Week Two :-)

After wrapping up this week I have decided that this year will be totally different compared to last year - but in a very good way. God is definitely working in my life and challenging me. We have spent most of this week talking about relationships, both friendships and boyfriend/girlfriend relationships.

This week has been emotionally exhausting after all the serious but good conversations I have had. The speakers have brought up a lot of things in both my friendship relationships and my relationship with Aaron that have sparked several conversations. Mike, one of the pastors at Virginia Tech talked at main session on Monday and Tuesday night; he shared about the importance of having accountability in relationships, guarding your heart, as well as physical boundaries.

Then on our project day on Thursday we had three different workshops to help us put into practice what we had spent that week discussing. Carl, a staff member at Ball State finished up our project day by helping us learn how to handle situations when our peers might come to us in a vulnerable situation, whether they are sharing some struggles they are having in their relationships, or any other type of difficult conversation.

Project day on Thursday started a little differently then it normally would for me. All the students met at the beach at 9am, Neil shared a little with us and then we were told to go on our own and pray through some of the psalms before we met back up at our condos at 11am. When our group broke up individually I saw a yellow lab that I had met the week before playing with his owner. Being the dog lover that I am I took a minute to go over and play with him. His owner, Mike, asked me what our group was doing and I started sharing with him about LT and that we were a group of students from my church back at school. This sparked several questions from Mike about God. He was very curious to learn what I thought about God, which ended up turning into a 2 and a half hour conversation! I had the chance to share my faith with him in several different ways, it was so scary, and all I had originally wanted to do was pet his dog :-(. However, God used this situation for me to build a friendship. While Mike and I don't see eye to eye when it comes to religion, we did build a friendship. Mike and his dog (loco) come to the beach every morning to play, so I am confident that I will see him again soon. Even if our conversation didn't strike any thoughts in Mike, which I find hard to believe, God definitely used it as a way for me to step outside of my comfort zone. It was probably the first time in my life I have had to actually defend my faith, I actually hate biblical debate. At one point I just wanted to tell Mike to have a good day and leave, but instead I talked with him and voiced why God was so important in my life and how He has changed me. It was pretty exciting!

Today I got to finish my week with a day off of work. I spent the afternoon with two of my housemates doing what girls do best...shopping!! :-) It was a great way to end an emotionally draining week.
More to come soon!