Week #2

What a whirlwind of a week. I think I’m only going to be updating on Mondays because now that I’ve started work, it’s been harder to sit down and blog every single day. I did start work at Whataburger last Wednesday. I was only a little nervous on the first day. I prayed a lot for the Lord to give me strength and peace. He really did! I made it through the day. I worked the next 3 days and am quickly picking up how to be a Whatagirl and slowly learning to like it. I see such an opportunity to witness and just love on the other employees there. Right now I am just trying to get to know the employees. Watching the other girls cuss, yell, and carry on makes me sad. It reminds me of the old me. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed and the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Now I try to display a “gentle and quiet spirit” while at work. The other workers and managers say that I’m doing a good job and are already saying they’ll hate to see me go at the end of the summer.
One thing that God is working on in my life is giving me a burden for the lost. We had our evangelism conference this weekend. The first night we worked on our testimonies and then went to different tourist areas in Destin. My team went to The Track and we read "The Hideous Doctrine" by John Thomas. It is a very detailed description of hell. I recommend you read it at: http://www.bethanycentral.org/resources/docs/258-.pdf
As I was observing the people at The Track, at a place of temporary joy, my heart broke. I felt physical pain in my chest for the lost. I don’t want anyone to go to hell. It is a terrible, awful, painful place. I’ve been praying since for God to break my heart for the lost. He has answered that prayer: you see a lot of interesting people in Whataburger, especially late at night into the early morning. This Saturday I was there at 6am. Two girls came in that clearly just came from the club and were still drunk. For the next 30 minutes they were there, I was nauseous. My stomach hurt so bad like I was going to throw up. Almost as soon as they left, I felt better. I prayed so hard for those girls. I pray that they will encounter the Lord at some point before it is too late. It is just so sad to see people trying to find fulfillment in drinking and partying. You can't find it anywhere else but in Christ.
Saturday night we went out sharing our faith. When my disciple and I finally found someone to talk to, we figured out that she was a believer. But it was still good to talk to her and I still showed her the bridge diagram. She took it with her to show her kids. Sunday was another day of rest. The water was beautiful! The oil is definitely not here yet but it is speculated to get here soon. We shall see.
I just got the fantastic news that my brother will be playing baseball for Northwest Shoals Community College this fall! That is right across the river from me at UNA! The baseball team is heavily involved with Campus Outreach and several of their players are here at Project. Please be prayer warriors with me to pray that my brother finds God’s amazing love and the fact that He pursues an intimate relationship with us through the guys on the baseball team. Who knows, maybe he’ll be at Project next year!
Stay tuned and faithful to God.
In Christ,
Christine Black ><>

Sunday, June 6, 2010

What a glorious Sabbath! I know I am really going to look forward to Sundays this summer. This morning, I got up a little earlier so I could get into the Word with another one of the Room Leaders, Abby. It was good to go through it together this morning. We had been trying to do it for a couple of days but I’m so glad that the Lord ordained it to be this morning because I needed help interpreting that scripture! Then off we went to church. We had “campus time” first in which just the UNA and Northwest Shoals kids hung out and we talked about the importance of going to church. The service was great and it was so wonderful to see the room filled. This church only has 25 committed members. James preached on Ruth again. The main point he made was that just because you are living life by faith, doesn’t mean that it will be a life of comfort and ease. God teaches us through hardships. It was so great to hear this repeated while we are down here. Some people are still looking for jobs and the oil is projected to hit the coast tomorrow. But we all know we must trust in the Lord. We must continue to praise Him like Job did. We must praise Him through this “storm.” We also had communion at church which is such a blessing.
Afterwards, we as a campus went out to lunch and shared in fellowship together. And of course, we hit the beach! Most of Project was out there today which made it fun. It was still a red flag today so needless to say, a bunch of us were out in the waves. Unfortunately, a lifeguard told us to “stay shallow” so we didn’t get to mess around anymore. We had Olive Garden catered for dinner (spoiled I know) and then had Reflection Time. For Reflection Time, we can go anywhere in the Ft. Walton area and just reflect on the past week on what God’s been teaching us. My sorority sister Shelly and I went to the bay. It was very peaceful. But that was our second attempt. We went to one side of the bay first where children were playing, adults were talking on their cell phones, and boats drove by with their radios turned up. I told Shelly I needed to be in silence and solitude; that bay side was not cutting it. After Reflection Time was Worship Planning. We worshipped, had a talk on how our whole life is worship, prayer time, and time to plan out our week. Afterwards, when my girls came back to our room, we laughed and cut up for over an hour. We had a blast! We are definitely growing closer together as a group. I just pray that it will carry over to our discipleship group. Our first official meeting is tomorrow night. I will be spending most of tomorrow planning for it.
So for this summer, as a whole Project, we are reading David Platt’s Radical. David Platt preaches at the Church of Brook Hills in Birmingham. Apparently it is a phenomenal church. This book is about turning the American Dream upside down. I just finished Crazy Love and have been convicted about how I’m making some things important like what I wear, what car I drive, and what cell phone I talk on. The first chapter of Radical is called “Someone Worth Losing Everything For: What Radical Abandonment to Jesus Really Means.” Let me share with you a few things he said that stuck out to me.
“We as Christ followers in American churches have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical but that actually contradict the gospel we claim to believe.”
“But if Jesus is who he said he is, and if his promises are as rewarding as the Bible claims they are, then we may discover that satisfaction in our lives and success in the church are not found in what our culture deems most important but in radical abandonment to Jesus.”
“We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.”
This is only a glimpse of one chapter of this book. I highly recommend it to anyone.
Please pray for me as I prepare for our first discipleship group.
Stay tuned and recklessly abandoned to Christ.
In Christ,
Christine ><>

