Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Wilder Project #1

The first night we were in Newport Beach (in the beautiful house God provided for us to stay in!), the team sat down and we had a really good devotional together to really focus on what we were there for. Jim McKinney, the XA director at UCI and the wonderful guy who sponsored us while we were on our trip, suggested that we look at Philemon, and that's exactly what we did. Here are some of the things we came up with in our bible study that first night that helped us remember what we were doing and why:

-Don't judge others- treat everyone you meet as a brother or sister
-Have the grace of Jesus with the people you talk to, and know that HIS grace is with us!
-We should go about what we do with crazy love
    -Sharing our faith should be natural! It's part of our lifestyle as Christ-followers
-Pray constantly! We're always looking for open doors to build relationships

Here is part of the first entry I wrote about our trip:

March 16, 2010

We're only two days into this trip, and it has already been one of the most memorable experiences of my life! As Travis puts it, we're out here exercising our spiritual muscles that really should be in use every day, in every moment of our lives! And the good thing is, what we're doing here- sharing God's love at UCI!- doesn't really feel out of the ordinary. The results of actually going out and talking to people and hearing their stories and seeings Jesus get planted in their hearts (or at least the idea of Jesus), however, are always extraordinary! It's so humbling to know that God is choosing to use us to do His work! There's nothing more rewarding, and quite possibly nothing more challenging, either! Sometimes I find it so difficult to completely go out on a limb and not even be sure that what you're saying to the person you're talking to is hitting home, but you just really have to have faith that you're doing what God wants and that seeds really are being planted!



Here's some more pictures from the trip.


The church in front of the neighborhood we stayed in!


Our house! Thanks Bill and Joanne!


The incredible view of the bay from our backyard


Pretty, pretty UCI and part of the team on our first day on campus


Catch-Up

There has been a serious neglect of my poor little blog here! Life has been so exciting and crazy, and this isn't really the appropriate time to be spending time on things other than schoolwork in light of that, but oh well :). I have been journaling quite a bit, so I suppose I'll transpose some of my entries here!


Something major that happened recently was the mission I went on over the week of Spring Break- I went with 7 of my friends from Chi Alpha to Newport Beach, California, and we did outreach on the UC-Irvine campus there. It was wonderful, and BEAUTIFUL, and challenging, and God moved in such exquisite ways! I'll tell more about it here later through the journal entries I wrote while we were on the trip and in reflection of the trip. For the time being, here is a photo of the wonderful team I was on!




On another note: I can't believe that it's already April!!