Wheels…

The wheels in my mind are a-turnin’.

I am learning SO much here at JAX! Every week, 4+ memory verses. How to share The Bridge illustration (ask me if you want it explained). How to treat guys as brothers in Christ (difficult, since I don’t have any brothers of my own). One thing that’s been really helpful for me is learning the definitions of big words in simple terms. For example, last week Jerry Bridges shared with us the definition of justification. Honestly, before I would avoid verses with this word in them, simply because I didn’t really grasp what it meant. It didn’t really mean anything to me. BUT, here’s what I learned, and it completely blew my mind.

Justification: “Just as if I’d never sinned.” And furthermore, “Just as if I’d always obeyed.”

Wow.

That is how God views us, because of Jesus! Now I want to read all the verses with justification in them. :)

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Another type of wheel is the Navigator Wheel. Ever heard of it? It looks like this ---->

A Christ-centered life has four distinct aspects.

Prayer, fellowship, the Word, and Witnessing.

Our summer training program theme this year is Go Deep. Basically we are focusing on going deep with each of these 4 areas.

With this in mind, there are specific ways you can pray regarding growth in each of these.

Prayer: That I will prioritize my time here, and realize the importance of spending time in prayer; that I will become more earnest in praying

Fellowship: Further team unity; that I would be an encouragement to others here at JAX

The Word: Adequate time with my work/social schedule

Witnessing: Interaction with co-workers, beach evangelism opportunities

In all of these, you can pray that God will reveal Himself to me and everyone else here! That would be so great.

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With that being said, here is a picture of my team while getting ice cream last week! :)

Beach Evangelism

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Life is busy, which is so great. Thankfully I haven’t neglected any of my program stuff just to write on this blog! I still have postcards to send, but it will happen eventually. We’ve had 3 Saturdays here so far, meaning 3 beach evangelism days. It’s been really cool so far.

I’ve experienced a variety of scenarios. The first week, my partner and I didn’t get rejected once…it seemed everyone we talked to was very nice and very open to hearing what we had to say. Nobody made any major decisions, but who knows what went on even after we talked with them. We came across a couple pairs of girls where one was a believer and one was not. I’m sure that definitely opened up some conversation once we were gone!

The second week, though, included 8 rejections in a row. This definitely helped get rid of any pride we might have had, thinking “We’ve got this.” Another factor was that we went to another beach, with an entirely different crowd. Not only were our rejections many, but they were rude. It was a little discouraging until near the end of the day, when we came across a van that was sinking in the quickly-rising tide. The people were panicking, and I really didn’t think the van was going anywhere…ever. After much chaos and a handful of fearful moments, a very nice man offered the use of his truck and a rope. Finally the van was able to move! My partner and I helped this family move their coolers, tables, chairs, and tent so they could get out of there before the tide got even higher. Although we didn’t have very many chances to share the Bridge with people, it was really great that we were able to help this family out.

Last week, our third, we were back on our original beach (with the friendlier people). It was a very interesting day. I saw what looked like a big circus tent on the other side of the pier, and I was actually pretty excited about it. I wondered if we could check it out after we were done, in case their was something fun going on. Well, as we were walking around talking to people, the “circus tent” started coming closer. Soon we could hear music and chanting, and it started seeming less like a circus. Actually, it was a big group of Hare Krishna followers who were having a celebration and were handing out information about their religion. I decided that it would be good to talk to these people about the gospel, too, so I went up to a lady handing out papers with her young daughter, and asked her what religion she was. She explained that they worshipped Lord Jagannath, and that they consulted a lot of philosophers with questions about life, even though there was no way they could ever know the answers. Pretty bleak, really. I told her were were Christians, and that we were also here on the beach sharing our faith, and I almost got to talk to her about it. Unfortunately, the moving circus tent thingy-ma-bob was leaving her behind, so she had to run and catch up to it. My partner and I continued on, and by the end of the day we had met several Christian girls, who were very encouraging to talk with. One of them is trying to join us for our Monday rally nights if her work doesn’t go too late! New friends are always good. :)

A couple more beach evangelism Saturdays are left…looking forward to it for sure!

Weekly schedule

In case anyone is wondering, here is what each week looks like for me! Every day I get up, have quiet time and breakfast, and then go to work from 8:30 to 3:00. Then we all eat dinner in the union on campus. After that, we have something different going on each night.

Monday: Rally night (worship, skit, speaker)

Tuesday: Free night

Wednesday: Workshop night (expounding on what Monday’s speaker taught)

Thursday: Bible Study night

Friday: Program social or group dates, alternating each week

Saturday: Beach evangelism

Sunday: Sunday school and church, then team time

I have free time on Sunday nights and Tuesdays, but other than that I’m pretty busy! I’m used to having something going on all the time at school, though, so it’s not really a change of pace- just change of events. A good balance of fun social time and spiritual training. That’s JAX!

