Play Music, College Kids Will Dance

Holy cow. Talk about a great night. I will tell you about it soon. First an update on the week.

Wednesday was a mostly normal workday, except for one thing. One exciting thing. The girl that came to rally on Monday night accepted Christ!!! Praise Jesus for changing her heart. I cannot believe it. Major prayers for her that the commitment will be true, and that she will make Jesus Lord of her life. After work was dinner and workshop. The workshop was so good. Here is a thought to ponder that we were mulling over.

When Jesus died on the cross, we became who we will be. But, we are now living into what we already are.

Crazy thoughts? I thought so. To end the night, he gave everyone a sharpie and we drew Biblical tattoos on ourselves that would remind us of our true identity. If you know me at all, you know that is right up my alley. :)

Thursday came and went in a blink. I had work then dinner then Bible study. All of it was good, nothing really worth noting. During Bible study we talked about all the identities we've been given/given ourselves, and then replaced those worthless identities with true identities in Christ. We made bookmarks to keep the thoughts in our heads that we might struggle with most.


Today began like most everyday. Went to work...but got some interesting information as I was there.
1) I found out that our department is getting a new home in a different location in the factory. Strange.
2) I found out that we have no overtime on Saturday or next week!!!! Praise Jesus.

After we went to dinner, we came back to begin preparing for the Morp. (Prom spelled backwards) It was a 'thrift store prom', and let me tell you, there were some ugly outfits. ;) I'll post pictures as soon as I get a little more time, so check back. It was so fun. I spent 3 hours dancing to really fun music, and let me tell you, I'm exhausted. So, that is all you're getting for now.

The Weekend.

Work on Friday was pretty typical. Busy in my department. We treated ourselves to Chick-fil-a for lunch. So good. It was that and our group date that got me through the day. I came home from work and took a quick shower before we headed to dinner. We ate with the boys at the Boathouse then drove to the Landing. This is like a little shopping mall but out the back doors is a patio with some bars and a stage and a ferry. Pretty cool. We rode the ferry and just got to know each other a little bit, then when we came back, we got ice cream and listened to the band that was playing. We did that for probably an hour, then headed back home for a game of salad bowl.


Saturday began with E-Training, as usual. Not without a Starbucks stop first. Went through that, it was about learning to question well, and some other stuff. We went out to the beaches where there was a strange amount of seaweed. Awkward. The beach was full of people, yet I didn't share with one person. Amy, who I went with, shared once with two ladies, so that was cool. I also found a huge conch shell. Also cool. We headed back to the church for debriefing, then headed home. We ate at Chick-fil-a for a quick dinner, then came back and spent the night talking with the Dordt boys and doing Bible study on and off.


Sunday began with making breakfast for the boys team that took us out on Friday. We made them bacon, hash browns, eggs and pancakes. It was pretty fun. They enjoyed themselves. We then got ready and went to church. Amy and I went to Starbucks after church during second service, which some of our group goes to, and spent time in the Word. We ate lunch at a place called Cruisers, we ate burgers, and even I ordered one. It was good. :) I spent the afternoon not on the beach, because of the rain, but in the crossings, doing more Bible study and hanging out with Crystal. I finally got to talk to Brandon on the phone for a whole 15 minutes. He has been (and still is) in Colorado at Summit. So, our schedules are very not compatible. He is 2 hours behind me, and I get up early and hopefully go to bed early. So, talking has been almost none. 


Monday began uneventfully at work. We have overtime again all week. Sigh. Overtime means working 6-4. We also have overtime on Saturday...oh well. So, the day was mostly normal except for one real funny conversation we had at the end of the day. At my table we were talking about armadillos and if they were mean or nice, because here in Florida, you see them on the side of the road dead, not really raccoons like in Iowa. A nice lady from our department heard us say the word raccoon, and was like raccoon? Y'all eat raccoon? We're like...no. haha. She was like "Oh, I love raccoon! Do you eat opossum? I can't, but my grandma eats it all the time! Do y'all eat snakes? I love snake. Tastes like chicken." Then she walks away. :) Much laughing happened after that conversation. After work was dinner and rally. We talked about Identity in Christ for the rally night, and!!!! Praise Jesus, a girl from my department who is 20 came!! :) Her name is Kia, and we've been sharing with her at work. So, you can be praying for that. After rally was bed.


