Fish and Fry. Done.

Last few days on project. It has flown by so quickly. I feel so normal being here. Although I have gotten to know these people really well in these 10 weeks, I also feel like I am starting to get to know more about the little details of their personalities. Santa Cruz has been wonderful. I have absolutely loved being here, but it isn't home. I am sad to leave but not so much the city as the people. The 58 students God has brought together for this summer have been more than I could have dreamed of. Through out the summer each of us has had to give our testimony at one of our meals, which is not just us crusaders but any friends, co workers, or whoever, that we have invited. All though each of our stories are different, each one ends the same way and points to the same thing: it is a relationship. God does all the work. God provides whatever strength or power and He gets all the glory. When you hear 58 students who all have completely different backgrounds all say that in the end it comes down to God being the only true satisfaction and that it is not about rules and traditions but an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, how could any one not believe in the salvation that comes from Christ?! It is absolutely beautiful!

Our stories are intricately woven and beautifully crafted! Through them God is able to point a light towards Himself and say "come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28) We all are on in the process of learning that we all feel a deep longing within us and each one of us tries to fill that longing with something, whether it be relationships, sports, food, control, beauty, perfection, success, whatever it may be, each person in this world was made with a deep sincere longing for the Lord. But instead of acknowledging that the Lord is the only one who can fill that longing, we try to fill it with things of this world. I had a conversation with one of my coworkers the other day about this exact topic. She has been trying to fill this void with boys and relationships but still feels so alone and empty. I was reminded the other day that God's Holy Spirit is living inside each one us whether we chose to accept it or not, He is there. It is up to us whether or not we are going to call upon the Lord and allow that Spirit to work inside of us.

I know I have not shared on all of the spiritual conversations the Lord has placed me in throughout the summer or the ones my friends have gotten to be a part of. There are soo so many. I wouldn't even know where to begin or how to word them so they would not be to lengthy. I already make each of my posts rather lengthy for you followers. But I am always up for sharing so got questions or want to know more call or email me :))

I am flying back to school next Wednesday and I am a little nervous to leave the community I have had here at the Pan. God is good. He has my back for next year. Who knows what he has planned for me next

I know it has been awhile so there is a lot to catch up on. A couple funny stories to start us off.

1) There was an explosion. An ice cream explosion. Here was just another normal day at work making a chocolate dipped ice cream cone for a lovely gentleman when I go to use the ice cream machine, pull the lever, and BOOM! Ice cream is everywhere! All over my face, all in my hair, up and down my legs and arms, covering my shirt and shorts. It had to be the funniest thing! Priceless. Not to mention there is a line outside forming to get ice cream and I am now covered in it. Hahahahaha It was great. Please just picture vanilla ice cream all over me and tell me you are not laughing.

2) I also had an encounter with money. So this particular day I am working with someone. (I know, with people! Not just me, it is a miracle haha just kidding) So I am working with this girl for the first time and we had just had a conversation on counterfeit money and what you do if you get one, and what her experience was when she thought she got one once. Small talk you know. Anywho, then she proceeds to take her 30 minute break. Literally within 5 minutes of her being gone two ladies order and hand me a 20. This 20 was definitely not looking legit. I held it up to the light to see the president's face and there wasn't one. Ok first red flag. But it had the censor strip sooo what am I to do? I couldn't decide if it was fake or not so I was kinda slow to ring them up and what not as I contemplated. The girl I was working with had told me to call the supervisor and make up some excuse that my register wasn't working while the super heads over to check it out. Well since I wasn't really sure if it was fake or not I decided instead that I would just make a good mental note about what these two ladies looked like. Again, right after they leave, the girl I was working shows up for something she forgot and I tell her about the possible counterfeit. Here is where it starts getting epic. She looks at the bill and says" This is totally fake. I am calling Louise. (the super)" I am starting to laugh and get excited because there is ACTION going down! Louise comes and says it is real. It was just an old 20 so it isn't made like the new ones. But wait, then runs in 4 security officers. O great. My head shoots down and I am just chuckling (I mean you have to laugh) at the fact that I just said I had a counterfeit and 4 security guards just came. You may be thinking this shouldn't be a funny matter but you would have to understand the atmosphere in which all of this took place. It is not like I was the only one laughing. We all were. I was just the fool and the one being laughed at. Good times.

So now moving on to just some fun stories.

1) Surfing. Yep I can say that I have surfed in the great state of California and in one of the most famous surfing cities in the world. Santa Cruz. Last Friday me, Lauren (my roommate who happens to be fabulous and such a God sent), and Charlie go out at 7:30 to surf. So stinking fun! I had surfed once before in Costa Rica and was able to get up. However this was with my dad pushing me into the waves. This time I was without dad. Now I had to paddle fast enough to get myself into the wave. At first this was presenting some challenges. I was so close every time but I was barely missing them. Then I got the hang of it. Surfs up. I was doing it. The place we were surfing however is like bumper surfing. People everywhere! The last couple of waves I tried to catch I was knocked off by some little kids. Literally insane the masses that crowd the waters pretty much daily. But totally worth it. O and did I mention I was in a wet suit! 50 degree water! Lets just say after about 2 hours the wet suit, although fabulous and miraculous, still leaves you saying "I am a bit nippy".

