During week 6 for project day we spent 8 hours at a national park alone with God. No phone, no ipod, no food. Just us and God alone with our bibles and journals. I was actually semi excited about getting to spend the day with God, I wanted to finish memorizing Psalm 63 as well as spend some extended time in prayer. The day turned out to be a little frustrating, I have had a really hard time reading the Old Testament this summer, and spending 8 hours reading and praying just reminded me of that. I feel like this summer God has really used it to test me and see if I still want to follow Him and have a relationship with Him even when it's hard. I definitely wasn't expecting that this summer, I was hoping for a great 10 weeks with God and some fellow Christians while we all tried to grow closer to God. I'm not saying by any means that I regret coming, I think this is exactly where God wanted me this summer, it's just been a lot harder than I was expecting.
Project day for week 7 was roommate and conflict week! We spent the first part of the morning having a devotional as a house, we spent a lot of time talking about Psalm 63, and then we all recited it as a house. After our devotional we spent time as a house trying to find a way to serve someone in our lives. We decided to try and bless Suzanne, she is the manager of the condo's we are staying at this summer. We went to her house to invite her out to lunch with our house as well as to see if she had any work we could do around the condos. She said she was very excited that we had thought of her but her sister was coming into town to visit and should be arriving shortly so she would have to take a rain check on lunch. When we asked her if she had anything we could do she said she couldn't think of anything.
When we were walking back to our house we were a little sad that our original idea didn't work, but shortly after we left her house we had the idea to make her a fun gift basket for her and her sister while she was visiting! So we went to the store to find everything a girl needs to have a great day, nail polish, candy, candles, drinks, a fresh pineapple, a pedicure kit, lotion, homemade cupcakes and of course treats and toys for her dog!! That might have been my idea ;-) It was so much for to prepare it as a house, and giving it to Suzanne was so much fun!! She was so excited, I thought she was going to cry.
Once we finished our service project we met up at Grace church for a workshop on conflict. Neil talked for a while about how to resolve a conflict in a healthy and Godly way. Once Neil finished talking we split up into our houses and discussed any conflict between our house...it turns out that if you put 7 girls into one house for a summer you are bound to have some conflict. But we finished the day with a fun house project - we made house movies describing the summer so far. Our house ended up making face puppets and making a 'Top 10 rules of LT 2010' movie - I don't think our house has laughed so much all summer.
Project day for week 8 started with a service project for a local teen girls shelter. We spent several hours in the morning cleaning their yard and volleyball court as well as painting the outside of their house. It was such a blessing for the maintenance man, we were able to finish in several hours what would have taken him most of the summer to finish. After our service project we all went home for lunch and were encouraged to take showers. :-)
At 3pm we met back up at the church for three different discussions on theological topics. It was definitely an intense afternoon, theology is not one of my favorite topics by any means. We took a break half way through the discussions for dinner, I really enjoyed getting to eat dinner with all the other students, I feel like this summer I have missed out on a lot of social activities because I am one of the few students that work night shift.
Overall the last few weeks have been really hard, I have had several issues at work, both with scheduling and with fellow employees. I've had a really hard time respecting one of my mangers this summer and the way she runs the restaurant, and I'm trying to see how God wants to use that is my summer. I probably haven't done a great job at trying to respect her when we don't see eye to eye. I tend to think I can do most things better than she can, and I'm trying to let go and not have to take control of every situation. This is just one of the things I'm learning over the summer.
We only have 2 weeks left here, part of me is really excited to go home to see my family and start school again, but part of me is sad to leave the friendships I have built here, both at the LT program and through work. I'm trying to spend the last few weeks working really hard to continue to build my relationships at work and to try to share my faith. Keep me in your prayers over the last 2 weeks!
Love,
Beka