Today, we had work, which again, was nothing interesting. We had dinner with Ruth Kanutizen (no clue how to spell her last name), and we asked her questions about her life. Ruth is a single lady who has been a Navigator for 32 years, and was in Kenya for 16 of those. She's a real blessing to listen to. After dinner, all us girls headed to the church for a girls night with Ruth. We talked about seeking God's will. Very refreshing. Also very interesting to hear only girls laughing. Treble overload. Then, when that finished, the sweetest thing happened. Here in Jacksonville it is raining so much, f you haven't heard. There is much flooding on the roads and ditches, because of the sandy soil. So, the boys all drove over to escort us out with umbrellas, and drive us back to safety. :) Aren't they sweet? We felt very valued. 


SO! Now you're all caught up. As much as I can remember at least. I shall hopefully post more...but we will see with all this overtime and whatnot. 


Prayer Requests for the week:

• Strength and energy. In general, but also that I would be depending on God for that.
• Prayer for a vulnerable heart with my team and with God. This week will probably bring out some tough things in everyone's lives. 
• Prayer for the Dordt ministry. I am trusting God for 5 girls to invest in this fall. I would consider this on my "impossible list", because as of last spring, I had 0. But, my God is bigger than I can even imagine. 
• Pray that I would really be learning how to love better. I am not a very good lover of girls, which I need to develop if I am to minister to girls. 
• Pray that God would be stretching me, and teaching me how to become more like Him, and that I would be quick to listen and act.

Thanks so much guys!! This summer is already almost half over. How crazy is that? Yikes.


Anyway, if you want to send me any mail or whatnot, my address is on the right side at the top. You may also call me or email me with anything!! 

Week 3: Relationships

Wow. Another week gone by. Sorry these are not more consistent. 

I shall give you a quick run-down of my life from the past week. 

It was relationships week last week. This kicked off on Monday night at rally where a couple from the program shared their story of how God worked in their lives to bring them together. 

You already heard about Tuesday.

So, Wednesday was another early morning to say the least. I was feeling pretty good, and the work day wasn't bad at all. I have began to talk to my manager (not really sure what to call him...?) about spiritual things. It is starting slow, but it is started. Talking to him is fun. He is a little older than me, but just graduated from college, and just moved to Jacksonville. He knows that we're Navigators, and we've talked about churches. It's a start considering I see him maybe twice a day. He seems to like my table a lot, and usually spends at least fifteen minutes to an hour or more standing and talking to us. Which is cool, because he almost never stops at any other tables. So thats a cool opportunity God is beginning to open.

After work on Wednesday we had our workshop night where a different couple from our program talked about emotional and physical purity. Before they began the talk, however, they gave my team a letter from a boys group. This was our group date invite. So, after workshop we opened it, and had to figure out how to decode it. After five minutes of talking and thinking, we figured out that each four number combination was a reference to a word of scripture. So that took us a few minutes to decode. With the boys team now known, we marched up to their room and knocked.

No answer. Granted, we only waited like 10 seconds, then we looked down and saw a package of Starbursts on the ground with a balloon. Liz shook the balloon and discovered a note in there. As logic would have it, this note was for us, and the only way to get it out was to pop it. So we did. As I began to read the note it said something like this....

Dear I'm Good...(the boys team who's door this was in front of)

Thanks for the group date last week...

Whoops. Not for us. 

It was at this point that they door was answered, and we had a lovely awkward conversation giving them their thank you back. haha. 

My work days have all blended together, and Thursday has nothing of merit to speak of. After work, we had dinner and then did Bible study for the remainder of the night. 

I have more, but I will give you this for now. It's dinner time, and you'll get the rest of the story later :)

Apologies. It has again been a very long time since I posted.

But it is not because I have not thought about it or wanted to, quite the opposite.

So, here we go again playing catch up.

Thursday night we went to our adopted families house (from our church). They fed us some amazing mexican food and we talked till much too late. We really had plans to leave before then, but the conversation literally had not one second of silence. So, we had no opportunity to casually excuse ourselves. So, we got back to the dorms at like 10:15. Starting Bible study at that hour of the night is a less than optimum idea. Needless to say, we were all very tired, and not in the mood for Bible study. So we cut it short, and went to bed around 11:30. 

