Hola!

First day in Santa Cruz happened yesterday and I am proud to say that it went pretty swell! A couple of things that stand out so far:

- There are sea lions! Did you know there are sea lions here?! No, I had no idea! They are fabulous. Big, fat seals that make a lot of noise especially when you get close to them. So word to wise, don't.

- On the same note as sea lions, there is an abundance of marine life that we Texans do not have in the lovely Gulf of Mexico. This would include one my favorites, Sea Otters! We saw one this morning after our run floating on its back and it was the cutest little thing! At the same time this morning we saw dolphins, sea lions, were told there are whales farther out in the ocean, and saw bright orange star fish! Lets just say the Pacific Ocean has a lot more to offer!

- The weather here is fabulous! Yesterday when we arrived it was probably 80 degrees and give me a big hurray for no humidity! At about 7ish when the sun started to set it dropped about 20 degrees. It gets chilly here that is for sure. A girl also told me that rain is supposedly pretty rare here so that is exciting.

- The whole town reminds me of Austin. Very hippie, organic, bum, free spirited and I love it.

God is definitely going to rock my world this summer. I am not sure what that is going to look like but I am excited to find out. The people he has called to this project are a special group of us and I can not wait to find out more about them and get close to them. Everyone right now is talking about the 10-15 pounds people on project supposedly gain. So in loo (sp?) of that pretty much the whole project woke up between 7:30-8:30 to go run or walk. We had several groups to choose from depending on your wok out preference. We had the fast 4 milers, the 2.5 mile runners who went downtown, which was me, and then the walking group. It was great. We also had some solo-ers. It was a really nice run but we shall see how long this running goes with the whole group haha.

Well you may be wondering why I named my blog Vera La Cruz. This past weekend I was at the Christian book store and bought one of those fish or cross thingys for your car. However this was a new one I had not seen before. It was called Vera la Cruz which means "see the cross" in spanish. I loved it! You know me all about the espanol :) So this design for this car sticker thing is a silver christian fish (which I can not spell the name of course) and then the tail has a cross that is gold. It is very spiffy. Anyways.. when I was coming up with a name for my blog earlier this morning I didn't just want my name or something boring and the car sticker came to mind! So here we are Vera la Cruz! :) I like it

I am actually pretty glad I listened to Diana Urbanovsky and then the others after who encouraged me to start a blog. At first my thoughts were that I would not be able to keep up with it or that I didn't really have the personality for a good blog, but I think I am going to like this. This is going to give me a great outlet for sharing my faith and what the Lord is doing in my life. So thanks to all of you who have supported me and encouraged me not only to blog, but for this summer project, and in my daily life and walk with Christ.

Please continue to pray for me and this entire group and project. Prayers mean everything and the encouragement means more than you know. O and if you want to send me loving mail here is the address:

Lauren Davenport

Campus Crusade for Christ

Peter Pan Motel

313 Riverside Avenue

Santa, Cruz, CA 95060

Much appreciated! :)