No more blog

This will be my last entry. It's been a little over a week now since project has ended. What a summer. There were good times, there were bad times but in all times God was there. Even when I didn't know what He was doing, God was working. There are many things that I am realizing as time goes on and so much more that God will continue to reveal as I reflect. For now, I'm super stoked when I think about project and how God was glorified through the summer.

And I want to thank you all for following allow in my journey this summer through the blog. I hope this blog was a blessing to you as it was a blessing for me to reflect on and gave you a picture of what God did this summer. I thank you for partnering with my team and me this summer. Thank you for supporting us and praying for us. I know that none of this would be possible without God working through you and your prayers for our summer. I have much more to share than what I put in this blog so feel free to ask me anytime. You were a part of everything God did in Hawaii and in our lives this summer. Thanks again.

It's coming to an end

Project ends in 2 days. It's sad. It's exciting. It's a whole bunch of emotions all at once. In some ways, I'm ready to go. In other ways, I feel like there is more that can be done. It's humbling to be on a short term mission like this where for pretty much all of the people you've met and shared with, all you can do is trust in God for the paths that their lives take because we won't be able to experience life with them. It's hard to let go but our lives should be all about letting go to God.

When I think of my experience on project, the word that comes to mind is trust. It seems like such a simple concept yet we can forget it so quickly. Trust God with all the good things in life, trust God with all the bad things and most importantly trust Him with the ugly part of your life. Only God can transform lives and the first step is trusting Him.

Risky Business

So this is where we're at. There is 1 week left until project ends and you know what we do? We revamp our whole schedule. Now, during the days we no longer have ministry teams so we no longer tell people where and what to do. Until night time on most days there is nothing planned but the time is open for whatever each person on the team wants to plan and do with their time. I mean we're still going to be evangelizing but there will just be less structure in the sense of telling people what to do. It's expected that people will continue to go and share and meet up with people.

The heart behind it was that we were feeling very drained, burnt out, and just doing things for the sake of doing things instead of pursuing and loving God. So, we took 2 days off for personal retreat. Then, thursday we started this new thing. We want people to work together, to work with people they haven't gotten a chance to work with yet, and to try new things out. People are excited and that's a good thing. To be honest, I am really scared about what will happen. This is a risk and we're excited to take it to see what God will do with it.

Pray that we would be strong as a team this last week. That we would want to see God glorified and to love God. Pray that we would continually trust in God.

Worship

On last Sunday night we were invited to a special service at the First Assembly of God church by some of the local friends that we'd made. Some people we'd met were leading worship that night and it was a joint youth and adults praise night. It was an awesome night of worship.

Just the chance to be there was great. I honestly didn't really want to go. I was tired of hanging out with people but I went in just wanting to worship God. That's exactly what I got to do and it was awesome. I was able to just be there, uninhibited and lift up praise to God.

That night was a commissioning night for the new leaders in the church and so as the pastor was praying over the new leaders, I was like God, this is the prayer for our team. Let us just be a team that will love you, a team that just wants to seek your face, and a team devoted to you. At the end of the service, the pastor called up all the young adults and youth in the congregation and prayed over us as well, empowering us the to be the generation that rises and leads. It was a special night to say the least.

I was so excited that night and so joyful. But so quickly after coming back to "project stuff", I was brought back to earth. And even though emotions come and go, I know God is faithful.

That was good different

I started to pick up guitar this past semester and mostly just messed around. I figured I would mostly just be playing the guitar for worship if ever because it's not like I would become an awesome guitarist and perform or anything.

So, last thursday one of the guys was like, hey Kevin can you lead worship for tomorrow's devotional time? And I was like uh... uh... uh.. okay. I had never led before but I knew this was something I wanted to try at least. So for the whole night I was pretty scared. I was trying to pick songs I felt comfortable playing and singing, and I ended staying up until like 2:30am doing a directors evaluation and some last minute practicing.

So it's the morning and I'm getting some more last minute practicing in. I felt the need to just come before God and lift it up in prayer, asking Him to make this not about my performance but about worship to God. To have these songs be full of worship. And so I just went to our devotional time and just worshipped.

Leading worship is a interesting thing. It's nothing like I've experienced during worship before. Even though their is the temptation to feel like you're performing for others or for God, the heart of it is all worship and when that comes out, it's an awesome feeling. It's great to just worship with others and even though you're "leading" it, it's great to just worship in that time.

Divine Appointment

When I felt like it was a dead end, God opened a path.
When I wasn't aware, God kept pursuing.
At the most random times, the Spirit moved powerfully.
And before I knew it, God had orchestrated something wonderful, a new brother in Christ!

(There's a story behind this but I don't feel like posting it. Ask me sometime and I'd love to share it.)

The real start to project

So project has finally reached the point where staff leaves. It’s something that we’ve known and have anticipated. Staff leaves halfway through the project so that they can attend a national Campus Crusade staff conference but now it’s viewed as a chance to empower the students as leaders to carry on the work here. We had a banquet where the staff shared and commissioned us to continue on. It was really sad to see them go but also exciting to see what God has in store for us.

Each student has picked up different responsibilities that the staff once held in order to keep everything running. Things still operate the same way for the most part but with the added responsibility. My new role is operations project director. I am one of three project directors that together lead and coach the entire team. We are here to help each student grow as leaders in their respective roles. I also have an added emphasis on finances for the team and logistical issues.

Project without staff has only just begun but things have been going well. We weren’t quite prepared for the rest of the week but God has provided and is working. Historically, projects start to take off and amazing things happen after staff leave. We've been given the opportunity to truly take project and run with it. I’m excited and hopeful, knowing that God does have great things in store for us and will deliver mightily.