Friday

If you haven't seen a normal day-in-the-life of Ashley, here is your chance. So, I usually get up at 5, get ready fairly quickly then sit down to have my quiet time around 5:30. I eat breakfast and do that until  6:10 when our ride leaves to go to work. We get to work around 6:45, and begin work officially at 7. We have a long morning. Work from 7-9:30 break from 9:30-9:45 (except it turns into walk to the break room from 9:30-9:35, break from 9:35-9:40, walk back) Lame. Anyway, get back to work and work until lunch at noon. Those stretches have been some of the longest of my life. Yikes. So, we have an hour lunch break which goes by so fast. We get back to our area around 12:45 and have a back massage circle. :) Then we work till our break at 2:30, then finish the day at 4. Its a long day. So, this particular friday, we got news that we were privileged (ha) to have overtime all next week. In the land of Coach, this means you begin work at 6 instead of 7. So we were all a little distressed. SO!  This Friday, we had Survivor: Jacksonville. We were split up into teams, and my team was ready to win. We ate dinner together, trying to figure out our team cheer/chant, then headed back to the Crossings (our dorms). The four activities were: Life size minesweeper, eating spam and anchovies, the hang, and king of the hill. Minesweeper was pretty much finding our way without talking through a grid. Eating is self explanatory. The hang was a guy and a girl from each team had to hang from the balcony bars for as long as they could. Much to all your surprises, I got nominated for this. I was in the top 1/4, but the railings are slippery, so lost that one. Then King of the hill was a huge mound of mattresses that a person had to climb on and keep hold of it for 10 seconds while the other teams were trying to knock them off with pillows and shoving. Very safe. :) Anyway, we pretty much lost. haha, but it was still a lot of fun. :) Afterward we went out with our team Gumbati for some froyo.

This is Liz and me on the way to froyo. (for those of you who don't speak college kid...froyo = frozen yougurt)

Saturday 

So, there is no rest for the weary, especially at Jax. I was up at 6 to have quiet time with one of my friends, then we went to pray for the nations. That took until 8: 45 when we left to go to E-Training. Of corse, we stopped and got our Starbucks (Thanks mom!! :) :) :) ) E-Training this week was about our testimonies. We spent the morning in the Word, then headed to the beach to share at 1. Unlike last week, the beach was FULL of people. When we first stepped onto the beach, there was a gypsy-looking crowd of people dancing and playing and singing, so naturally we went up to them and asked what they were doing. They claimed that the dancing and chanting of God's name (in some language I do not know) draws them closer to God. We tried to feel out where they were coming from, but the music was very loud. I went this week with a girl from another team. We had the privilege of talking with two older ladies who ended up being strong believers. They were eager to talk, so we asked them about their testimonies, and prayed with them. Huge blessing, we continued on and got rejected many many times. Some had already been asked, some just didn't care, but God is faithful. I have come to realize after three debriefings, that God might not work visibly in the people that I talk to, but he has always worked in someone. And, if all of us hadn't gone out, that interaction never would have taken place. So, yes beach evangelism is scary. It takes much prayer and boldness to talk to people, but in the ways I've seen God work, I don't know how I could pass up the opportunities that lay waiting. Just to show you one example of God working in cold evangelism....Two girls last week were feeling very nervous, so they decided to pray and practice the bridge for an hour. There were not too many people, but by the time they got up to go walk around, lots of people were dispersed along the beach. They had walked not one minute when they came upon a lady, who they stopped to talk to, and before they could even begin the bridge illustration, the lady broke down in tears, because she had just finished praying that God would send someone to encourage her, and show her the way back to Him. They prayed and cried the whole next hour together with a complete stranger showing her truth, and exchanging contact info. There have been many stories like that, and God is working. :)

This is my team, ready to go out for Kayla's birthday.

After evangelism, we came back and got ready to go. It was my teammate Kayla's birthday! We went to Moe's (a burrito place that is definitely not as good as pancheros), then we went to the pier. :) We had a great time taking pictures, and we even held a baby shark that someone had caught. We ended the night with a game of bowling, and then collapsed from exhaustion.

These pictures are from the pier.

Sunday

Me and Thys. 

