Hampton Beach, NH is a funny little beach town. People come from all over New England and even Canada to vacation there (that's why the signs say welcome in french and not just English). It's not much, a beach, a 'strip' : some restaurants including the ever so classy McDonald's and the quaint coffee shop of dunkin donuts, sand, a little concert hall, a few arcades, fried dough, pizza, and ice cream shops...but this is where God transforms the lives of college students and the employers they work for every summer for the past 35 years. And this funny little beach town is one that Tommy and I are completely enamored with, because these summers spent here have and continue to transform our hearts and lives as well.
So what did God do this summer? exactly that. Every student changed for Christ...every single one. I made a list of the students and what they were like when they first arrived-- every single student changed to conform more to the image of Christ by the time the staff left!
We were faced with some challenges. Tommy and I were new directors, and as I mentioned in our last blog, although this is an 'old' project, in many ways it was new! New house for the students, new staff housing, new directors, new staff, new students, new neighbors. A lot of things to figure out... a chance for us to walk by faith and not by sight. What a challenge!! By God's grace we were able to lead this project of 24 students, and 14 staff, trusting Him for every thing that we had to figure out.
Some highlights/things we saw God do/things we learned this summer:
-watching Esther come alive. She's our friend from our Jersey staff team and finished her 1 year internship with Cru in Hampton Beach. She led 3 people to Christ this summer, and led our staff team for our weekly prayer meeting. She is truly gifted in many areas, and we were really blessed to be a part of helping her realize and use those giftings this summer!
-chances that we got to breathe life into students through God's truth! Everyday we had the chance to watch and be a part of the transforming work of Christ in these students' lives. One on one, we had chances to care for broken students and help them through showing them God's word. On a larger scale, I had the chance to share with the women about being pure before the Lord with their emotions not just their bodies. I also REALLY enjoyed speaking to the students and challenging them to share their faith and take steps of faith in areas of their lives. Tommy had the chance to challenge the students to pray in faith, he did an amazing job challenging them!
-Tommy absolutely LOVED his job as the Operations Director. He embraced this role with humility and authority and did a phenomenal job making the project happen logisitcally.
-I loved my job as well as the Associate Project Director. I really enjoyed the whole process going back to last summer. The project closed, we sold everything-- beds, kitchen supplies, you name it..we sold it, I prayed in faith, the project re-opened!, I was challenged to be APD, accepted, read applications, accepted girls, went to project nervous we'd have to furnish an entire house!... but it was already ready!!, staff arrived, students arrived, staff and students changed, staff left... and NOW... we get to go back in August to see what God continued to do after the staff left...an opportunity that is a special blessing that directors get to experience (something I've never done before). I'm so excited and looking forward to August 6th-9th to be back up in New Hampshire to close the project for this summer.
- Watching God provide: a house, parts of the house: new couches, new bunk beds and mattresses, 3 fully stocked kitchens, a new roof, new electrical wiring on the top floor, a brand new kitchen upstairs, bikes and a CAR when the students didn't bring enough! .. God used Dave and Amy (a couple from one of our church partnerships) to provide ALL of these things. Watching the Lord work in and through them in stewardship was like something I've NEVER seen before and it was such a blessing and a picture of generosity in the body of Christ.
-6 people accepted Christ! one was a neighbor Linda, one was a mother of a girl that we helped prevent from committing suicide, and 1/2 of those people were led to Jesus by Esther (something that will forever change Esther's life). The other guy's name was Wes and he was a result of our students stepping out in faith one night and sharing the gospel with 13 people!
-Student leadership took over smoothly after the staff left. Some of our NJ students have positions. Will from Monmouth is the Project Director, Da'Shawn from NJCU is in charge of a community group (we divide the project into 3 smaller groups on wednesday night for dinner, bible study, outreach, and fun-- they're called community groups) , Santei from Rutgers is the Prayer and World Vision Servant team leader, and Cyrus from Monmouth is the bible study leader for all the men and both him and Will disciple all the rest of the men on project!
-We've learned dependence on the Lord in ways we've never clung to Him before, and our marriage has been strengthened through this dependence on Christ together.
-much, much more!!
Next week we head off to Colorado for our national staff conference that happens every other summer at Colorado State University. 6000 staff gather from around the country and we hear from our organization's top leadership about the direction we're headed as a ministry. This is a great time of refreshment and renewing our vision to reach the next generation for Jesus! Its also a great time for us to catch up with friends on staff, for example my old hampton beach roomie will be there..as students our lives were changed on that project, and now she's on staff in Wisconsin and I'm on staff in New Jersey...every 2 years we grab coffee and catch up, it's so awesome to see how God continues to work in our lives after that summer!
Prayer requests:
-July 18th-July 27th for our staff conference: refreshment, rest, and renewed vision for our work with the Lord.
-August 6th-9th Jeff (the PD), Tommy, and I travel back up to NH to help the 2011 hampton beach summer project students to process their summer, and cast vision to them to impact their campuses as they go back!
-rest during vacation time that we have here and there this summer
- the hampton students to persevere through the busy summer schedule and be able to see how God is working in and through them
-for the incoming freshman that they would encounter Christ during their years at college
-for our student leadership for the fall around the state, that they would stand firm in their faith over the summer and be strengthened in preparation for the fall semester
until next time...
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