I don’t even know where to begin! So much has happened since the last time I blogged. It has been crazy busy here. After the men’s time on July 7th, I met with the co-director Blake for our peer-to-peer discipleship. We had a soul-to-soul time which was awesome. We got to expose sin and just learn more about each other and how we can help encourage each other as brothers in Christ. Later that night we worked. I got off of work at about 12:30, came back to the resort and by 2:30 I was on the road to Cape Canaveral with a bunch of project friends to watch the shuttle launch. We got to a place called Titusville, FL at about 4 am and slept overnight in our cars. 4 guys to one compact car made it extremely crowded. We woke up a few short hours later. It honestly felt like the end of the world. There were people everywhere; At mcdonald’s there was an hour long wait just to use the bathrooms. Cars were parked everywhere you looked all alongside of the road and people had tents on the sidewalks. We got to the pier which had hundreds of people on it, and at 11:30 we got to see the final shuttle launch ever! It was so exciting and it was so worth the lack of sleep and the 5 hour drive home with all of the bumper to bumper traffic. That night I worked, and we went out to eat with some co-workers including Simon. It’s always fun to go out to eat with our co-workers after work because we always have good conversations. Saturday morning, the women’s co-director and I met with all of the disciplers and we went over the material that they would be using when they meet with their disciples. Afterwards we met as a directors team and talked about how things were going. We didn’t get a lot of time to talk, and it felt very rushed. That night work went well, and we went out to eat again with co-workers. Sunday morning at church, the pastor talked on Mark 6 and just the importance of sharing the gospel and living that out all the time. After church, a bunch of us went to Clearwater Beach and hung out there for the afternoon and evening. It was a lot of fun to be able to relax and spend time with project friends. I was feeling really discouraged and stressed out though, and my friend Nathan who is interning in Florida this summer and has been doing a lot of project activities with us, just listened and spoke some truth to me. I really needed that and it was so helpful.
The next day, Monday, we had our first bible study without the staff present and the 3 student leaders did a great job in leading the discussion. We talked about purity, which is a pretty intense subject to talk about in a co-ed setting but they did a great job and we wound up separating men and women for the more personal discussion part. After that I went out to lunch with my friend Leslie. We had been hanging out more and talked about the possibility of starting a relationship in the near future. And last Monday, July 11, 2011 we went out to eat and we decided to start dating! I’m so excited for this new relationship and what God is going to do through it. God has done so much healing in my life this summer, and I’m so thankful that he has provided me with a relationship with a beautiful Godly woman. She is from California and goes to Chico State. It will definitely be a long distance relationship, but it will work if we are very intentional about the time we spend together. That night I worked, and after work we went out to eat with co-workers again. That night we invited our friend Leon who is from Brazil to come with us. Blake and I got into an awesome spiritual conversation with him, and we talked a lot about his beliefs spiritually, and after we heard his beliefs he asked us to share ours. We got to share the Gospel with him! So sweet! God works in awesome ways. It was a lot of fun just chatting with him and hanging out.
The next morning I picked up Simon and he came with the rest of our project to Magic Kingdom for a prayer walk. A group of 5 of us went to each one of our work locations and prayed over them. It was so cool and encouraging for me to have Simon with us and to hear him pray. God has been working in huge ways in his life the past few weeks. After the prayer time, Simon, Leon, and Alejandra (Simon’s girlfriend) and I hungout in the park and that was a lot of fun. Alejandra left early, so it was just the three of us. I had such a great time with Simon and Leon. It’s been sweet for me getting to know Leon especially because Simon would be leaving soon. Even though he would be leaving, God provided another guy to get to know and invest in! That night we worked, and after work we went out to eat again with a huge group of co-workers including Leon and we had a great time laughing and sharing funny work stories.
