Sorry it's been so long since I've written a blog. I just never really got around to writing one. I've been a little bit turned off to writing because I am supposed to be doing it every day as an assignment in my creative writing class. When I am not told to write, it is easier.
Anyways, so Big Break happened since my last post! This was my second year going and it was just as awesome as last year, but in different ways. On the way down, our 26 hour drive turned into a 30 hour drive because one of the vans we went down in broke down. We had two 12-passenger vans and one minivan. One of the 12-passenger's serpentine belt broke. It took a little over 3 hours to get it fixed. You know you're with a group of Christians when your van breaks down in Ozark Alabama, just a couple hours from our final destination, and people break out in praise songs in the parking lot. We were able to bond as a group before we got down there and I think it worked out really good. Plus, there was a Dollar Tree in that parking lot, so we got wiffle ball stuff and ate at the Arby's there right next to us.
Well, after many complications, we finally got down to Florida at night past registration, but it all worked out very well all things considered. This year at Big Break, we did Haiti Relief for those affected by the earthquakes. Over the 5 weeks of Big Break, their goal was to package up 1 million meals which feed 6 people each meal. Our week, we packaged up so many meals that they made us stop early so the other weeks would have some meals to package up too. We put together over 400,000 meals and the organizations we were partnered with said they had never seen so much work done in so little time. We shattered world records for most meals packaged per hour, but that's not the point. The point is that we were able to provide for those in Haiti and have fun while doing it. We also used it as an outreach opportunity, to go out on the beach and take some people onto the property that wanted to help and hopefully share the gospel with them.
I personally never found anybody to take in, but they said they would do it the next day with their friends. Later that evening, we talked as a group sharing about what God has been doing through us and our stories of sharing the gospel with people on the beach. I never had any amazing conversations at that point, and was a little frustrated, yet joyful that God was working. I just wanted to see some fruit for my labor. I told our group that for those in the same situation as me that it's not about how many people we see come to Christ, but about our obedience, and stepping out in faith. We leave the results to God because it is God who does the work. It simply wasn't their time yet, but perhaps they were moved closer to God and it got them thinking.
After our sharing time that night, I went out on "Commando Cru" which is what we call the optional evening outreach on the streets. Well a group of us from Michigan Tech went out to Sonic in the rain to see if anybody there would be willing to talk. We did talk to a couple of guys, but I wasn't as personally involved in those conversations. After we got back, it was like 1:30 in the morning and I wanted to go to sleep and it was cold and rainy, but then I noticed Alex Baril and Ryan Hess go up to someone and talk to them who was sitting by himself by a vending machine.
It turns out he was really open to talking with us. He had just broken up with his girlfriend a couple of weeks before then and she broke up with him and if it was up to him they still would have been together as they had been for multiple years. So, that was a rough time for him and his roommates were upstairs drunk getting in fist fights, so that's why he was down in the lobby at 1:30 in the morning. We began to share the gospel with him. He said he was Catholic, but hadn't gone to church in like 4 years because he was so busy with other things. He kept trying to convince us that he was a good person and he believed in works-based salvation. We shared with him that we weren't perfect at all and had messed up in many areas ourselves, and then he tried to tell us that by going out that late and talking to him, that we were good. We continued to tell him that we weren't good enough. We had all broken the 10 commandments and Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and Romans 6:23a says the wages of sin is death. So we all deserve eternal separation from the favorable presence of God. At this point he was really wondering where we were going with it and said Ephesians 2:8-9 that says it's by Grace that we're saved through faith and it's not of our own doing or good works so that no one can boast. It's through faith in Jesus and he began to light up when we shared with him that Jesus' death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins: 100% of it and nobody can come to God without him. We told him that if we believe that that is true and confess it with our mouths, that we are saved. We are redeemed, and have hope through Jesus Christ alone and that living a life for Him, because He bought us at a price, would give the most fulfilling life ever imaginable. That gap he had in his life created from the breakup of his girlfriend could be filled with God who will last forever!
He began to get really excited and couldn't believe we'd be out there that late to share this with him and he wanted our Knowing God Personally booklets to share with his friends which is a basic outline of what we had gone through. He called his roommate down so we could talk to him, but after explaining what happened up in the room, they had to get going. Once his roommate got down there though, he first told him, "These guys saved me!" Now it wasn't us, but rather God working through us to change his heart, but to hear him say that and seeing that he had changed was absolutely amazing and by far my favorite story from Big Break among many many others.
Right before he left, we asked him his name. We had never exchanged names yet. He said, "You guys know me better than any of my other friends, and you don't even know my name!" Then he said he was Tyler and we said our names. The things he said were so encouraging! Oh, one thing I almost forgot about... Tyler had gone the previous day to do some of the Haiti relief stuff and he said it made him feel better about himself. When we introduced ourselves as from Campus Crusade for Christ, he immediately identified us with those relief efforts, so God used that in his life to prepare him to hear what we would be sharing with him.
Ok, so Big Break was awesome, and if you want any more stories, you just talk to me some time and I'll share more. Moving onto plans for this summer. At Big Break and IndyCC this year, I was really encouraged to go on a Summer Project. I told myself that I didn't have the financial means to go on this trip so I just looked at it as something that would be impossible to happen. Then, I kept hearing that I should pursue one and decided to look into it and think about it a little bit more.
I realized that the money part should not stop me from going. If God was calling me to a Summer Project, then He will provide me with the money. After looking through them and all over on the website http://gosummerproject.com I felt God calling me to apply and see what he does with that. Well, I applied for a few different places and I plan to write another blog post on what happens with that, but more has to occur before it's interesting. I am definitely praying about it a lot!
Well, that's a brief update on a few of the things going on in my life recently and I hope to blog a little bit more often for those of you who actually read this. God Bless!
Being Certain.
13 years ago