2) My final story to tell is one that involves you golf lovers and Clint Eastwood fans. My friend Stu's birthday was last Monday and he is a huge Clint Eastwood fan. For his special day he wanted to go down to Carmel to eat at Clint's restaurant. Let me tell you I fell in love with Carmel. It is so sticking cute! Clint's restaurant, Hog's Breath, was really really good. It had a great atmosphere. If my camera was not a piece I would post pictures on here to show you. Soon enough you will see them though. After lunch we drove down the 17 mile drive which starts right next to Carmel in, you guessed it, Pebble Beach! Now I am no serious golf fan but for some reason I was just super pumped to see this! AWESOME! Tiger you need to get your act together brother because you are one lucky man to be able to play there. It was absolutely beautiful! ahhh just wait till you see the pics although they don't even do it justice. So naturally while doing all of this I had to call my dad and brag. haha love ya dad :)

There you have it. A small glimpse of a few of the things that have been going down. But those are only the minor ones. SO SO MUCH is happening and God has His hand in everything! I could never write about what all He is doing. And my blog would never do it justice. Heck I barely can do these little stories justice.

Boys listen up!

One of the things Campus Crusade (aka CRU) is big on doing is creative dates. Last year at school we had one, other students on project had them at their school, etc...Well here on project is no different. Each room is called an action group and those are the people you have Bible study with each week and honestly the people that become your best friends. So each guy action group was instructed to ask a girl action group out on a creative date. So fun right?

Last Friday at lunch the boys who had our room came out and sang us a song, that they wrote themselves, to ask us out! And this was no hoky song either. They sang really well together and everyone knew the words and it was great! I have a video of them singing it again that I will try to post. Ok, so they asked us last Friday and we were so excited! They were so excited to have our group of girls which made us even more excited. Now, while they had mentioned some of the things we would be doing in the song they sang us, they were still be secretive.

Last night was the big night.

AWESOMEEEE!

We started at 4 in the afternoon. First thing on the agenda was lazer tag. Then a few arcade games to buy some time, which we didn't know why at first, so with the arcade tickets we won we got spongebob tattoos, stick on earrings, and chinese handcuffs for the entire group. Yes, the boys were sporting stick on earrings. Then we proceeded back to the Pan (aka the peter pan motel which we are staying at) to get the cars. As we walked to the Pan we had paired off and had put our fingers in the chinese handcuffs with one of the guys. We deemed this the new trend in Christian dating. Chinese handcuffs eliminate the awkward hand holding hahaha (not that we would actually be holding hands, it was just a joke)

Now we are back at the Pan. Time to head off to the unknown destination. First stop TOGO's for dinner. We order our sandwiches to go as instructed and pile back into the car. We drive for about 15 minutes, exit the freeway and drive through a pretty neighborhood. The road then T's off and straight in front of us is a gorgeous beach shining through some huge and beautiful trees. We make our way from the cliff down a path to the actual beach and it is picture perfect. Not many people, pretty sand and if you look to your left you see Monterey, to the right Santa Cruz. Pretty Sweet.

The rest of the night proceeds with dinner, flying kites, exploring, making a fire with smores and banana boats, the boys playing guitar and singing songs, telling stories, star tipping, and taking glow sticks, breaking them open and splatter painting the sand! The sand looked sooo awesome!! The guys continued the surprises by bringing us all our favorite candies and then even after we pull back up to the Pan at midnight they tell us they will be right back, they have one more surprise. They come knock on our door about 20 minutes later and have a picture frame for each of us with the group picture we took that day on the beach! These boys made us feel so special and it was probably one of the best nights on project. O and to top it off before we left the beach to come back one of them prayed us out. How awesome is that?! Needless to say we love the boys of room 60. They put so much thought and planning into our date and nailed creative right on the nail.

Five weeks in. Can you believe it? I have been in Santa Cruz now for five weeks! I feel like this is normal and I don't want to see us leave. But tonight we said bye to our staff team. The rest of the summer has now been left up to the 58 of us students. What an exciting time! Yet we need a lot of prayer. This is a wonderful opportunity for growth and we can do this but not without God's guidance. The staff have been wonderful and so encouraging. Ask anyone on project and they will tell you their staff member really impacted the first part of summer. And with that, God has given us the second half of summer to take what we have been shown through the staff, trust in Him, and follow into the second half of this summer. Take a moment and pray if you would for our those students who have been chosen to take over as director of our project, the students who are leading the action groups (Bible studies), and the project as a whole as we enter into the last part of this amazing summer.