Summer at the Beach. Summer With God.

Wow, what a great feeling to be back on this thing, blogging away my thoughts, feelings, and actions so that everyone of you fine people can enjoy. Or not enjoy. I hope for the former, rather than the latter, but I'm sure if you didn't like it, then you would have stopped reading by the second sentence. I'll be attempting to update this blog at least once a week, but I hope I can do it more often that that because I feel that I'll have a whole heck of a lot to share. However, the condo that we're staying at has no internet connection, which, in turn, causes a problem with blogging.

For those who may be completely out of the loop, I'm in Ft. Walton Beach with roughly 225 college students from different campuses participating in a 9 week long ministry/mission called Summer Beach Project. Basically, each colleges Campus Outreach leaders brought a group of kids down here to do this. A typical week consists of about 40 hours of work at whatever job we can find, Bible studies, sermons, intense small groups, and spreading God's Word to our co-workers and even strangers on the beach. (And we have some time to have fun, as well.)

I arrived Tuesday, got unpacked, met my room leader/ discipleship leader (or D-group leader) and roommates, and we had orientation on top of that. We were told the basic rules of Project and its theme(s), which is "Multiplying Christ-like Leaders Who: 1. Commune with God 2. Deal with Sin 3. Engage the Lost."

Wednesday we, as a whole, spent the day searching for jobs around the Ft. Walton/Destin/San Destin area. I lucked out because the day before one of my friends offered me a job at a McDonald's. Yes, I am flipping burgers and scooping fries all summer long. With that said, though, others were not as fortunate. People have still not found jobs as of today, and they need the money so they can pay the rent for our condo. Roughly 2/3 of Project have jobs now, but the others are in some serious need of prayer.

Friday night, the CO leaders set up a game of Beach Olympics, which was made up of a relay race, a tug-of-war, a sumo wrestler pit, and a series of events which were ripped off of American Gladiator. However, as we walked out onto the beach, we all stared in awe as an ominous storm hovered over the water. We managed to finish the relay, but floods immediately started coming down on us, and to say that thunder and lightning filled the sky would be an understatement. After about ten minutes of the most intense rain I've ever seen, though, it completely subsided. What hit me the hardest about this massive storm was how incredible God's power is. Just the sheer force of the winds and sound of the thunder and the lightning that streaked across the sky was so impressive, I was not scared, I was in awe of our Creator and how beautiful He is.

I'm so amazed at what this Beach Project has in store, not only for me, but for the other students here, as well. In just four days, I have seen a change in my life. Given, it's starting out subtly, but I'm in love with what is happening, and I want more of it. Our sermon tonight was on the Bible itself. The speaker tonight, Rob Shaw, told of how the Bible was the foundation of the rest of our lives. He said that he had heard a description of the Bible as the unfolding drama of redemption from Genesis to Revelation. The thing that stuck with me most about the message, though, was an analogy that he gave about God's Word. He told us that it's like dining with Jesus. That may not sound like much, but he reminded us that the special aspect about dining out is that it's a pause in one's day to enjoy time with the one who we're with. Quiet time will no longer be something that I do because I feel I need to do it. I know that when I read His Word, I'm taking a moment to get to know God more and spend time with him.

If you made it this far into this post then I'm going to thank you for going through my week with me. I can't promise that every post won't be this long, but I'll try to keep it shorter and sweeter. While I have you here I want to ask you to pray for this Project. Pray for the students to grow closer to God, for their lives to be touched. Pray for the ones without jobs to get hired. Pray for spiritual leaders to come out of this. Most importantly, pray for an effective spread of the Gospel to the residents/visitors in the area.

Anyway, I'll try to keep you updated with everything going on here. Thanks for sticking with me.

-Matt

"There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ." - Blaise Pascal