Got up early, again, to have quiet time before heading off to church. During second service, I help out with the little kids. :)

For anyone who knew me as a child, especially for my mom, this little girl is in the nursery at church. Doesn't she kinda resemble me with her glasses? :)

After church, all the Jax people piled in three cars and headed to St. Augustine. I think it's the oldest town in the USA? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I'm told. Its basically this cute touristy town with lots of shopping and whole-in-the-wall places to eat. We began with lunch where most of us got UFO's. This is basically a burrito that is instead of a cylinder, more like the shape of a ufo. Crazy,  I know. Then they grill it. It was real good.

We then split into different groups and went around to the different shops. I didn't really get anything besides a really good quarter pound of peanut butter fudge, and a delish iced white mocha from the most adorable coffee shack as seen here:

This is the fort.

This is Jill and I at the fort. We were sending this to our friend Rachel. 

My team at the fort.

We then went back to the Crossings, and I did a little Bible study before a meeting. We had to come up with a skit for rally night about relationships. :) That lasted far too long, and as soon as it was over, I folded my laundry and went to bed.

Monday

Up at 4, worked till 4, then ate dinner quick. We went to rally and had a great time doing our skit, and heard a great testimony of one of the couples here with us this summer.

(This was our skit group) (good lookin kids huh?) :)

They're story was far from perfect, but it was great to see problems turned over to God, and Him working out a love story that could never have worked otherwise. Came back to the Crossings, had team prayer time, did some more b-stud, and went to bed.

Tuesday

Woke up at 4, had my quiet time,worked till 4. This day was rough. I was quite sleepy most of the day from lack of people to talk to. Ate dinner, then watched a great scene happening in the Crossings as the police attempted to free a guy who was stuck in the elevator. :) I then had my one-on-one with Jill as we talked about relationships and God's plan for relationships and the awesome relationship he has given me :) I am so blessed with a Godly man. After we came back, I played some soccer with some fellow Jax people, and then drove to Starbucks again with Crystal to get some liquid energy for the morning. Crystal is an amazing girl that I have become friends with. She is so good. Praise God for sweet relationships. Anyway...I NEED to go to bed!  I have to be up at 4 am once again.

Prayer Requests:

- My friend Rachel Dietrich is sick and in the hospital, pray that God would heal her body and that he would be glorified in the process. 

- Pray for energy this week. It is stressful all around, being relationship week, but also we have mandatory overtime, so that is draining. Pray that I would continually draw energy and dependence from God, not my own strength.

- Pray that I (and everyone) would be faithful to God in daily quiet times and finishing Bible study well.

That is all my tired self can think of. Thank's so much for your prayers! Love y'all!

Day Off!

Wednesday was a strange day at Coach.

First strange part...we were re-tagging pants. Pants..? Who knew Coach made pants.

Second part was after about two hours of that, we got to go back and start over.

Somewhere along the line, we printed the wrong tags. 

No good.

So we did them all again. But it was alright, gave us work to do.

But, we got word that we get the next days off. 

We had workshop last night which was good, we talked about scripture memory and meditation. 

And I ended the night with a one-on-one.

Today we have the day off!!!

We cleaned our dorm for an hour this morning (all the coach girls). 

And now we're sitting at Lilly's finishing up Bible study, then headed to the BEACH! :D

Super exciting. 

:) :) :)

1 Peter 3: 16-17

All scripture is breathed out by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

:D

And here I am again, attempting to catch up.

Thursday:

To finish off what you missed after I posted on Thursday..

We had Bible study at Lilly's (a coffee shop by the beach). 

We had a really good discussion

and are definitely becoming more vulnerable with each other. :)

It was a late night of prayer and reflection, but a great first team Bible study. 

Friday:

First day of work at Coach! It was pretty good, very tiring. I work in the 'special projects' department. 

Basically I re-tag things and make them more expensive ;)

So. Woke up at 5 (that's going to get old), then worked till 4.

We at dinner with the boys in the Boathouse, and then began our first date.

We began by playing bigger and better.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the game, you begin with a penny.

You walk around to houses and ask people to help you out, and give you something bigger or better than what you currently have. 

The playing field we got was a slightly sketchy part of town, and so we began with many unanswered doors.

We finally got someone to answer, but the boy talking explained it so poorly, that the poor lady probably thought we were going to steal from her.

