Final Days.....

This time next week I will be preparing to go back home and move my apartment in Troy. I cannot believe I have been here for 2 months. This place has been home to me and over 300 other college students. My last day of work is on Friday. I am hoping that this week goes slow, but as I know when I want things to slow down usually they speed back up so this last week is gonna go super fast.  I cannot explain how blessed and fortunate I have been this summer. It has been a rewarding one for sure and also a difficult one. But I would not want to be anywhere else. This past week we had a Tacky Tourist social! It was a lot of fun! On Saturday at work it was such a chill day, our McDonald’s is not your typical one, a family by the name of Costa owns it, so we play Christian music in the lobby and it is just a fun environment, but on Saturday  one of the big bosses came and then he gave us some McDonald’s sunglasses! Then later on in the day our general manager basically put the store on hold so that we could all take a picture! It was so much fun! The picture of the Sandman is also included. Most likely this is going to be our last year living there for many different reasons. So before church we all got on our balconies and took one group picture with the Sandman. The Sandman is very dear and special to all of us here! It has been the perfect location and everything! Sad to know that we wont be here next year. After our session last night we all went back to the Sandman and decided we wanted a midnight snack so we literally pile into as little cars as possible and then head to Waffle House to eat! I am gonna miss nights like those! I am excited to get back to Troy and be with all the people I have grown close to here and for all the friendships I have made with people at Auburn and Samford! I have started to think about my future and where I need to find my internship for next spring in the Milton area. I have been very worried about it and have to just give it all over to God. Im fixing to leave my summer bubble and have to be back in the real world and Im not ready for that. So please be in prayer that God will show me where He wants me to be at in the spring and for the plans after I graduate. Pray that we will finish this last week strong and that we are rested some and just have energy! Hope all is well and can’t want to send out my final report of the summer as a whole! I love you all!

Final Stretch

What a refreshing day it has been so far, and the best part is that it is not over yet. Started the morning off with only 4 hours of sleep but it was worth it. Started my morning off with eating breakfast with one of my closest Troy friends here and then we went to the beach after that for a few hours. Followed that by smoothies and then more beach time. It was so great to just be able to catch up on things and it just be us two. The highlight of this past week was on Friday, we had our co-worker cookout at a park down the road. 8 of our co-workers showed up and we had a blast. It was fun to hang out with them outside of work and being able to interact with them in their daily life. Our co-workers were impressed with the turn out and just were amazed at the co-workers who were there and the interaction between everyone. It has just been a great week with all of the coworkers and the relationships that we have formed. On Saturday we had a social, which was Decades Prom, Sandman High! It was a blast!! We got the 90s decade and half of us were the Full House look and the others went the Fresh Prince route! It was so much fun! We had a professional photo booth and then a talent show incorporated along with Prom King/Queen! It was great. I sit here today and realize all I have left is like 14 days. I am sad, nervous, and excited for the school year. Sad to leave all the people here, the friendships that I have made I would not trade in a lifetime and hope that we stay in touch as much as we can! I am excited to get back to Troy with the community that we built here and to further Gods kingdom and glory! I will only have 4 classes this fall and then internship in the spring then I will be done. I am a little nervous about that, because I do not know where in the Milton/Pace/Pensacola area I am going to do it. I have tried to put that in the back of my mind and not worry about it till after project but it is almost here. Please pray that God will show me an opportunity of where I need to be at. Our CCP team leave on Wednesday to make their way back to the States, so please keep them in your prayers as they are traveling. May we finish this week and next week at work strong and that we keep being selfless and not selfish about the Gospel and showing Gods ultimate glory! May God continue to reveal himself to me these next few weeks and continue to grow me in many ways to reflect Him. I don’t know any other place that I would have wanted to be all summer. I am so glad that I listened to God telling me to come this summer and obeying Him. I could be doing many other things but I am not and He is showing me many fruits from being here! God is good All the time, All the time God is good!!

