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 :)