Since the beginning of my
freshman year of college, I have been involved with Cru (formerly known as
Campus Crusade for Christ). From the first week of the first semester, I have
been attending the weekly meetings, building community with the friends I made
and growing in my faith in God. The friends have been a constant encouragement
to me in my walk with Christ.
Growing up going to church
and Christian school, I have known what I believe about God and his display of
love (Romans 5:8). I accepted Christ into my heart at a young age and was
always sure of my salvation from that point on (Romans 10:9). The thing that
was different between then and now is the personal relationship with God that I
now know I have. I knew that God loves me and that he wants me to go to heaven,
but over the past year and a half I have been discovering what it means to live
in relationship with my Creator, Lord and Heavenly Father.
These past few months
especially have been a time of growth for me as I pursue knowledge of and
relationship with God. It was clear to me from the beginning of this year that
I need to do something worthwhile this summer - something that will challenge
me to grow in my faith, something that will allow me to be part of furthering
the Kingdom of God. I had been hearing about summer project from my friends who
went last summer and each of them experienced spiritual growth and increase in
boldness throughout the summer through intentional quiet times, living in
community with other believers the same age, and being taught and challenged by
older believers to share their faith. Hearing about these things, I decided
that, Lord willing, I would go on a summer project this summer.
The next decision to make
was where. This was pretty simple in that before I knew I would go on a summer
project, the Lord layed this location on my heart. I was caught by the history
of the Hampton Beach project when i heard it for the first time at Cru's winter
conference during my freshman year and could not get that story out of my head.
In short, the project almost closed down a few years ago, they had packed up
all the things in the house, trusting that this would be the end of summer
project in Hampton Beach. However, the Lord had a different plan. He put it on
the heart of a local couple to buy the house, in which the project had been.
This was a clear sign that this project was not meant to close down; that the
Lord still had things he wanted to do through summer projects in Hampton Beach.
This story stuck with me
for over a year and when it came time to decide where to go, I knew wanted to
be part of what God is doing in Hampton Beach. I am so blessed to have been
accepted onto this project, and am excited to see what the Lord will do this
summer!
