a little history: making the decision

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!