Saturday, June , 2010

What a day. This morning, we began by going to our host churches to serve them. UNA went to our church for the summer, Safe Harbor. We cleaned the church and did some painting. It was great to start the summer off by serving, as to remind ourselves that we can’t get too stuck on ourselves at SBP. It was also a good bonding time for us that go to school together. Northwest Shoals Community College has joined UNA’s Campus Outreach so I got to meet some of the baseball players that will be spending the summer with us. We have a lot of athletes here: baseball players from all three schools and football players from UNA and Samford. We have something here called Athletes In Training (AIT). They work part-time jobs and then work out together in the afternoons. It is great for them to work out together and glorify God with their bodies.
After we went to the church, a few of us headed down to the beach. The seaweed and algae is really bad in front of our motel so we walked down the beach a little bit until we found clearer water. It was a red flag so the waves were huge and ferocious! We got in for a little and enjoyed getting knocked around a little. Then it started to rain so I decided to go ahead and call it a day. Of course as soon as I showered, the sun came out again. None of my disciples were around though so I took the time to clean the room. It needed it bad and I thought it would be great for them to come back to a clean room. It was only slightly appreciated but I was humbled by it. Service isn’t always appreciated. I was awakened from a nap by the sound of thunder and lightning. This time it was a big storm. It rained hard for a long time and flooded the roads. I sat in the living room, looking out the window at the storm while reading John Piper’s Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. The chapter I was reading was perfect for the situation; it was called “The Waves and Winds Still Know His Voice.” It was so neat reading what Piper had to say about God’s glory in the storm and the water while watching both out of my window.
“The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” Psalm 29:3-5 (ESV)
“He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.” Psalm 135:7 (ESV)
“Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!” Psalm 148:7-8 (ESV)
Then we went to one of our host churches and had a talk on the Word. First, in the spirit of competition, we had some challenges among the teams. One guy from each team had to drink a mix of food such as tuna, jalapenos, chocolate, etc. It was so nasty. They each had a trash can in front of them in case they spewed. Only 2 of them did. The other 3 downed the whole cup! For the girls, each girl had to stand in a box of creepy crawlers to see who could stand it the longest. The crawlers? Mice! It was the weirdest thing. The girls did really well. Then they had to pick one up. Someone thought it would be funny to throw one across the room. So yes, a mouse went flying across the room in my direction. Luckily, one of the guys threw up his hand and caught it. I’d have to say it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life! And then it happened again on the other side of the room. So hilarious.
Things got serious and we spent awhile in the Word together, discussing its importance our need for it. At the end, we all got copies of the ESV Study Bible. I love it! I’ve always wanted a study Bible. We left the meeting and had several hours before curfew. I headed back to the Sandman to see what was going on. I spent a little while out on the beach crab hunting. Then, I went up to the second floor breezeway where a bunch of people were standing around talking. They came up with the bright idea to make a tunnel and have me and my sorority sisters run through it. Well that turned into everyone taking turns running through the tunnel, to “let’s do it to music,” to a full out dance party in a breezeway that couldn’t have been more than a few feet wide. We had a blast. However, a lady from the neighborhood came to complain. She was trying to be nice about it but used some rough language and didn’t believe that we didn’t have alcohol. She threatened to “shut us down” and everything. It kind of ruined the mood and we learned our lesson. My room then met for a few minutes to get into the Word together for bed. Today was a great day and I’m so glad the Lord blessed me with it.
Please pray for unity in my discipleship group.
Stay tuned and stay in awe of the Lord.
In Christ,
Christine ><>