Mind over Matter

This summer is truly just passing by as quick as it could be! I just want to yell SLOW DOWN! God continues to amaze me each and everyday here at project! I have actually been excited to go to work everyday this past week. Part of that I think is that I changed my attitude. I went into McDonald’s thinking okay I can make this a better place, all I need to do is work hard, get the times down and keep them down and build relationships with the co-workers. Slap in the face from God, had to remind me that there was a greater purpose than me trying to get my times down or impress others with my hard work. God had to remind me that everyday I went to work was going to my mission field for Him. That my sole purpose there is to bring Him glory to and to either plant seeds or water seeds that have already been planted. I have made some great friendships and able to grow in others.  On the 4^th of July we had a social just hanging out and then watched fireworks. Our co-worker Matt came and that was a great step for him in our eyes. Not being a people person we were so excited that he came and hung out with us. The Saturday after the 4^th was record breaking sales at work. We had over $2,000 just in one hour. So it was a busy day to say the least. That night we had a session and it was on Heaven and Hell, how we will spend eternity in one of those places. Then that carried over into our small group on Sunday where we talked more in depth about hell and what all it looks like. It was a hit in the face to think about some of my co-workers who I have really enjoyed getting to know and think about them being there. It truly just breaks my heart to think about hell being a bottomless pit, where darkness just smothers everyone and then that is when people cry out to Jesus. That is when everyone in hell believes. It was just a great weekend of talks and tough questions to go along with it. On Saturday night we went to the Crab Shack to play volleyball and if you know me I am usually the one who will end up with a bruise or something along those lines. I managed to find some rocks hidden under the sand and scrape and bruise up my thigh some! After that a few of us walked back to the Sandman, just a mile and half walk on the beach. The beach is just so peaceful at night and so calm. Listening to the waves crash and just being still is just a relaxing time. Sunday morning as always was a great time at church. I absolutely love the church that we have been fortunate to attend and be apart of. They are doing a game night for us this week and just want to hang out with all of us. Sunday night I told myself I was gonna get in bed early, that was until the other project starting shooting off fireworks then threw eggs at our project and then ultimately led to a HUGE water balloon war! Only managed two times to have the cops called on us. Which was misunderstands, but lead to a 12:30am morning run to Whataburger for Honey Butter Chicken Biscuits! Two cars of us loaded down to go and come back before curfew. This weekend I was able to talk some of the Gospel to one of my coworkers and I have seen such a big change in his life these past few weeks. Just the way he talks and the way he carries himself is different from when I first met him. I am excited to see what God has instore for him. Monday for our off day my room loaded up and made the trip to Milton to take on a day of tubing in Blackwater! It was a much needed day and very well enjoyed! I think everyone enjoyed it and we are all feeling the effects of it today. I am amazed everyday at Gods grace and Love. And just so blessed to be here this summer and enjoy His plan for my life! I have gotten into a very very good texting conversation with a co-worker and myself and others are sharing the Gospel with him these next few days, so please keep us in your prayers. I have noticed a change in the way he walks and the way he is carrying himself. He actually was off for 3 weeks and decided to come back which just happened to be at the same time we started. He said that he is starting to see things from a new perspective. I started to tear up hearing him tell me this and then one of the guys from the other project told me this morning that he prayed with our co-worker. There are too many things going in the right direction for him to say that it is all a coincidence. God is setting things up one thing at a time and it has been such a humbling experience. I doubted that God would actually use me like He truly is. God will use anyone, anywhere that He wants to!

God Is Good ALL the Time!

