Fun, Fellowship, and Fearful

Whew! Finally updating the blog! Sorry for the delay everyone! Things have continued to be crazy and busy since I last blogged. My days have pretty much been filled with job hunting and summer project activities. As most of you know, the premise of Campus Crusade Summer Project is to allow students to experience and learn skills for "workplace evangelism". Of course, this requires getting jobs haha. In the past students usually find jobs within a week or so but it has been a little more difficult this summer. So far, only about 14 of 40 students have jobs and the rest of us are searching every opportunity within about a 20-25 minute radius of where we are staying. The most common responses are either "No, we are not hiring." or "We are accepting applications."...which come to find out also means "We're not hiring." haha!

I can't even remember all of the places I have been to and applied to. Currently my best option is Lowe's. I have talked to the manager and he has said that he has a job opening but every time I try to get in contact with him, he seems to be busy. It's weird because I have never had to really job search before so this is completely new to me and is pretty rough so far. I have been learning so much in the past week that it seems almost overwhelming at times. I am coming to realize that I try to depend on myself way too often, when what I should really be doing is trusting and relying in the powerful God I have and his Holy Spirit.

I have been reading through "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan and it is absolutely amazing and so encouraging. He was talking about how in John 16:7 Jesus says that it is actually to our ADVANTAGE that He leave so that the Counselor could come! Often I have thought, "man, it would be great if Jesus could just be here in physical form to guide me through life." But if Jesus said that it would actually be BETTER for us to have the Counselor living in us then shouldn't that be so empowering?! So often I forget that the same power that conquered the grave lives in ME!

So the reason I entitled this blog "Fun, Fellowship, and Fearful"...
One of the ways we are evangelizing here in Clearwater is through a tool called "Soularium". Soularium is a picture survey to create windows of opportunity in conversation with people. By using 50 different pictures, people answer questions about life and spirituality. It is actually really cool and I look forward to using it back at school in the fall! The first question you ask people when using Soularium is "If you could choose three images to describe your life right now, what would they be?" The individual would then choose three images and you would go from there. Last night was our Small Group bible study. I am in a group with 4 other guys and two leaders here on project. Last night, our leaders asked us to choose three words to describe our life right now, and my three words were "Fun, Fellowship, and Fearful." I said "Fun" because right now my life is definitely full of fun and I am enjoying where I am at in my life right now. College is wonderful and Summer Project is an opportunity that I may never have again to be with 40 other students who all have the same goal and purpose. I chose "Fellowship" because my life is definitely full of that too. I said Fellowship for two reasons: 1) My fellowship with those around me is like never before. I have been making some great friends up at Appalachian and am also making tons of new and awesome friends here on project (such as: Kristy X10kamper, Aaron Adams, Woonks, and Alison..who are also my job search buddies), and not to forget the friends and family I have at home who are amazing as well. 2) I chose fellowship because my fellowship with God has definitely been experiencing change as well. I am learning to rely more on Him and instead of making Him just more a part of my life, actually making Him my LIFE. And then I chose "Fearful" because I feel like there are a lot of unknowns coming in the near future such as life after college and these thoughts tend to overwhelm me.

These are just some of the things I have been learning so far since being on Project and I wish I could tell you all more about all that's been going on, but this blog is definitely long enough I think. Thank you to all who supported me financially and are supporting me through prayers! I wouldn't be here without you and I thank you SO much for investing in God's kingdom as well as my own life! Thanks for reading!