week 1 - jumping right in!

I will not always be writing this frequently, but there is so much to update on since I didn’t start this blog until about a week and a half into LT. Here’s an update on a little of the first week of LT.


For our very first main session, Neil Kring spoke last Monday & Tuesday about our fears – about being paralyzed by them, about admitting them, about walking in faith to conquer them. He taught us that there really is no faith without fear; but, a person “after God’s own heart” needs to learn how to take those fears to God and honestly deal with them. We MUST go to God first when facing them, because we will always be disappointed when our confidence is in men. We are so used to having our needs met by people, but because of that we so rarely tell the honest truth about what’s going on because of what they might think, do, or say. With God, we can bring that raw honesty to the table without being afraid of that.

We’ve been challenged to share our fears with others in our community to not only foster that new sense of honesty amongst each other, but also so that people may help us through them and hold us accountable to facing them. If I’m truly honest, I have a huge fear that LT is going to work for me and that I won’t be in any better place at the end of the summer than I was at the beginning because I didn’t give everything my fullest. I have a fear that I will never truly mend my relationship with God to where I want to. I have a fear of letting people really know what’s going on because they may think less of me or think that I’m not qualified for any leadership. I have a fear that I will be single for the rest of my life. I have a fear of uncertainty in the future and not figuring out what God is calling me to do with my life. Now, if I’m honest again, there is some bit of rationality and irrationality in those fears, but they are still there and I am going to try my best to overcome them this summer. But already in sharing those fears with God and others here at LT, I have been so encouraged. I’ve realized that if I seek after God with my whole heart, he will not forsake me! (Psalm 9:10). I’ve realized that I need to learn to find my identity in Christ and be secure in it. Also, I must remember that people aren’t bothered by the fact that I struggle and fall sometimes, because they do too. None of us are perfect, and people aren’t going to think any less of me. And so much more.

On the second part of Neil’s talk, I was very intrigued and challenged by the idea of intentionally praying for things every single day that God has laid on my heart. There have been things in life that I have so strongly felt God leading me to or desiring, but I haven’t done anything with that. There is so much power in prayer, intentional and purposeful prayer. I want to begin daily praying about

- Using my passion for Theatre as a ministry

- My heart for orphans and my dream of running my own orphanage

- My future marriage

- My heart and call for the country of Uganda

- Whatever profession God calls me to

- My leadership role as a Christian on Virginia Tech’s campus

It would be an honor if you would join me in praying for any of these things.

Then last Thursday we had our first project day, which we started by an hour long prayer time together out of the beach, something that we plan to make a tradition of every project day. We met with people from our schools, had our first Lifegroup, did some team games with the VT students and Ball Staters, and did a workshop about how to share our testimonies, which was really cool and helpful. At the end of the day, we were sent out to the boardwalk at the beach to go do video interviews with people. In the interviews, we had to go ask people a series of five questions, including ones like “What bothers you the most about religious people?” and “Describe a moment where you have experienced God.” and “What do you think the biggest problem is in our culture today?”. It was so awesome to get out and see what people had to say, and get used to approaching people. During it, my group got the opportunity to meet this really awesome couple who shared with us about how God lead them together in their relationship and I really connected with the guy when he was telling us stories about his 18-year-long period of being single after his divorce and his relationship with his kids during it.

Well, that was the update on last week. Update on this week soon to come!