Day 1

I meant to post something before I came on this trip, but I never got a chance to. In summary though, I felt really anxious and uncertain about this trip in the prior week or two. From reading comments on the OCMD Facebook group, I've realized that I'm not alone. Many of us are going through troubling times, and even doubting the decision to go on this trip. A couple have even dropped out of going. From the outside, the OCMD project seems like the ideal project that couldn't possibly offer any internal dissonance. But after accepting my role in the project, I felt like I was under heavy attack. Sin was invading my life from every possible area, and I became immensely overwhelmed. But even in my darkest hour God is merciful.


"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 
1 John 1:9


I departed at about 6:30 this morning with two other girls (Natalie and Emma) also on project. We arrived in good time. The rooms are extremely cramped: Two bunk beds, one dresser and a couple of nightstands with a closet. However, there weren't enough guys to fill the boys' rooms and I ended up with only one other roommate (Marcus). He's a pretty cool guy; we've got a lot in common. After exploring the boardwalk and the beach we came together and met each other. Michael Frey, the project director, gave us our first task: sharing our faith with people on the boardwalk. We split up in pairs. I was paired with a kid from our small group (Jason). We were given small pointers which were a little helpful, but i.m.o it's too hard to truly prepare for something like this other than prior experience (which I had none). We talked to a few people on a trek down the board walk. The first set of guys (Dre & D)?? let us partially witness to them. More like we got to talk to them about what they believed in and how they viewed Christianity. We really didn't get anywhere with them but they were happy to talk to us. Another guy we witnessed to turned out to be a Christian. He left us with, "It's good to see brothers in Christ going out and witnessing."


The last thing we did was a couple ice breaker activities to get to know each other better.