Friday, June 4, 2010

So today was another day of job searching in Destin for my 2 other disciples. They applied at one place that seemed promising and then they got a call for an interview at another place! When we got back, I took a 2-hour nap. I was so exhausted. Afterwards I went to Wal-Mart to get a few things for Beach Olympics tonight. I went by myself because I needed some alone time. It was good to get away and be by myself in my car and practice patience while in Wal-Mart on a Friday. I bought black bandanas for all of the girls on my team (our team color is black, which is perfect for me) and black paint for everyone. We took wearing our colorings literally and to the extreme! Beach Olympics consists of ridiculous relay games and competitions on the beach. I was part of the relay race that was titled “Operation Baywatch.” I had to run into the ocean, pretend I was drowning, and then wait to be “saved” by another team member. Oh, I should probably tell you that we were doing this with lightning all around us. A HUGE storm came through. The clouds were so dark and the lightning was intense. All I could do was look at it with awe and fear. I thought about how our view of God should be. We should be in awe of His might and glory.
“Praise the Lord, Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in his commands.” Psalm 112:1
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10
“Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you-majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” Exodus 15:11
“and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory.” Ezekiel 43:2
I took notice to people’s reactions when they looked at the sky. They were scared. They were in awe. You could just see it in their faces. That’s how we should be with God. Others should know that we fear the Lord by our “unveiled” faces (“And we, with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” 2 Corinthians 3:18). Then it poured raining and we were all soaked. We took a break to get out of the storm. However, there was nothing we could do about it; everyone was drenched. That is the glory of God. He’s all around us; He will affect us; there is no way to avoid Him. Just like if someone were to get hit by an 18-wheeler. You WILL be affected by something that big. You can’t say you didn’t feel anything or nothing happened.
Then the storm was over. The clouds subsided and there was light again. That parallels the other side of God. The lamb. He is loving and gentle. I also thought about God’s promise to Noah after the flood: the rainbow. He promised with the rainbow that we would never flood the earth again. There are storms in our lives but God holds His promises and places rainbows in the sky. God taught me so much just from that one storm.
Beach Olympics continued until dark. My team tied for 3rd place unfortunately. We still had a blast and we laughed a lot .
Then the girl who disciples me in Florence came to visit. I was so happy to see her! We just hung out with people she went to New Zealand with last year on CCP (Cross Cultural Project). It was fun. I drove her to San Destin and back and made it back to the Sandman at 12:59am. Curfew was at 1:00am. Cutting it close. When I came in the room, the girls were in here already talking. I ended up having to have a relationship talk with one girl; she met a friend of mine and “really” likes him and wants me to hook them up. She’s been here for 3 days! She needs to understand that she needs to be praying for God to guard her heart and not to entertain thoughts about him.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23
Great day.
Stay tuned and stay in awe of the Lord.
In Christ,
Christine ><>

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Thursday, June 3, 2010
The Lord is so good! I was hired today! I can’t even explain to you how we got it; it was truly a miracle. Apparently countless people were turned away but we were hired on the spot! One of my disciples and I were hired at Whataburger in Destin. I am so excited to be working in fast food again. I prayed for God to put me out of my comfort zone and I wound up in the middle of it; but I know the Lord is going to challenge me in countless other ways this summer. Laura has never worked in food before so another way I can serve her is to assist her and be an example at work for her. We completed all of the necessary paperwork and will wait on the manager’s call for us to begin.
“Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love for me!” Psalm 66:16-20
Tonight, the whole Project talked about enjoying God. We talked about how eternal life is knowing and enjoying God. God promises us gifts such as eternal life, grace, deliverance from hell and suffering, forgiveness, and heaven. However, as good as these gifts are, they will never satisfy us. The gifts are meant to lead us into a greater relationship with the Lord. We are to never love the gifts more than the Giver Himself.
“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, French mathematician
After we got back from our talk, the girls hung out outside for awhile and I stayed inside for some alone time. I was with other people all day and I needed a break for my sanity. I continued to read Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I was inspired when reading about Christians who are living radically in order that Jesus’ name is to be made known.
Then my girls and I had a meeting to “debrief” and talk about our day. Michele and Liz still haven’t found a job but I think a couple sound promising. Even though Laura and I found jobs, I will go with Michele and Liz tomorrow while they are job hunting in order to support them. We read some scripture about hope and not worrying or getting discouraged. The girls really opened up. Right now they are in the bedroom laughing and cutting up. They are getting along really well and I’m pleased with how close we are in fact growing.
Please continue to pray for the rest of the students on Project as they continue to job hunt. Please pray for my patience with people.
Stay tuned and stay hopeful in the Lord.
In Christ,
Christine ><>

