My first week in Virginia Beach has certainly been an interesting one. What an emotional roller coaster! Praise the Lord for safe travels with all my Purdue friends (and Amelia, an IU student), as we drove through the night last Friday.
The past couple weeks, as project grew closer, I honestly tried not to think too much about it. I was most certainly scared, and didn't know at all what to expect. When we arrived, a few of us went ahead and applied for a job, and then we had some free time until we had anything to do. We're living at the lovely Cerca Del Mar, which is a motel just a few blocks from the beach. I use the term "lovely" loosely. It's not that lovely. But as my four roommates and I continue to make it our home, it's growing on me.
The first couple days here were absolutely terrifying to me. I don't know if I've ever felt so nervous in my life. I was constantly in prayer, asking God to reveal to me why I'm here and to take the nervousness and fear away. God for sure had a lot to show me in those first couple of days. I learned very quickly that this fear I was feeling, though not uncommon, was something that I had let hold me back in other areas of my life. I know that it is for sure something that I'm going to have to work through this summer, and lean on the Lord constantly for.
The first couple days were a whirlwind of meeting new people (which has been awesome) and going through orientation. The Lord amazingly provided me with a job the day after I got here! I work at Sunsations (a beach souvenir shop) as a cashier. It's been a blessing, for sure, and it's been cool to see how He's already creating opportunities for ministry. I started work on Friday, and I'm going to be working 8 hour shifts four days a week with a 6 hour shift on Saturdays. Such a blessing.
Coming here has been so good for my relationship with Christ. I definitely had grown away from him in the last couple weeks when I was at home. I was sort of just sitting on my faith, waiting for something to happen. Getting here and making time for God has been so good, and I desperately missed Him and need Him. It's been cool to just sit down and write out some prayers, which have led me to see things in my life that have been bothering me that I didn't even know about. I also think that I have a lot of unresolved problems in my life that I am going to have to take a likely painful but healthy look at this summer.
While we're here, we're also going to be sharing the gospel to people around Virginia Beach. We've gone out twice, and it has been so cool to see the Lord moving through us. We've had around 15 people come to the Lord already! I am so psyched to continue to share, and I really hope that I get the privilege to lead someone to Christ this summer.
Now, I'm feeling very blessed to be here. The nerves have mostly gone away, and I'm ready to make changes. This will probably be an extremely challenging summer for me, but I'm excited. It's hard being away from my family, Nick, and my friends. I miss you all so very much! But I hope that you will continue to pray for me, and I am so thankful for all of you for supporting me in this project.
Love you all!