Well another week is over and I can not believe how fast this summer has went! I have been here for a month and have less than a month less. I pray that time will SLOW down! This past week truly has been awesome. Seeing God at work in many lives is such an exciting thing! This week was a long but a great one! And these past two days off have been much rejuvenation and relaxation for everyone! We were needing the pick me up boost! All day today we went to the beach on Crab Island and it was such a beautiful day for it! It was a time of laughter and smiles and even some bloody feet. While walking on the jetty rocks many including myself got some cuts on the feet from the rocks and barnacle. Tomorrow starts the work week. I sometimes get my days confused because our “weekends” are technically Sunday and Mondays. No one on our project works on those days, only Thursday-Saturday! So that leads me into my next conversation: how is work going? Well to be honest it has its tough moments and this week  I  have seen some fruit starting to grow. It has been stressful because we had many machines down and our times were very high and management was not pleased at all. So tension was high and then our managers sometimes do not see eye to eye and that tension has been felt. We have actually been a few days with our ice cream machine and our ice machine both down! So we have to drive to the McDonald’s in the walmart in Destin and grab ice and bring back to our store! This week Mary Slate, someone from Auburn here on project, and I got to know one of our shift managers more and bond a little more with Matt. Steven is a shift manager who is in a very tough place right now. He transferred to this store in the fall and hasn’t really gotten to know anyone outside of work. So he has had some good talks with the guys on the other project and hopefully are going to go out to eat with him soon. Matt has opened up with us and said that he is a believer. He attends church with his family and that is all. He is in the manager in training position now and by July will be a manager. He told me that he wants to do that for a year maybe and then go back to carpentry school. So starting to learn more about his goals and dreams. Both of these guys are lost in their own way and it breaks my heart to listen to how lost they truly are. But I know that I serve a mighty God and he can do anything He wants to with whoever! But it has been very encouraging to see some fruit that is starting to come from this.  We are hoping to have a some coworker hang outs and a week from Friday as a whole project we do a cookout and invite all of our coworkers! So I am pretty excited to see who will come from work and for them to see that us girls can actually wear clothes besides black pants, blue shirt, and a visor with greasy hair! Haha. Yeah we all look pretty rough when we get off work most days! But overall it has been great. Last night for our World Vision prayer time we lit up tiki torches on the beach for the 5 countries we were praying for this week and then broke up into our team colors and prayed over the countries. I still sometimes have a hard time wrapping my head around what I am doing this summer. I don’t know any other place I would rather be this summer or people I would want to be with!

“I am the good shepherd. I know My own sheep and they know Me, as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life down for my sheep.” John 10: 14-15

We are His sheep and unlike a hired hand He will never leaves us or let us wonder away because we are HIS sheep and He cares deeply about all His sheep! Hope that you have a blessed week!

Be Where You Are!

Another week down in the books! Every week keeps going by faster it feels like! I guess that is because little sleep and being so busy! Today I finally got a few hours at the beach and can’t remember the last time I was able to do that, because either I have been busy or because it has been raining! This past week was a busy one with work and then it was parents weekend! We also went to Seaside on our night off to enjoy a little concert and to just relax and hang out! Mom came and had lunch with me once I got off on Friday and then mom and dad came on Saturday for a short program they put on and then we went to dinner and one of my roommates came alone since she was an “orphan” for the weekend. We were the only ones out of the 6 that were at the room this weekend and it was weird it being so quiet! Then on Sunday afternoon we went to a couples house after church where we cooked out with burgers, swam in the pool, and even got to kayak in the bay! It was sooo much fun and was relaxing and good to get to know some Troy girls more. That night we has the fire alarms go off and had to perform our fire evacuation plan. That’s not a big deal, except it was raining and lightening and evacuating towards the beach in that type of weather isn’t too fun! The fire department told the staff that they would perform random test, just for the sake of the building that we are in. Lets just say its not 5star place. We are actually the only ones who stay in it during the whole year! This week is relationship session week! We have had 2 sessions so far and they have been truly amazing! Many of us in my room are single and singleness is something that we have talked about and the session tonight was on singleness and it was a very very great talk and some amazing points were made. We had our project picture, which is just all 200 of us posing on the beach for our group picture in bright colored clothes! Work has been tough some, because corporate has came in once and things did not go so well and they are supposed to come back soon. You can just tell that so many of our co workers are very lost and not believers and it is just such a sad thing.I had to do an attitude adjustment this past week. I am one who likes to do my best in everything and try to make everything the best that it can be. In that sense I want to change McDonalds so that people are saying so many good things about us students being there. But in all reality I need to be there to share the Gospel and that God will receive the glory and not Mikey or SBP.  Not too much change on my roommate or my co-workers hearts and relationships with Christ. I am hoping to get some time soon to ask some deep questions or to share the Gospel with them. This weekend a team from CO has been in China for the past year, teaching English in a school. They are finally returning home this weekend and I am so excited to see them! Please keep them in your prayers! From our talk tonight a quote that stuck out was, “Be where You Are” that was referring to being single and to embrace the season or position that you are in. I think that this can apply to many different things in life. My prayer is that you will Be Where You Are and that you take time to Be Still and listen to what He is telling you and Where you should be!