So I jumped in and re-explained things, and we walked away with some old books. 

We then rounded the corner and talked to a few slightly intoxicated people and walked away with an apple...not sure if that was bigger or better, but I wasn't going to argue.

:)

After that, we decided to call it quits, because it was getting dark, and starting to rain. 

We met the other half of the group at Ritas (an ice cream shop) where we all got ice cream.

We then headed to Wal-Mart and played "put 20 random things in your cart-then switch carts and see who can put the items back first"

Fun right? :) It was lots of fun, but we were So tired!

So, I went back and worked on some Bible Study in one of the many hammocks around the dorms. :)

Saturday:

Went to E-Training in the morning, but a quick stop at Starbucks first. :)

In E-Training, we talked about God's heart for evangelism, and how he pursues his people. 

I went into evangelism this week with the mindset that the people are "lost and harassed, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36) Instead of a mindset that they have no interest in what I have to say. 

So, there we were about to leave for the beach, and a rainstorm had just passed, but it was still very cloudy and stormy looking. When we got to the beach, we were the only people there besides the lifeguards. Ha. So most of our first half hour was spent walking in two's and praying. 

In not too long, the sun started to peak through, and people began showing up. I shared twice with two who claimed going to church, and Kayla shared with two girls our age who were on a choir tour. So that was cool.

I went out to dinner with the boys from Dordt where we just laughed and talked about Jax thus far. We then hit up Lilly's to discuss ministry things. We got slightly sidetracked by the very loud jazz band playing here, but we got in some good conversation.

This is the Dordt boys smiling for a picture.

This is the Dordt boys as they actually are. :) :)

This is Jason and Jon. They're going to be roomies next year. :)

Sunday:

Thankfully this day was less eventful.

We got up and went to church, I started helping out in the very small children room during second service. After church, a bunch of us went to Chipotle and ate some burritos.

We were supposed to have Thrift Store Prom on Friday, so we went to goodwill and picked out some REALLY cute outfits, but that got postponed till later in the summer.

I took a GLORIOUS nap, then ate some dinner, skyped my wonderful parents, talked to Brandon and went to bed. 

Monday:

Got up at 5 to get ready and have quiet time. Left for work at 6:15. Work was fairly uneventful, and was back to the dorms by 5. Long day.

But, I had to quickly regain my energy because we were off to dinner and then to Rally Night! :D

I know you can't tell from my posts, but it has been raining SO MUCH here. Like, every day. This was one of those times, only this time, it was sunny and pouring. I don't get it. But, I was okay with it, because there was a FULL rainbow. It was fantastic. 

Rally night consisted of some great worship, a hilarious skit, and some good teaching about why we should build our lives on the Word of God.

I really enjoyed his pointes, but I think my biggest takeaway was about spending time with Jesus. I'll share it with you too :)

I don't need to be looking to learn something from my quiet times. If i do, thats fantastic, and praise God. But, if I don't, that is just as good. I need to be enjoying and doing my quiet times because of who I'm spending them with. I have a relationship with God, and just being together is a huge part of that. 

:)

And another little point for fun...

It's not about how much you know, it's about how much you apply.

After rally ended, I met Jason Rivera, a friend of Brandon's. That was fun to put a face to a name I hear very often. 

After that it was a quick talk with Brandon and to bed!

TODAY! Aka: Tuesday.

Got up at 5, got ready and had quiet time. I really tried to focus on just being with God, and enjoying him, not trying to get something out of it for me. 

We stopped by Starbucks this morning for a little pick-me-up on the way to work.

Again, an uneventful day of re-tagging handbags and wristlets. 

Came home, and went to dinner with my girls.

Now, I'm at Lilly's (again) and writing to you, and soon to be working on my Bible study for this week.

Phew. That was long. Sorry that wasn't more spread out. I'll try my best to give more frequent updates. 

In my next post, I hope to give you pictures and quick bio's of my teammates, so you can see who I'm living with :)

Man, God is working. We're learning to trust and enjoy him each day, and in every way. I'm definitely learning about sacrifice, and unconditional love in living with my teammates. 

It's definitely not all smiles and rainbows. You are getting the happy moments of my life, but know that there have already been hard things. Many tears have been shed by all of my team as we work through things together, and let God heal us, and love us. 

