My Ocean City Summer Project 2011 Journey: I'm Not the Only One Whose THIRSTY.

Don't think I have forgotten about all of you!! Our internet has been horrid this past week. I have been absolutely dying to write an update.

Going into the “Thirsting to Know HIM” week, I had an idea that I was going to be stretched in great ways...and I was right. Ryan Berg started off this week with one of the most convicting messages I have probably ever heard. He spoke of the woman at the well in John 4 and he paralleled that story with a verse from Jeremiah.

"'My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." Jeremiah 2:13

Oddly enough, I had just read that verse last week but it means so much more to me now after Monday. In short, Ryan discussed how important it is to not constantly run back to our "broken cisterns". He described sin as something that slowly poisons us, but is often what we return to. For many of us, there is that one sin in particular that we always think we'll find comfort in but find that it falls short every time.

I fail to realize that Jesus is the living water I need in order to survive. I find it hard to believe that I can find complete satisfaction in him. The biggest thing that was brought to my attention this week was my immense lack of reliance on the Lord. I sometimes wonder why I can't whole-heartedly trust in the one thing that knows what's best for me in every single situation. I am a rather trusting individual, but the people I place trust in can't be a hundred percent certain that the direction they advise me to take will be the best one.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:3-5

Although this is regularly used as a "go-to" verse for encouragement, the words still over flow with truth. I can't say I am a master at trusting the Lord, but I would definitely hope by the end of this summer, I will have a better grasp of what it means to live this verse out.

I'm going to fast forward to Thursday and share a little bit about what Bob Fuhs had to say that night. He really emphasized the amazing attributes of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power of our growth. "Any success we have has nothing to do with us - any failure we have has nothing to do with him." Power stuff, huh!? Jesus has unlimited resources and wants us to use them and when we are feeling discouraged just say, "Lord, I can't...but you can." Thursday night was really awesome, Bob's message was so informative and we had the opportunity to engage in an extended time of worship afterwards. A few of my co-workers at McDonald's have been attending our weekly meetings and it has given me great joy to see them there participating in the games and worship. It's so awesome to see their dedication in joining us every Monday and Thursday.

As a close to this week, we had the opportunity to get a little "Taste of OC". This involved an intense list of things to do on the boardwalk, very similar to a scavenger hunt. Some of the interesting things we engaged in doing were: singing to strangers, taking a picture of a seagull with food in it's mouth, eating an immense about of junk food (frozen custard, cotton candy, funnel cake, deep fried oreos, taffy, fudge, crab fries, polish water ice, beach sand, sea water, etc.), play Dance Dance Revolution, build a six person pyramid, so on and so forth. After all that fun happened we settled down and went out sharing for about an hour and a half. Amy, my roommate, and I went together and we were so exhausted from our long work weeks and running around that we weren't really up to initiating spiritual conversations. We had a few conversations, got turned down a few times, but then we approached four young girls. Brace yourself for this one. One of the ladies said she didn't want to participate in taking the survey we use but one said she would. We went through the survey and were able to move into the Knowing God Personally booklet (approaches how to know God and accept him into your life), after that we asked the girls if any of them felt the desire to ask the Lord into their hearts and my goodness, the girl who initially said no to taking the survey decided to commit her life to Christ!! I have never witnessed an individual accept the Lord into their heart, but I am SO HAPPY to say that soon to be eighth grade Alyssa from two hours north of Ocean City has become our new sister in Christ! It was by far the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

To be honest, when I go out sharing I never expect the conversation to go past the survey, which is just another example of my lack of trust in the Holy Spirit, unfortunately. Tonight, the Holy Spirit showed me what it means to allow him to direct the conversation and what a blessing that was!

This week is "Killing the Giants", so we are going to be doing outreaches like it's our job...oh wait, it is. :) Please being praying, because it is definitely going to be very exhausting. All of us are now getting into the groove of long workweeks and this week is truly devoted to going out and sharing. We need motivation to do the will of the Lord on top of being motivated to go to work. I'm excited to report back to you all about the work the Lord is doing in Ocean City this week. Hopefully sooner rather than later...