Happy Father's Day!

Greetings from Miami!

I have never felt so stretched in my entire life. Coming up on the 4 week mark, I feel like I have learned more and grown more in this short month than in my entire walk with the Lord. The Lord is revealing truths to me that I have never had to face before and truly healing a lot of the wounds that I have tried to hide for so long.

Work is going really well. The life of a BK lounge girl isn't the most glamorous but my co-workers are truly amazing. I am learning so much about them and am starting to form some really fun friendships! If you could be praying for some opportunities for conversations, that I would be very intentional, and that the Lord would be preparing their hearts, I would really appreciate it!! My Spanish is really starting to pick up...Hamburguesa con queso y lechua sin mayo....hamburger with cheese and lettuce, no mayo....yea, I'm pretty legit.

It is crazy that we are almost to the half-way point. The staff leaves in 5 days and I am pretty petrified. The Lord has truly blessed this project with a great group of people and I am really confident that the 40 of us are going to have an amazing time and glorify the Lord in the process. The staff leaving is pretty sad to me. I have been able to cultivate amazing relationships with several of the staff girls. These women are the some of the most Godly and incredible women I have ever encountered. I have been able to meet with a few of them one on one and those times have been some of my favorite. These women have faced very challenging times in their life and to see their unwavering faith in the Lord has been such a huge encouragement to me. I have really been struggling with the death of my dad recently and although it doesn't make the pain go away these women have been able to give me some amazing perspective. I will always miss my dad, especially on days like today, but I also have to stand strong in the fact that although I no longer physically have my earthly father I will always have the memories, and I will always have my Father in heaven. One of the staff women has a book entitled "Prayer Portions" and in it is a whole section on the Lord as our Father and it has been very comforting today. In 1st John chapter 3 verse 1 it says, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! The reason the world does not know this is that it did not know Him." And what a comfort that is. I have my Father in heaven and no one can ever take that away from me.

Being here is helping me deal with so many unresolved issues that I never even realized I had. The Lord is healing me in ways I didn't realize I needed to be and everyday I am learning more about myself, the Lord, and my amazing romance with Him. With 6 weeks left, I cannot imagine what my life is going to look like at the end of the summer.
Stay tuned,

Jess :)

Happy Father

Welcome to King Burger...

Welcome to Burger King!

Yes, after 4 days of job hunting, the Lord provided a job at...Burger King in the food court of the Dolphin Mall in Miami! Just when we were starting to get really discouraged, the Lord truly provided. I must admit working at Burger King has been a very humbling experience. Walking in to a nice mall in Miami, sporting a Burger King visor and matching polo is not the easiest thing to do. But the Lord has definitely used this experience to help me deal with some of my pride issues. I know that people look at me and think I am unintelligent or a loser because I work at burger king, and I know that because I used to think the same things. Now, I realize how wrong I was. The people I work with are all so nice and hardworking. 2 of the girls that I work with are 18 and paying to put themselves through nursing school. How easy it is to slap a label on someone without taking the time to give them a chance or get to know their story. I am so excited to build stronger relationships with my co-workers and share more of my heart and the Lord with them. Another one of the boys on project just got a job with me so it will be even cooler to see the Lord use both of us in the environment. My roommate Kat also has a job in the food court at Chicken Connection...needless to say our days are very entertaining :)

The language barrier is much harder than I ever imagined it would be. In Miami, people really do not have to learn to speak English and it blows my mind. I have actually been snapped at several times because I do not know Spanish. I am learning a great deal of patience and how to better show grace when I get frustrated. I never knew that I would be able to learn so much from a summer job.

Last Monday we went to FIU for our first day of campus outreach! I was fortunate enought to have a few really good conversations with other students. The most encouraging one I had was with one of the girls on staff Michelle, and a random girl on campus. Her family grew up in a 7th day Adventist church and she was very turned off by all of the "rules of religion." She said that she didn't really have time to pursue a relationship with Christ right now but would love to if she had the time. The conversation lasted for close to an hour and we plan to meet up with her again the next time we are on campus! She seems so nice and interested! Please be praying for her!

The church that we go to is absolutely amazing! We have been there for 2 Sundays now and just love it. Kat, Justine, and I have become involved in the children's ministry and worked in the nursery this morning. It is so neat to see children falling in love with the Lord at such a young age. The pastor that spoke today talked about obedience to God and how the adventure of faith is really all about that. Showing that we often don't trust God in our everyday happenings and asked the question, hasn't God already proven Himself to us? He challenged us all to remain obedient to God because He has us wherever we are for a reason, whether we understand it or not. Most of the sermon came from 1st Samuel and the verse that just hit me so hard deals with Samuel trying to be obedient to God and annoint the future king. In verse 7 it says, "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' " It is just so crazy to see how the Lord is truly in control of every facet of my life. It is just so amazing to me to see that the lessons He is teaching me through working at the BK lounge are backed up by scripture in church. I am so quick to judge by outward appearance, but the Lord sees the heart and soul of every person.