Some ways you can be praying...

1) Pray that each day I (and everyone) would be relying on God's strength and energy. If we're still running on our own, it won't last much longer.

2) Pray that my time in the Word would be focused and enjoyable. As I learn to enjoy spending time with God, and how to value the Word as I should.

3) Pray for Dordt, as we already are. Pray that God would be preparing girls for me to invest in, and help grow closer to Him. 

4) Pray for team unity, as the "honeymoon" period is probably coming to a close. 

5) Pray that God would continuously be reveling himself to us in huge ways, and that this program would never be about anything besides growing in my relationship with Him. 

Thanks so much for your support and prayers!!!! :) :) :)

 Love you all!! :) :) :)

Gearing Up!

It's already Thursday of week one!

Yesterday, the entirety of the staff that didn't have jobs, wen't over to Coach, and had to fill out paperwork and do all that fun stuff. 

Needless to say, I'm glad that's over! 

This is how silly we all looked sucking on the drug tests. Ahaha!

Passed that drug test with flying colors! :)

So, yesterday after coming the paperwork, I went to Starbucks to work on Bible Study with my friend Courtney.

After dinner it was workshop night! Same topic of intimacy with God. It was so good. Mike Jordhal is a great speaker. We focused a lot on what it might look like in our lives to deepen our intimacy with Christ. Good night to think through things, and just reflect.

THEN!

In my last post, I forgot to mention (or it happened afterward), that we got a note from a boy's team inviting us on a group date! Every other friday is group dates. Each girls team is asked out by a boys team to do something fun.

Ours said:

Dear Team Shalem,

This is your invitation to the group date this Friday evening. To accept this invitation, please sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on Wednesday at 9:33 p.m. (sharp) on the third-floor balcony above the stage. Here's a penny for your thoughts, but you'll never guess what we're doing!! 

Warm Regards, Team ______

P. S. Please bring me along this weekend! (in regards to the penny taped to the paper. 

SO! At 9:33 our team gathered in the balcony and sang twinkle twinkle little star in a three part round.

We sounded great. haha. And as we sang, there were boys right under us, Kurt's team, who were the note writers.

We have a group date tomorrow night, and we're really excited! :) 

Today, I just lounged around and did random things.

I finished up my Bible study, had quiet time, cleaned our room a bit, and took a nap!

I also got the great call that I get to work tomorrow!! :) :)

So excited!

It's about time to head to dinner, then we have team Bible study after that.

God is working so much in me and my team. He knows what we need, and he is already beginning to uncover things that he want's us to work on or give up to Him.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support!! :)

Praise Jesus

!!!!!!!!!!!I HAVE A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!

Praise Jesus. Seriously.

After an absolutely exhausting day of job searching, God has provided.

Listen to this God story, my friends.

About 80 of us began this day without jobs.

God provided my roommie (Liz) with a job at State farm today! :)

After dinner, I had a one-on-one with my team leader, Jill.

It was fantastic, and I'm so excited to meet with her every week! :)

But, onward with the story.

Basically...Coach factory and Bacardi called and said they want all the team members we have.

EVERY ONE OF US!

Thats like 70 people!!

God knew what we needed and provided. 

Why would I ever doubt?

I am breathing a sigh of relief, and so are many people, but please please pray for the 10 or so team leaders who didn't get jobs (because they don't work full time).

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

A Whirlwind of Days

The purpose of posting frequently is so I don't forget things.

I have already failed at that.

Where to begin?!?

Thursday: 

Job search begins. We split up into teams of cars and divided and conquered Jacksonville.

We got apps, talked to people, went around. Very exhausting. 

We had dinner at the Boathouse, then went to Ritas. 

Ritas is a local ice cream (frozen yogurt) place.

After that, we went back to campus and had some team bonding. We made individual and team goals, along with a bucket list that we want to get done. I'll post that later. :)

We then played spicy uno and headed for bed.

Friday:

Back on the hunt for jobs. Today we went out and began at Starbucks online.

Then we continued on and just went into places. 

I spent the afternoon back at Starbucks skyping Brandon and searching for nannying/camp jobs online.

It was nice and relaxing after a draining morning.

After dinner at the Boathouse, we went to the beach as a whole to take a group picture and have a sandcastle building contest. 