Prayer Request

Co-workers to be open minded and to have a positive attitude

My heart to be soften and challenged by the Gospel

For us students to share the Gospel with our Co-workers

China Team

Thailand  CCP team

McCrew, Foreign Exchange Students, Filipino Food!

I cannot believe that I have been on this adventure for 3 weeks now! It seems like so much longer and seems like I have know many of these people for years! Work has been going good. I have to say that I would rather work the mornings than the afternoon, but they are both good. I have met a few more of the regular co-workers and starting to lay the foundation to friendships. My co-worker Matt is slowly starting to open up to me and said that by July he will be at manager status. I asked him what was his ultimate goal for work and he didn’t get to answer in because of the rush we had. So continue to pray please for him and his life. He is very knowledgeable about McDonalds for sure and I think that he just doesn’t have any big goals or dreams to push him in other areas. I have gotten to work with a few other girls that just graduated from high school that work there but haven’t gotten into too much conversation yet. We have 27 students from out project working at the same McDonald’s, so I think that God has some pretty big things in store!  This past week our room was invited by a lady from our church to come over and have dinner and do our laundry! It was a blast! She is a little Filipino lady who is pregnant and due in September, but we went straight from work there where she cooked authentic Filipino food such as: Panzit, Lumpia, and chicken adobe ! Then some amazing cookies! She apologized to us when we first arrived saying that she wasn’t too good at cooking American recipes and that she makes this type of food all the time.  So free laundry, food, and fun! We sang karaoke and got to know her, her husband and there 4 year old son more! We had our first social this weekend: High School Cliques! So each small group was assigned a certain clique and there was a girl room and guy room paired up. So our room was assigned Foreign Exchange students! So you may not be able to tell but my attire was Mickey Mouse shirt (I mean who doesn’t go to Disney when they come to America), then some pink and purple stripe tights with high top light up sketchers! So we were paired with some guys and after pictures we went to eat at Hellenback and then to the Skating rink! Fortunately I managed to come out with no injuries, which some may find that hard to believe, but the sad part was one of my roommates tried to brace herself while falling and ended up shattering her wrist! She had to leave on Monday to go home so she can get surgery and then possibly come back here! I pray that myself and other roommates will have patience with a specific person, softer hearts, and that Christ will allow us to see her the way they He truly sees her.  This summer is really just like living the dream. Staying with some of my best friends and making new ones, working a “random” job, going to the beach almost everyday, and growing deeper in my relationship with Christ and learning how to share it with others! I am so blessed with this opportunity. Right now also CO has something going on called: Cross Cultural Project (CCP) There are many students right now in Thailand sharing the Gospel and teaching English to kids and people over there. If you would take some time to pray for them as they will be there until July.

Prayer Request:

Open hearts for us on SBP and for our Co-workers

Torrie’s surgery

Rest for people physically and mentally. 

Christin to know more of Christ love and grace

Roommates to continue to grow with each other

The Troy students community to grow and share a passion together

CCP Team

Icees for motivation before Room Clean!

Social! 

McCrew

Roomies!

Church

Rainy days and Quiet time

Filipino Food

Karaoke singing!

Morning run and sunrises 

Ryland and I are ready for the day!