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Wednesday, June 02, 2010
So today was the first full day at Project with the disciples. We got up this morning and went to one of our host churches for a meeting about finding jobs in the community. The staff guys just gave us some pointers on how to approach hiring managers and where to look for jobs. We left the church around 10:00am. My group was assigned to begin looking in Destin. We went to a lot of places. Many places said they weren’t hiring, needed people for night shifts, they have already finished hiring for the summer, or for us to apply online. We just picked up as many applications as we could, no matter how many people they were willing to hire. We ended up splitting up two and two and it actually worked better that way. We had a great lead at a beachfront restaurant in Destin. Someone told our Team Leader that they would hire at least 3 and maybe a couple more. We filled out the applications and waited to speak with her and then she told us maybe she’d hire 1 of us for the day shift. It was kind of disappointing but God is slowly beginning to open doors. I took Laura to Panera and we sat there for 3 hours on our computers applying online to stores such as Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Ross, Stein Mart, and Pizza Hut. We turned in applications to Rue 21 and we are going tomorrow to a Motel 6. This motel is in great need for housekeeping. I am praying that the Lord will provide a job as humbling as housekeeping. My mom would have a hard time believing that I actually want to clean motel and hotel rooms. I don’t mind cleaning and what a great opportunity to minister to the other cleaning ladies. Another girl group is going with us tomorrow so if we don’t get the job, we will attempt other hotels and hit restaurants and stores we missed.
Today was such a crazy day. We didn’t stop the job hunt until 7:00pm. We spent nearly 9 hours looking for jobs! But I think we did pretty well for our first day. We have to make sure that we don’t get discouraged; it’s only day one! I know that the Lord will provide. God sent His own Son who knew no sin to become sin so that we could be reconciled to Him (2 Corinthians 5). If God loves me that much to send His own Son to die, I know and believe with every fiber of my being that He has jobs for us. He may wait until the last minute to reveal them to us but in the mean time, our trust and faith in Him will grow stronger. I keep thinking about how Jesus came to this earth not to be served but to serve. I am looking forward to working in a place that I can serve the residents and tourists of Destin.
Please be praying for job openings for my D group along with the rest of Project.
Stay tuned and remain in Him.
In Christ,
Christine ><>

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Today was the big day! This morning we had some last minute training and then us leaders took some time to go look for jobs. We drove around looking but a lot of places just said to call back later. Then starting at 1pm the disciples started to arrive! It was so fun to meet everyone and help them move in. I am a very friendly person when it comes to meeting new people. I felt like I was at camp again meeting the campers for the first time. One of my disciples Laura from Montevallo came first. She was really sweet and I helped her move in and we talked for awhile. My other two girls from Samford didn’t come until later but I was so glad they did come! Their names are Michele and Liz. Everyone’s sweet. I think we’ll get along pretty well but there will be some challenges. The makeup of my girls is an answer to my prayers; I prayed that I would be challenged this summer. The girls I discipled last semester were fantastic and all beautiful believers that were hungry for the Word. It will be very different this summer.
After all of the girls got here we went to a Mexican restaurant called Tijuana Flats. We just sat there and got to know each other. It’s important for me to start to get to know these girls so I can better serve them and see where they are spiritually. After dinner, we went to an orientation meeting. It was so fun to see the whole sanctuary of the church filled with students. We have probably 150 from UNA, Samford, and Montevallo alone. During the meeting, Chad Walker (UNA CO staff) talked about CO’s purpose (“Multiplying Christ-like Leaders”) and our 3 big “wins”: commune with God, deal with sin, and engage the lost. I think it was great for him to lay out why we’re here right from the get-go. Afterwards, we played the game “Bigger and Better.” Each team was given $1. We had to find something bigger that we could trade $1 for. Then we could trade that for something bigger. And then bigger and so on. My group basically just knocked on doors in Ft. Walton neighborhoods and asked if anyone was getting rid of anything. We got a couch, a ping-pong table, bag of clothes, tennis balls, and more. We won the competition!!! We had a blast and it was a great way to start getting to know the members of our team.
After the game, we had a watermelon social outside to hang out with everyone. It was fun getting to meet new people. Then my group went upstairs and finished unpacking and setting up our room. Then we had a “group meeting” to talk about the next day and the job situation. It’s going to be tough finding jobs. I really want all 4 of us to work together but we may have to split up. I am really looking for a job that is out of my comfort zone and that will humble me. One of the girls is really against food but I so want her to learn and grow from this job experience. So now I’m kind of looking for a restaurant job. We will go as a group tomorrow to look. I’ve been praying a lot about this and I trust that the Lord will provide.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding but acknowledge him in everything you do and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6
Please pray for the cohesiveness of our discipleship group and for job openings.
Stay tuned and stay tuned with the Lord.
In Christ,
Christine ><>

