Busy Weekend

Hello!

It's been a busy weekend here in Gulf Shores but it's been so much fun!

On Friday night we had a group social. In true StuMo fashion it was, of course, a dance party! Haha. It was really fun just to hang out with everyone and act all goofy. The theme was neon colors so we were all "glowing" under the black lights that were set up. Hard to believe it was the first planned dance party we've had all summer. They usually happen much more frequently. :)

Saturday we had evangelism training. This week was more focused on what that will look like back on campus and how evangelism isn't an event, it's a process. There is a relationship built with the people who you share your faith with, whether it's 2 minutes or 2 years it is still a process of explaining the gospel to them and also showing them the example of your life. Then we went to the beaches; I got to go share with Connie, a girl in my sorority. I've loved seeing how God is providing for our project. Despite the oil spill and double red flags most weekends (which means you can potentially get ticketed if you're caught swimming) there are still people out on the beaches. Many times there isn't a big selection of people and so, while we're aiming to share with people close to our own age, we get to share with older, younger, and everywhere in between. This weekend I shared the bridge illustration with a woman named Shannon. After talking to her it was apparent that she was a believer by her answers and her attitude. After we were done sharing the illustration, we just asked her more about her life story. She told us that she married very young, found out after she married that the guy was an atheist and that the relationship just went downhill from there. She got out of the relationship but had a hard time trusting people and being lonely. She really wanted a family. As she got older she began to think that maybe that just wasn't God's plan for her life. Starting a family was the last bit of her life that she was trying to control on her own, she said, and once she gave that control to God and fully surrendered He blessed her with everything she could have asked for. She's now married to a man who loves God first, trusts in Him for everything and can lead her spiritually. She has 2 little boys and twin girls, the family she always dreamed of. Her story was so encouraging to us. It's the perfect example that God wants to give us what our hearts desire if we are willing to surrender control to Him and trust that His plan for our life is better than any one we could come up with. If we are willing to make Him the Lord of our life, our will becomes aligned with His, and He blesses us greatly.

Saturday night, we decided to have a girls' night. My group and two other D-Groups went to dinner and then we went to the Track, an arcade/amusement park, then went and got ice cream. It was a great opportunity to hang out and get to know some of the girls we hadn't really gotten a lot of time to get to know yet.

Today at church the sermon was all about financial freedom. Brother Lloyd focused on how everything we have is given to us by God, and how we're just borrowing it. He spoke about how God is the Owner and we're the managers. It was a cool message. Then after church we went to lunch with one of the guys' groups that we go to church with. We tried out Bahama Bob's Diner. It was really good, right on the beach. Getting to talk and laugh with the guys and just get to know them better was a blast, too.

Right now I'm getting ready to go read for a little while, something that doesn't happen much here because we're always so busy. I'm reading "The Fuel and the Flame" by Steve Shadrach. It's all about how if we will become the fuel God will use us to set our campus/workplace/wherever on fire for Him. Highly recommended! After that I have a meeting with my D-Group leader to go over my plans for leading Bible study on Tuesday. We're getting the chance to lead our group's study so we can see what it looks like to plan and lead a study for others and just getting practice in. It's been really neat to see how that all works. So, off I go! Thanks for checking in! Until next time...

Sarah
XOXO

Prayer requests:
*Shannon- Pray that she would continue to be strong in her faith and that God would give her the desire to take the next step and begin sharing her faith with those around her.
*Time- Pray that we will use the couple weeks we have left here wisely. Pray that all the progress that we've made so far could be doubled in the last couple weeks and that we would start getting prepared to go back to campus.