(Everything) From My Perspective

The Everything skit is usually looked at from the perspective of the girl, which makes sense, since she more or less represents anyone and everyone. You can place yourself in her shoes. You can feel for her.

Her pain. 

Her anguish. 

Her struggle.

As I was approached a couple weeks ago to be a part of the skit, I tried my best to avoid being in it because I knew what part they needed me for: The seductive guy. 

Ya.. That guy.

The guy who represents impurity and sexual temptation.

The guy who leads the person that he supposedly loves away from Christ.

The guy who leaves her hurting, but still wanting more.

I had struggled with the decision of whether I was going to take part in it or not up until the day of the 1st actual practice. As I began to get into my character, I realized that I had known this character all too well. 

I had previously fallen into deep impurity and sexual temptation.
I had lead somebody I had supposedly loved away from Christ.
I had left her hurting but still wanting more.

Convictions had swept over me like a tidal wave. Convictions that should have occurred a long time ago. This same character that I was now portraying was once a large influence in my own life. He was a dreadful reminder of some iniquity I had yet to truly confront. 
Sin that nags at me constantly.
Sin that tries to establish its old threshold again.
Sin that haunted my memories.

Not only did the main character have to deal with me, but all of the other temptations as well. It's something that can be easily forgotten or overlooked. I'm not the only person or object influencing her to make terrible choices.
Temptation surrounds her from every side.
Temptation invades and consumes her.
Temptation does not give up.

Each time that I acted out the scene of beating up the girl, I looked forward to the verse in the song triggering Christ stepping in to save her. Even as we were being held back we fought so hard to break through to her. 
We knew nothing now but rage and anger
We sought only to corrupt her and make her ours
We hated the fact that she was unreachable

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

- Ephesians 3:14-19


In the end sin lost its power and was defeated
In the end the Lord loved us enough to sacrifice everything for us
In the end we have been set free

Days 42-59

Community
2 events that we did as a community were canoeing and a $5 prom. They were both extremely fun but also tiring as well. When we first went out on the bay side of Assateague to canoe, it turned into a giant battle of flipping canoes, throwing mud, and splashing water. It was such an awesome bonding experience. Afterwards we cooked burgers and hot dogs. You just can't go wrong with planning events at Assateague.
This last Saturday was the $5 prom. After getting home from work I went to the local church thrift store. It was perfect.. There were soo many weird outfits and clothes, and they were all so cheap. I ended up finding an outfit completely from girl's clothing. I'll probably post some pictures of it later on.


Prayer
I must say, our ministry teams do a great job of being creative and bringing new, exciting ways to serve God. Prayer team came up with a couple cool ideas the last few weeks. We decided to do a 24 hour prayer/fast from Saturday to Sunday. Each person was given a country in which they were to pray for specific missionaries doing ministry in that country. I decided to do the Philippine Islands where the Pedan family is serving. I chose the Pedans, because they reminded me a lot of my own family... The younger, missionary version of my family. My prayer time was from 1pm-2pm. We had a guide to help us pray for specific topics. I tried to stick to it as close as possible, but I realized that I was praying a lot longer than I had thought. Honestly, I thought an hour of prayer for something that was only just recently placed on my heart would be difficult, but it wasn't. I found it pretty cool that when one person finished praying the next person would join in prayer and they would be prayed for. Also, we were fasting for the entire length of the prayer. Callie thought that it would be a great idea to go food shopping the last few hours before breaking the fast, so a few of us went to Food Lion during that time. I don't think we could have done anything worse, to be honest. As I walked through the frozen food aisles, I saw "Hungry Man" food brand. Bad Day was also playing on the radio, and every single item of food looked more delicious than it ever has. It was my first time fasting so it was a pretty cool experience. Pretty much every time I felt the pain and weakness of hunger, I'd just reflect on Christ and how much more he suffered for me. Then my hunger didn't feel so bad.