Adventure Landing

I’ve been working as a lifeguard at Adventure Landing for a week now. I love my job! I worked out great since I don’t actually have to be certified, because I’m only here for two months. I’m usually at the tops of slides telling people when to go, watching the lazy river, or catching little kids at the bottoms of slides. I’m already very tan, which is always nice. :)

Here’s a picture of the park from my first post at the lazy river:

Shipwreck Island:

On duty!

Probably the most intense ride, the Hydro Half Pipe. I have to wear a harness when working up there, so I don’t fall. It’s kinda scary!

 

A view of the lazy river.

   

People have asked me why I raised support when I have a job here at JAX. Having this job allows me to help offset the cost of the program, and also have some money for this coming school year. I usually only work during the summer, and use that money I make then throughout the rest of the year. This year it will be less, since I am working less and have to pay for the rest of the program. It’s okay, though! This experience is totally worth it. This job also provides me a place to apply what I’m learning in the program throughout the week. Our first E-challenge (evangelism challenge) was to find a creative way to show Christ’s love to a co-worker. As I was working one day last week, I found out a co-worker of mine doesn’t speak English (only Spanish). That would be why he never talked to me…ha! But I tried to say some simple things to him in Spanish, even though I’ve forgotten a lot since high school. Although simple, I think he appreciated this- I haven’t seen any other employees talk to him, so hopefully it was a nice change.

I encounter many interesting people while working here…I actually talk to the guests while they’re in line, which isn’t always encouraged at a lot of places. Here, though, the lifeguards are definitely encouraged to make conversation with the guests, and even to squirt them with the “Big Squirts” (the water toys sold at AL). It is really fun working here, for sure. You’ll hear more about Adventure Landing soon!

On the hunt…

I'm keepin' my eye out for alligators. I want to see one in the wild soooo bad. Before I came on this trip, I recently read Steve Irwin's biograpy, just for fun. I think the spirit of croc or gator hunting has rubbed off on me! Oh my.

But for real. I would like to see lots of the wildlife native to Florida/the South. I've seen some turtles and lizards and frogs, but that's about it so far. We went gator searching last night, but with no luck. There are signs like this:

…but no alligators yet.
I'm hoping it will be soon!

Later gatorz.

P.S.- My playlist doesn’t play automatically anymore! So go ahead and press play and give it a listen. It gets you in the Florida mood for sure. :)

So. Exhausted.

It’s only the 4th official day of the JAX STP and already I am SO exhausted! I think this Florida heat really takes the energy out of a person. Did I mention I’ll be in the sun at least 5 hours a day? :) Life is good as a lifeguard at Adventure Landing!

Adventure Landing is the place to go. I find it kinda crazy how they have a water park so close to the ocean…obviously me, being from the Midwest, would not choose to go to a water park over the ocean! But I guess they would get tired of it here, huh? Weird.

But anyway. Back to Adventure Landing. Their motto includes something along the lines of “clean and wholesome fun” and they sure do mean business. The guys working there can’t have facial hair, girls must have no more than one piercing in each ear, tattoos must be covered up, and female lifeguards wear one-piece suits. Our supervisor compared it to living in the 1950s, and I had to laugh. It’s a cool place, and there are even baby alligators in the pond near the entrance. :)

So today I got trained and shadowed the lifeguards at all the stations, and then this evening all the JAX people went to the beach for swimming and a sand castle building competition! My group started out digging a hole, and didn’t really have a set plan, so it just turned into this random fish thingy. Good details, though!

Tomorrow is our first day of beach evangelism. I’m pretty excited, a little bit nervous. I just want to see God do some pretty amazing stuff, and I know He definitely will. We just got done having a spontaneous worship jam session, concluding with “Our God” by Chris Tomlin. I think it definitely creates a good mindset for tomorrow as we go out to share our faith. Having college students sing praises to our Creator on Friday night? Not your typical thing. But so very cool. I have a feeling that it will be happening again soon!

Sunny with a chance of…sun

I am in Jacksonville! For real!

It has been so great and so much fun so far. I’m living with a team of girls, the “A-Team”…and me. There’s my leader Andrea, and team members Amy, Ali, and Ashley. Then there’s me- not with an A, but a K. It kinda makes me smile. :)

We’ve had a lot of orientation sessions so far, very informational and good to know. Many “mixers”, too, which help me to get to know the 169 people here…hopefully by the end of the summer I will know most everyone! There is definitely a whirlwind of names floating around in my head.

Another thing. Although it is Florida, where it literally is sunny with a chance of sun pretty much everyday, I’m much colder than I was in Nebraska. Why, you ask? These dorms are FREEZING. I’m so glad I had Nav leaders to tell me to bring lots of warm clothes! Extreme goosebumps can be painful.

Here’s a glimpse of what life is like for me in Jax!

Our door. The paper is glittery, and says “Razzle Dazzle” very much. :)

     

My bed (note the palm trees out the window!)

All our beds…

Closet, with hallway view.

Lastly, my team! What a great group of girls. :)