks weekly about the section that we are studying. Also, in our small groups we did something called soul to soul, which is basically where every girl shares her life story with the others. It is an awesome way to begin to feel comfortable with each other and get to know each other better. 

Last weekend, we went white water rafting and it was so much fun! Today, the girls in my bible study went out for the evening to celebrate my 19th birthday. We ate dinner at a delicious salad place called MadGreens and had ice cream at a local favorite called The Walrus. We shopped around downtown a bit, and the girls even surprised me with a carriage ride! It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed spending the evening with them, though I did miss my family a lot.

Tomorrow is more evangelism training and then talking to people in the community. I am excited for what God has in store for the rest of my trip!

~Sarah

June 12

I tend to like to be in control of any given situation and know all of the details of how everything will work out, leaving nothing to surprise. When this does not happen, I usually become stressed or start to worry. So, it was only natural for me to begin to worry about how I would get to Walmart to pick up food for lunches for the week and how I would get to the training for my job at a far away school early tomorrow morning, since I don't have a car here. I then remembered that I would need laundry detergent and to figure out the washing of my clothes, since I don't have enough for all seven weeks of my trip. Between those few things, I had gotten myself into quite a panic. I had arranged with my roommate, who has a car here, to go to Walmart with her later, but this did not calm me since this was only one of many trips I would probably need, and I just felt terrible having to rely on her. I feel so shy when I am in a group this large, so it is hard enough for me to meet people, let alone, asking them for rides to the store or elsewhere. And I am not alone in my situation either. I think that actually, more people flew here than drove. But it seems like everyone else doesn't have a problem with this, that they just have an easier time making friends. I just kept thinking about how badly I wished I had been able to drive here and how much easier everything would have been. Usually, when I begin to get into my panic/stress/worry mood, I first look toward either my mom or boyfriend to settle me back down, and most of the time, they help me to at least feel a bit better. But today, I knew that they wouldn't really be able to help me, except for offering their condolences,  which might calm me for a moment, but definitely would not help me solve my problems. This time, I turned to God, and prayed that He would calm me and comfort me and provide what I needed. I flipped in my Bible and came across Matthew 6:25-34. I have read this passage about worry so many times, so I incorrectly assumed that it would not give me comfort, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. I reread the passage and was amazed that it discussed two of the things I was worried about: food and clothes.


 It was so exciting to feel God speaking to me through these verses. I had thought, when I first began to worry about these things that it was okay, because food and clothes were not just wants, but necessities. But even these things, God tells us, we should not worry, that we need to rely on Him to provide, and that He will because of how much He loves us. And I think that this is one thing that God is teaching me this summer: to rely on Him first. Being in Colorado away from my family and my boyfriend and even without a car forces me to rely on God. My first instincts of who to turn to are gone because God wants that spot. And I don't think that it is wrong to have these people in my life, because I know that God did provide these people to love me and take care of me. But, He wants to be my first love and is using this experience to draw me close to Him. 

This made me think about my experience on the airplane as well. Flying to Colorado was my first time on an airplane. I didn't realize this until I was on the plane, but I was completely terrified. I couldn't believe that a plane this big would actually be able to fly way above the ground. I felt closed in and began to worry about getting air. I began to get panic-ey and reached for my pocket to send a text to my mom. They had already made the announcement about not using cell phones, so I again was stripped from everything I normally used for comfort and was forced to rely on God. I think I'm seeing a theme here...

It is hard to be away from what is comfortable to me. Being here in Colorado comes with basically everything that is uncomfortable for me. But I know that growth, especially spiritual growth, comes with being uncomfortable. A few girls from my project shared with our group about the sermon they heard at church that day. They said the sermon compared getting fit spiritually, or spiritual growth, with physical exercise and that one of the similarities is that they both can, and often do, involve pain. I am so thankful for this opportunity and I am excited to learn what else God has to teach me. 

And God has been faithful in providing for me thus far. He provided my support to be able to get here and he provided me with an opportunity to go get food and laundry detergent, as well as transportation to work. And I know that when will I need things over the summer, that God will take care of me. Even when I am nervous about being around new people and making friends God comforts me and gives me opportunities to become closer to them. God is so good and I am excited to be on project this summer! 

Foot of the Rockies Summer Project!

I decided to spend my summer on one of Campus Crusades' summer projects. I had no intention of applying for one, but curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check out the website. The moment I read about how this project involved working with kids, I wanted to apply. I tried to brush it out of my mind, but it just kept coming back. I kept hearing about the experiences of others who had been on a summer project before and thinking about this project that I had found. I decided to talk to my parents about it one weekend when I was home. They thought it would be sort of a rash decision, but they didn't say no. I talked to one of my Bible study leaders at school about her project experience and decided to apply. No long after I did, I was accepted. Now I am here in Fort Collins, Colorado for seven weeks where I will work with the 5th grade girls at Colorado Kids Camp during the day. The rest of my time will be spent with the 55 girls learning more about our God and growing closer in our relationship with Him as well as each other, and also learning how to effectively share the Gospel with others. This summer is going to be very full, but I hope to write often about my trip and how God is working in my life this summer, and I am excited for others to be able to share in my experience through my blog.