I am so blessed to be here. Every single day I am learning so much and am learning to truly rely on the Lord. Never did I think that 12 days in I would have learned as much as I have. I knew that this summer was going to be huge for me, but I really had no idea how much it was truly going to impact me. God is so good and is moving here in Miami but especially in my own life. Keep praying for this dark city. God is big.

Stay tuned,
Jess :)

Welcome to Miami!

3 days in and Miami is absolutely amazing! Our team of 40 students and 21 staff (including 7 children...all of whom are absolutely adorable) is really great! Our living condition is not rough...to say the least! We are amazingly blessed to be staying in a condo styled hotel at the Double Tree Grand Hotel. Our balcony overlooks the bay and the downtown skyline so everyday is a constant reminder of what a beautiful creation the Lord has made. My roommates, all six of them, are all so different but we each bring something great to the room! I am staying on a pull-out couch with a girl named Katherine from Mississippi State. She has quickly become one of my very good friends on project and I am so happy to share that "comfortable" little couch with her :) The first three days have mostly consisted of the job hunt. With the economy the way it is and 50 students looking for a job for only 10 weeks...it has been pretty disheartening. Please be praying that all of the members of our team are able to find jobs and use those as our main ministry focus. Yesterday Katherine, Leah, and I had an interview at Brookstone. Which was neat...but what was even cooler was that we got the chance to talk to one of the employees while we were waiting about why we were in Miami and what we are doing here. His name is Lester and he is probably going to come to church with us on Sunday, he was really interested and said that he does not have a lot of friends! So we are excited to hang out with him more!! I am really excited to start getting into the community. Miami is a very dark city and satan has a heavy hand hanging over it but I am excited to meet and interact with members of the community. We are splitting our team into three teams and reaching out to the University of Miami, Florida International University, and to the homeless and disenfranchised! We will also be working with a women's crisis center who helps preganant teens! There is so much to look forward to and I am just so excited about what is in store for the rest of the summer! Please be praying for untiy within our team and that we are able to hold each other accountable and love one another just as Christ has loved us!

Stay tuned!

Jess :)

The time has come!! :)

The time has finally come! I feel like I have been waiting forever but the journey starts today! I am leaving for Orlando and then driving from there to Miami in the morning! When I was thinking about applying to summer project back in OCTOBER, I did not want to go to Miami. Two of my best friends had already been and I did not just want to follow the trend. I had the intentions of going somewhere else but the Lord's plan was so much bigger than my selfish intentions! After weeks and weeks of prayer I found myself submitting my summer project application with Miami as my first choice. I didn't see the global impact Miami had until going to Christmas conference, reaffirming the decision the Lord led me to make. Miami is the 2nd most unchurched city in the United States, (2nd to Seattle) and is one of the most influential cities in America. With that being said, I feel the Lord has placed me exactly where I am supposed to be. I am very blessed to have 3 other students from UF going as well as Jessica Calvin who is on staff with Campus Crusade at UF staffing the project as well! God has been so faithful throughout this entire process and all the glody be to Him!!

The Lord has worked wonders in the last few months in my life. Raising support has been a huge step of faith but the Lord was so faithful and dismissed any doubts I had about me being in Miami. After intial submission of my application, when support was coming slow, I thought that maybe I decided thats is where I wanted to go rather than where the Lord wanted me. As I began to have more and more anxiety about my decision and support for the summer, a student from CRU who I do not even know that well, supported me with a check for $1000!!! In that weekend alone the Lord provided $1,800 to finish the support needed for the trip. I have never felt more sure about anything after that. Praise the Lord! The journey so far has been so encouraging and so amazing and I cannot wait to see what the summer holds for me and the rest of the team!

I would like to ask for your continued support through prayer:

• Please pray that I will open my heart and mind to any and everything the Lord is going to reveal to me this summer. That I seek Him first and make Him the first priority in my life and that I find my delight in Him.
• Please pray that our team becomes a close group that is able to share life with each other and form meaningful relationships that glorify God.
• Please pray that the hearts of the people of Miami, including the sturdents, tourists, and our future co-workers would be softened and are being prepared for the relationships that will be made and that the Gospel will be shared.
• Please pray that we are all able to get jobs, especially in this time in the economy. Pray that doors will be opened and we will be able to share love and life with our co-workers.
  
• Please pray that everyone traveling from all over the US will arrive safely, ready for the journey that lie ahead.
• Please pray that we do not lose sight of our purpose or get discouraged, understanding that everything is in the Lord's timing.
  

This summer is going to be amazing and I cannot wait to get there and see all that the Lord has in store! Please continue to be praying for Miami and for our team! Stay tuned!

Jess :)