On Wednesday our project went to UCF to go sharing the gospel. A lot of us were extremely exhausted including myself, because I was running off of like 4 hours of sleep per night. I honestly didn’t want to go sharing at all. God definitely works even in our brokenness though, and it was so evident that day. Leslie and I met a guy who was about to get on his bike. We asked him if he would be interested in going through a survey with us and he said yes. We asked the first few questions, and then asked him what happens after death and he said that he believed in heaven and God but he wasn’t really sure about hell. He also shared that he used to go to church but got really busy in high school and basically stopped going. He also said that he believed being a Christian was to live a good life. The last question we asked him was his desire to know God and he said a 10/10! We asked him if we could share the KGP (knowing God personally booklet) with him and he said sure. We explained to him the gospel and just stressed that it’s not about works, but all about God’s grace. I read the prayer to him and asked him if he would like to pray to receive Christ. Honestly I was expecting him to say that he would do it on his own time, but he said sure. He also said that he had never heard anything like it before! So we prayed with Jarrett right then and there to receive Christ! God is so good and provides people that are ready to hear at the perfect time in the midst of our weaknesses. Later that day we had a Christmas in July party and a lot of co-workers came to that which was sweet. After the party, Simon got off work and Leslie and I went to pick him up. We played some games and then Simon and I went to the hot tub and talked for a really long time.
The next morning, I went to say goodbye to Simon, and some tears were shed. I hadn’t cried in a really long time. It was so hard to say goodbye already to such an awesome friend. I’m so glad that I was able to get to know him and be his friend at the perfect time. I can’t wait to see him again! After I said goodbye, we had men’s time and played a game and talked about 2 Timothy again and about accepting responsibility as men. Thursday was my day off so a group of us went to hang out at Hollywood Studios, then we got some dinner at Cici’s Pizza and that night a couple of us watched a movie and just relaxed. It was a much needed day of rest!
Friday I slept in for the first time in weeks and that night it was back to work.
Saturday morning the women’s co-director, Ashton, and I met with the disciplers again and it went really well. Afterwards all 4 of us directors had a much needed lunch and meeting. We prayed and went over scripture and just talked about everything that we had been feeling. It was so great. That night was back to work again. At work I invited Leon to come to church with us and he said he would!
On Sunday morning we picked up Leon and went to church. It was the first time that he had ever been to a church besides a catholic mass. The pastor talked pretty intensely on the prosperity gospel, and I was honestly doubting how well Leon would respond. God knew exactly what he was doing though, and Leon asked for a bible during the message, followed along intently, and afterwards he told me that he really enjoyed it! After church a bunch of us went to the pastor’s home for lunch where he spoke about his story. There were over 100 students from Campus Outreach and our project combined! Sunday afternoon Leslie and I finally got to talk after not having seen each other in a couple days. It’s so hard because we have opposite work schedules, so we have to be so intentional about our time together. That night it was back to work again, and afterwards we went out to eat with our co-worker Valentin from France. It was a lot of fun hanging out with him, and I am praying that God will soften his heart because he is very apathetic about spiritual things.
Monday morning was bible study, and we talked about the Holy Spirit and what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Afterwards a few of us guys went to lunch and had a massive bowl of ice cream for our friend Derek’s birthday. We finished it, surprisingly! That evening I met with Kenny, one of the disciplers, and just got to hear his story and how he was doing and we went over some scripture together. It was really good and it was awesome because I was reading right before we met that when we pour out ourselves into others, God will pour right back into us through that. I definitely felt exhausted that day, but after I met with him I felt refreshed! Last night was work again, and it was great except for the fact that I burnt my hand! It wasn’t too bad, just really painful.
This morning we had prayer time and afterwards I went with two other girls to the mall to share the gospel. We got rejected about 5 times, and were about to leave when we came across a guy who said he would do the survey with us. I wound up getting to share the gospel with him which was awesome! After that conversation, the girls did Soularium ( a picture survey) with two girls that are in the Disney college program. One of them works with our friends at Main Street, U.S.A! How awesome is that, and they were able to share the gospel with those girls! Tonight is my 5th day in a row of work, then it will be 2 days off! Please continue praying for me and my team here and for us to use our time wisely these last 2 weeks of project!
Berto
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