Outreach
We had been practicing a set of dances for 3 weeks and were finally going to perform them on the beach. The first one was a workout dance by Beyonce called "Move Your Body". It was pretty cool, because the dance moves pretty much were named in the lyrics. Yet, I still found ways to mess up here and there during our performance. Our second dance was "Light Will Shine" by Hillsong United. I had never heard the song before the dance but I really like it. The dance includes a lot of cool references to being a light unto the world, and at one point we form a cross. Maybe if I have free time ill post the videos. There were small crowds that came to watch, but we also had a few Soulariums set up around us and those are usually pretty effective. Our last act consisted of holding up cards to the song "Grace Like Rain". I give a lot of credit to Marcus for pulling it together in the last minute. It was necessary in order for our outreach to transition to the gospel better. On top of that, all of the dancers were wearing the prayer shirts we made with 2 Timothy 1:6 written on it. All good ways of inspiring conversation. After we finished dancing, I went over to talk to a guy checking out the Soularium. Long story short, he is a journalist/professional photographer on a break at OCMD. He is a Christian and as I was talking to him, we were able to relate on several interesting topics. One was about how as Christians, sometimes we forget that we have to listen intently to the people we're sharing with, otherwise how do we expect them to listen to us when we present the gospel.


We decided to have a tie-dye/cookout outreach at our house. It was a pretty cool idea, but I felt like it was executed very oddly. At times I just didn't know what to do. At one point, Jesse and I decided to cross the street and ask random people if they were interested in free food and tie-dye. Of course most people were not. Finally, this older guy comes over, and kind of stops and stares at our house. We asked him if he was interested and he kind of said sure. He was more interested in our purpose, so we explained to him why we were doing this. He (Glenn) told us that he grew up in the church, had dreams of becoming a minister, and then turned from God, and became an open agnostic. For some reason every time me and Jesse team up for evangelizing, awesome things happen. We were able to answer all of this guy's questions and provide him insight into some stuff that he was skeptical about. I decided to give him a copy of "The Case For Christ". I figured that since he was a retired lawyer, that this book would be perfect for him. He was very kind and thankful, and I felt that the Holy Spirit had really been speaking through us. It was an awesome feeling.

Days 33-41

There are many international kids who live and work here in OCMD during the summer. Usually they're fairly easy to pick out when you see them. It's not necessarily because of what they wear or how they look, but what they say, how they say it, and what they do. Every time I go to Mcdonalds, there is a set of foreign girls who stand at the registers. They wait there patiently and provide all their attention to customers when they arrive. This heavily contrasts that of the typical American fast food worker. If there weren't any customers in the restaurant, most American workers would probably be walking around or distracted by something. Not the international kids. I've seen them, in the midst of an empty restaurant, wait patiently at the registers. They stick out over everyone else even though they look like any other American girls.


I've come to realize that those of us on project have also been like those international kids in a different context. Wherever we go, we praise and worship God and we stick out from everyone else, especially on outreaches. It definitely draws a lot of attention, sometimes good, sometimes bad. But nevertheless it brings attention. During outreaches there will always be insulting comments here and there. It makes me remember the set of verses that i had from 1 Peter 3 a few weeks ago:


But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” ¹⁵ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. ¹⁷ For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.


Jason spoke on suffering during family night and, at least for me, it fit perfectly into what was going through my mind the last few weeks. Sadly, many of us have been suffering at various points on project because of the loss or severe illness of a family member. It should be expected that something would happen in the 10 weeks we are here though. The important part is how we decide to handle tragedy and what impact it has on us. James talks about how we should consider it joy when we have trials, because they give us perseverance. It's definitely not easy to be joyful after loss or anything, but it's possible. I think some take this verse, and those like it, in the wrong way. I don't believe James means that anyone should be happy about tragedy. However, in seeking God completely, there will be a joy given to you that can get you through anything. And through the experience, a perseverance is gained.




Also it's always good to remember that Christ suffered for us, so our own suffering wouldn't be in vain.




