What a week

Hey guys! I know it's been quite awhile since there have been any new updates. Sorry about that. It was a jam-packed week last week.

D group weekend turned out so great. We ended up going to Destin. We hit up the outlet mall there on Saturday then went to a local seafood restaurant called The Back Porch. It was delicious! We tried a little bit of everything: shrimp, crab, mahi mahi, scallops, even oysters. The place was right on the beach so after dinner we walked up and down the beach and soaked it all in. There were some major storms that night so we headed back to the hotel to keep out of them. The next day we decided was going to be a beach day! We drove to the beach and met up with Nicole's aunt and uncle for lunch then walked out of the restaurant and right onto the beach. We decided that since we were on the beach that it was a great opportunity to share the gospel with a few people. We shared with a pair of girls who were about our age. They were really fun to talk to and I liked that even though we were on our "fun weekend" we didn't lose sight of the purpose for our summer. We hung out on the beach all day. The waves were enormous but that definitely didn't stop us from goofing off in the water for a little while! After a great day spent there we packed up and headed back to Gulf Shores. We got to hear a little bit about other groups' weekends which was really cool, too.

Monday we had inductive Bible study training. This week we focused on the interpretation part of it. This is for sure the part that I struggle with the most. It's just hard to know how to interpret things correctly and based on Scripture rather than coming to my own conclusions. I feel like after practicing and having a little more experience with it that it will come easier, though.

Tuesday was D-Group night. Our guest for dinner and our D-Group time was Tracy. I loved learning a little bit more about what it looks like being on staff and what goes on behind the scenes. It was also cool to have her share what she is learning and a little bit of her wisdom with us. I was the cook for the evening... so it was something very simple! English muffin pizzas. They turned out better than expected and we're planning on repeating those because they were so good! Then later we had our World Prayer meeting. This week we learned more about International Students. I had never really thought of the possibility of sharing the gospel with the world through the students that are right there at K-State. The students that come over here are some of the best and brightest of their respective countries and will potentially have leadership roles in their home countries someday. What a great way to reach the nations by sharing with them. Also, I learned the importance of building those relationships. We were told that only a very slim percentage actually have the experience that they were looking forward to here in America. Most of the students never even set foot in an American home. It definitely made me think about possible participating in one of the International Buddy programs next year at K-State. I know that if I was in a foreign country I would be very grateful for a buddy.

Wednesday night was a free night. There was a group of people down at the beach so a few of us decided to join them. It was dark by the time we got there and people were just starting to leave. We still wanted to hang around so some of the guys stayed with us so we wouldn't just be by ourselves. I saw my first bit of oil on the beach. It wasn't anything too exciting, about the size of quarter, but it was still oil. Yuck. We met a local guy who we ended up talking to for about 20 minutes. He did most of the talking though, and he seemed a little tipsy. It made me really glad that Boone and Daniel had stayed with us! Also, we got asked on our first group date that night! The group of guys made a HUGE card (complete with posterboard envelope even addressed to us) and wrote us a poem. It was pretty creative and really funny because we had seen that group buying the posterboard in WalMart on Monday night. Oops! They also had to wait for one of us to come to our room because they didn't know which room we were in. Hence, the card was slid under our door at 10:57pm, 3 minutes before curfew. So we just decided we would have to answer the next day.

Thursday was our StuMo night!!! These are for sure my favorite nights of the week. Kyle was the speaker for  this week. He talked about the importance of God's word and making it part of our everyday lives. He used the analogy of a flashlight. His flashlight (or MagLite to be more specific) could be used  with a focused beam or as a lamp that gave off a glow. This paralleled how the Word should be both used for focus and as a glow in our lives. He also made the comparison of the flashlight being on or off. Many people have flashlights but they aren't always turned on. He also talked a lot about expectations: the expectations that God has for us and the expectations that we have of God. It was a great message and really got us all thinking. After TNT we had a party in the 'Burbs for Jen's birthday and also a going away party for the athletes. They had to head back to Manhattan for training camps and such. It was sad to say goodbye but I'm glad that they got to stay as long as they did.

Friday I earned my first paycheck! It was nice to see the proof in front of me that my hard work is paying off. That night we went our our group date with Rogie, Kyle, Chase, David and Drew. It was a blast! They took us to the beach and we had a dessert of watermelon and strawberry shortcake. Then we played some water-balloon games and a little bit of sand volleyball. We played with three little kids that just walked up and jumped right into our game! It was pretty funny. After it got dark we went star-tripping. If you've never done it, you should try sometime! You make a circle and the person who is going stands in the middle. They find a star in the sky to focus on and then starts spinning in circles. After spinning for awhile the other people flash a light in the person's eyes. Not sure why (I'm sure there is some scientific reason behind this) but when the light is flashed in your eyes it makes you fall down, not a big deal when you're on sand though. Then the person is supposed to get up as fast as they can and run in a straight line... nearly impossible to do. Sounds cruel? Well, it's pretty fun to try and even funnier to watch. We headed over the picnic tables and sat around and talked. We talked about things we've been learning, surprises we've faced, and reasons we decided to come to Kaleo. It was great to get to know the guys and even learn some new things about the girls in my group. We played a get-to-know-you game just for fun and then headed back home. There was and intense game of kill ball going on in the parking lot that we jumped right in to. Curfew rolled around and we had to head to the rooms. All in all, super fun night!

Saturday was evangelism training. We looked at the parts of sharing the gospel and how if there isn't an opportunity for a response then all we're doing is sharing facts. The three parts are reality (that we all sin and need a Savior), the remedy (Jesus coming to earth and paying the price for our sins), and the response (Is receiving Christ a decision you would like to make?). Then we read a story about a dream that a wise theologian had about orange groves and how it illustrated the verse that says that "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few". It was a great picture and I really liked reading and discussing it. Then we all jumped in the cars and went to the beaches. The group I was in didn't really know where we were going, so when we hit the Florida state line we were pretty sure we'd gone too far. We decided that people on beaches in Florida should have the chance to hear the gospel too so we just winged it and made the best of our situation. I was paired with Kelsey and we got to share with quite a few people. My favorite part is definitely coming back together as a big group and hearing all of the cool stories that people have. We went swimming back at the hotel (mostly just to get all the sand off) and then we went with a big group to the Hangout to, well, hangout. They had a live band and we just danced and goofed off for awhile then headed back to the hotel.

Today we went to church at First Baptist again. We're still trying to figure out a way that we can serve the church. The message today was about forgiveness and it was really good. This afternoon I got caught up on some stuff that I hadn't gotten to earlier in the week and chilled all day. I'm so grateful for the time to recharge on Sundays.

Hopefully it won't be this long between updates again. Because that is a lot to read (not to mention type out!). So I'll try to be better about keeping things current! Until next time...


Sarah
XOXO

Prayer Requests:
*The International Buddies program at K-State that more students would want to get involved.
*Boldness to share with coworkers this week and invite them to TNT
*Discipline to get all the things I need to get done before I go do social stuff