 Here is the Dordt team (and some photo bombers in the back). :)
Praise Jesus for the lives he has claimed.

We always look good.

This is Courtney and I. :) Sisters in Christ.

It was quite fun, but we didn't win. :)

We then all jumped in the ocean, and braved the waves as the sun went down. 

Saturday:

Up early to go to E-Training. (Evangelism training)

Talked about why we need the gospel, and practiced the bridge. 

We ate a quick lunch around 1 and my group of 4 teams headed out.

We had the privilege of going to a beach that we got to take a ferry to get to!

We drove our cars onto the ferry, then onto the beach. So cool.
This is the view from the ferry. And those, my friends, are pelicans! 

Needless to say, as soon as we opened the door of the van to get out on the beach, I got a stomach ache.

There's just something about cold evangelism that is nerve-wracking. 

But, we got to it anyway, because we had a short amount of time.

I went first (I was going around with Liz). 

The first lady I approached ended up not speaking english. That worked out really well. :)

But God was faithful and gave me a yes the next lady I asked. 

I shared the bridge with her, and although no real sign of interest was shown, it is my place to be faithful, and God's place to do the work.

Liz went next and shared with a girl our age. She knew about Jesus, and was nice and listened, but again no real interest. 

I then got rejected four times in a row, but spotted two girls our age laying down together, so I walked up.

They were really friendly, and agreed to see the illustration. I shared the bridge, and we had some good conversation. They didn't seem to be Christians, but they were the most engaged and interested. One of them gave the reason that she wanted to be open to all things, and the other had no idea what was holding her back. 

Praise Jesus for such a good day! 

We then debriefed, and went back to campus. We went to Angie's subs for dinner with a mishmash group of kids, and had a good time. As soon as I got back to campus, I went to Starbucks with Jason and Ethan (Dordt boys) and we worked on Bible study as we just relaxed and made friends with the baristas and fellow customers. 

This is Becca and I at Angie's. :) 

Sunday:

Got up for church (service at 11) :) :) :) Sleep = so good. 

Went to a small mobile church called River Town.

When I say small, I mean like, we made up 1/2 - 2/3 of the congregation. 

They were so friendly, however, and adopted us right into the family.

We ate lunch with them, and signed up for different ministry opportunities. 

We then went to the beach for the afternoon, and got some sun :)

Dinner and a run finished out my night.

God is working in crazy ways already! He is definitely stretching me with my trust for him in providing a job. I am a prime example of 2 Corinthians 4: 7-9. I'm doing my best to not be discouraged, because my God is so much bigger than finding a job.


Today (aka: Monday):
Oh today. Again out on the hunt for a job. Looked/applied/got rejected for jobs from 8:30 this morning till 5:30 tonight. Phew.


Praise Jesus. I have the opportunity to trust Him more than some others do.
Also praise Jesus. I have an interview with a nanny service on Thursday. 
Pray that someone needs a full time nanny. :D


After dinner, it was RALLY NIGHT! :D 
Rally night is basically a kick off to the week. We have praise and worship, a skit, and then a message. Tonight was by Mike Jordahl on intimacy with Christ. It was great. 


Before we got to the message, however, we had some drawings from the bowl of horrible. Let me tell you a bit about the bowl of horrible.
It is a bowl that has horrible things in it, for people who break rules. :)


In this picture, we see Kurt being a human mic stand, because he was out past curfew. 
:)

This is Liz. :) She got the bowl of horrible for also being out past curfew. Her punishment is to wear this stylish hamburger shirt (XL) and leather pants to dinner tomorrow.
She'll rock it. She's classy like that.

:)

Anyway, just a few take aways from rally night...

1) I must count everything I have as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. There is nothing on earth or in heaven that is worth anything besides him.

2) There can be no seeking Jesus and. It must be only Jesus. 

Prayer Requests:

- That my team would continue to grow together as we grow in our relationships with God

- That those of us who don't have a job yet would not be discouraged, but that we would trust God with  this wholeheartedly, and that God would prove to be faithful.

- That we would find jobs.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support! I am so blessed. 

If someone were to send me a Starbucks card I would not be sad...haha.

That will be my weakness this summer, I can already tell.

Have a great day! :) Love you all! Ashley!