Monday, May 31, 2010

Monday, May 31, 2010
Today was such a long day. Actually, it’s not even Monday anymore. It’s after 1am and I am so tired. We have been working since 8am this morning. It’s just now stopping for me and I’m sure others are still working. We cleared all the rooms of the Sandman out of the full-size beds that were in there and replaced them with bunk beds. The catch is that we had to run a U Haul back and forth from storage with the bunk bed parts. We had to assemble all of the beds. We had probably 150 beds to do. It also poured in the morning while we were unloading the truck. A lot of the original Sandman mattresses got soaked but honestly, they need to be thrown out anyway.
My team mostly worked on the resource room. We turned one of the motel rooms into a hangout room and library. We had a couch and table in chairs in the living/dining area for the hangout room. People can play cards or just hang out and talk. This is important because guys can’t hang out in girls’ rooms and vice versa. We turned the bedroom into the library. We covered two couches with sheets and put throw pillows on them. We stacked crates on the dresser and nightstands and placed the books in the crates by categories. We got another lamp for the library and I wrote out our theme verses to post on the wall. I also wrote quotes that we will be mentioning in our discipleship groups on bright posters to hang on the walls in the whole resource room. We worked on the room all day, but we can honestly say that it is the best-looking resource room SBP has ever had.
Tonight for dinner we had pizza by the pool with the Room Leaders and Team Leaders from Area 2 (Troy, West Georgia, and Berry College). I stepped out with a few other girls to go mingle with those girls from Area 2. It was so fun talking to them and getting to know them. Area 1 and 2 don’t mix and mingle a lot. We’ve been praying that it will change this year.
So I am sitting in my room (yes, my very own motel room for me and my girls). I spent about 3 hours tonight setting it up. In the living/dining area, I have a couch with two end tables and a chair. The end tables have my books that I brought and games. I pulled out the table from the wall and placed 4 chairs around it so we can all sit at it together. I set up the kitchen with the things that I brought and organized the food. For the bathroom, each girl will have her own shower caddy to carry in and out so the bathroom doesn’t stay cluttered (I hate that!). In the bedroom, I have two bunk beds sticking out from the wall just like two beds would. On the opposite wall is a mirror and dresser. Each girl will have 1 drawer of the dresser and I am making the extra 2 “free-for-all” drawers where we can keep stuff we are willing to share. Around the dressers are milk crates that we will use for other clothes. I have things like t shirts and shorts in mine. There is a nightstand in between the two beds and I have an extra storage container next to my bed. We also have a closet that each of us can hang stuff in. I unpacked all of my clothes and did a LOT of ironing. Everything is set up now. I have to have someone to look at my AC tomorrow. I think it’s leaking and it doesn’t smell good.
I can’t wait to meet my disciples! I found out today that my number dropped from 4 to 3 but I know it was the Lord’s plan…and we fit better in the room anyway this way. They will arrive in between 1 and 3pm tomorrow.
I am so exhausted. I’m ready to spend time with God to rejuvenate before going to sleep.
Please pray for travel mercies and for my disciples’ hearts.
Stay tuned and stay in love with your Savior.
In Christ,
Christine ><>