Jesus is inclusive but also exclusive...

Wow, it's already Sunday. Where are these days going...? Only five more weeks left here in Ocean City and staff leaves on Friday. As you're all aware, this was World Vision Week! It was so powerful to take the focus off Ocean City, New Jersey, and even America and look into the needs of other countries. After my last post we participated in an international activity. It definitely gave me a new perspective and took me outside my comfortable little world. 

Okay, I know I talk up the messages that we hear every week, but they are so great! They are always extremely captivating and really excite me to strive to follow the Lord in all I do. Adam Penning spoke on Wednesday night before our date night with Jesus. He made a very true statement, one that I am well aware of, but often say to others and forget to take to heart myself. "God is all about his glory and his glory is good for us. Our ultimate goal is to glorify God."I would have to say I am a rather selfish individual. I'm the baby in the family and with that I was unwillingly given the role of being spoiled. (Okay, it may or may not have been unwilling. Haha.) I wouldn't say I'm excessively spoiled...but yes, I do fall into that category. I enjoy attention and having things be about me, because that's how it was growing up. Listening to Adam talk was a great reminder that, that is the completely wrong mindset. My goal in life should be to make it about the Lord. Tying this all into the World Vision Week, Adam mentioned that Jesus is inclusive but also exclusive. What does this mean?? Jesus is inclusive in that he brings everyone in, he created us know him. Jesus is also exclusive in that he is the ONLY way to heaven. 

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

I found this depiction of the Lord to be so mighty, his sovereignty is so easily displayed. 

Directly following the weekly meeting, we all set out on a date night with Jesus. I decided to go through a sheet that was provided for us by Adam. It was titled, "DTR with the Lord". There were five different sections that had several questions to process through and journal about. They were: Walk with the Lord, Evangelism, Heart for the World, Back on Campus, and Bringing it Home. Jesus and I definitely DTRed and brought our relationship to the "next level". :) It was a lovely time to be open and honest with the Lord. I shared with him how much I'm willing to sacrifice for his kingdom and was able to surrender my fears to him. At this point in my life, I do not feel called to be sent. In that, I mean I do not see missions in other countries being something I engage in. I am not closed off to the idea, but at the moment, the Lord has not laid it on my heart to pursue that. He has laid it on my heart to support those who are pursuing that though. I have felt so blessed to be able to financially and prayerfully support a few individuals on their summer and year long missions. Although I may not be the one actively going to other countries, I am a part of international missions by helping send others to do what the Lord has called them to do.

As a close to this week, I came home from work on Friday night, dressed up like a cow with ten others and went off to Chick-fil-A for some free food! :) On our way home it started storming like crazy. While standing on the curb, I was up to my ankles in water and crossing the street put me up to my knees in water. It's weird, when I'm at home, I hate the rain, but while being in OC, I've loved it! The thunderstorms are completely different here, they're so beautiful. On Saturday night we did an outreach and staff was actually disguised and roaming around the boardwalk. If we spotted one we would approach them and ask them if they would like to take our survey. If they were indeed staff, they would say, "I'm satisfied." and sign our paper. It was so funny seeing them dressed up like drag queens, biker dudes, and hippies. It was even funnier hearing people's horror stories about approaching people thinking they were staff but weren't or others getting yelled at by strangers for harassing old women who were in face staff. After the outreach, a large group of us participated in a freeze flash mob on the boardwalk. In case you don't know what this is, it is where you go out into a public place with a big group of people and at a certain time you freeze in whatever position you're in for a certain amount of time (we did it for three minutes) and then you proceed onto whatever you were doing. Oh my gosh, this was so much fun. We had hundreds of people stop and stare at us, take pictures, and be completely obnoxious. Even our project director, Bob Fuhs, participated. It was hilarious!!

On a more serious note, this afternoon our project supported three wonderful ladies make a public proclamation of their desire to follow Jesus. Three girls from project were baptized in the ocean today by their discipler. It was such a blessing to see that and to see how many other people were interested in witnessing it!

As a conclusion, we are now entering "Agape Week". Bob Fuhs gave a wonderful message in Sunday school this morning that I will go into more detail about in my next post; it was about movements and making an impact. It was really awesome and I can't wait to share more about it. I would like to inform you all that when staff leaves I will take on the role of Heritage Director. The Heritage Team is compiled of four individuals total and I believe one of those is a director along with me. The Heritage Team is in charge of all the memories of this summer. We create the project shirts and sweatshirts, the project photo and plaque that go in the Heritage Room, the project dvd, a memory book, a project gift for those who are coming next year, writing a letter to supporerts, and lastly, we are in charge of the project reunion! This is a huge job, especially because I desire everyone to have such a positive experience here and trying to capture that may be difficult. I'm excited to team up with others and create awesome memorabilia of Ocean City Summer Project 2011.

Please be praying for strength. Preparing for staff to leave and us to take on our leadership roles is somewhat stressful, but I know we'll do a great job. Thank you for all your support!!

Chick-fil-A dress up. :)

Boys skim boarding in the street during the storm!