Our last couple of outreaches have included two large boards with "Who is God" and "What is Love". These boards usually draw in large crowds which is awesome. Anyone is free to write whatever they want on the boards. Interestingly enough, about half the comment written on the boards were about spiritual things like: "Love is God" or "Love is patient, kind..." etc.. Brittany took some pictures of both the Soularium and Outreach Boards that I'll put up at the end.


One girl was writing on the "What is Love" board the description of what love is from 1 Corinthians 13:4. However, she couldn't remember all of them so I went over and tried to help her. I asked her where she had her of this and she told me she first saw it in a movie and then she heard it was from the Bible. I decided to ask her if she was involved in a church since she mentioned she knew some scripture. It turns out she was in a women's Bible study, but that was as much time she could put into learning about God. I asked her if I could share the Gospel with her and she and her friend let me. After I went over everything, she seemed really excited. No one had ever presented her the Gospel to her apparently. I asked if she was interested in accepting Christ and she decided to do so but on her own. So I gave her a KGP and prayed with her.

Days 26-32

Outreach: Cardboard Testimonies. I've never actually seen these done in real life, but it was our plan to all do cardboard testimonies and stand on boardwalk. We all wore white shirts which was extremely awesome!


On the back I put: "Spent most of my life looking for joy and fulfillment."
On the front: "Through Christ, I have found a joy that will never end."


I guess our goal was to stand there and flip our testimonies back an forth in hopes that people will curiously walk over and ask us questions. On my way out the door, I randomly thought to go back in and get a Soularium and a New Testament. I don't know why I wanted one, I just wanted to have one on me. Nothing else, but a Soularium and a NT Bible.


We got out there and started our cardboard flipping. It was actually fairly awkward, since we didn't have too much of a game plan of where we were going to stand or what style of cardboard flipping we should use. I was posted at the end with Jesse, one of the guys from my Bible study. As we stood out there, people curiously watched us. Some laughed, some encouraged, and some just didn't care. But for the most part, very few actually stopped to talk. After waiting for about an hour or so, Jesse and I decided to walk further down the beach and set up a Soularium. As we began setting up the cards, people immediately came and asked us what they were for. Within a few minutes a couple of girls came over and the one stated that she had done this before with another girl from our ministry. Jesse sat down to talk with her as I ran through Soularium with the other girl. Her name was Melissa. As I went through the Soularium I could tell she interested in the reasoning behind the questions. Eventually she asked about it, and I stopped talking about Soularium and asked her if I could summarize my faith in 4 points. I was so excited to tell her I didn't even think to open up a KGP, I just went right into it. Before I got to the last point I threw in my testimony. I don't remember exactly why I did, but at the time, it seemed pretty important. She was extremely receptive to everything I had said, so I explained to her the last part about receiving Christ. She didn't even hesitate. She asked me what she needed to do to receive Christ and we prayed together. The image is pretty firmly planted in my head, but I remember looking up and seeing her pray after I was finished. I handed her a KGP and a Bible, gave her my contact info, and told her to constantly get in the word. Apparently, while we were talking, Jesse had been talking with the other girl about how she wanted to live a life for Christ and go to church, but she had no one to go to church with. Well Jesse prayed for her to find a person and when he finished, I just got back to tell him that Melissa, the girl's friend, had just accepted Christ. So God just worked awesomeness into the situation all around.




I was officially selected to lead half of the men in Bible study. I'm really looking forward to this even though I don't really have any experience with it. This will definitely prepare me for any future studies I lead in the future. Within the last couple of weeks I felt God's call to lead a Bible study, so this was definitely awesome news. I will be leading the Bible study that I was in plus another 2 guys.


The week closes off with the staff leaving their positions on Wednesday and leaving OCMD Friday. It was extremely surreal to see the staff leave and know that we would be calling all of the shots. It was also pretty emotional for many. I will sincerely miss all of the staff and their wisdom/guidance, but I know that this part of the project is what is most important. Truly putting what we learned and are learning to the test. Leading, guiding, risking, and building community all for the glory of the Lord. I've already seen many of my friends here take awesome steps of faith. I look forward to what God has in store for us for the next 5 weeks on project.