I would like to take a minute to talk about
my summer vacation. It was extraordinary and was a special one, an incredible
one, an intense one, but a rewarding one. I was a part of Summer Leadership
Project 2015 through Campus Outreach (CO). Summer Leadership Project runs from
June 1st all the way to the end of July. CO is a campus ministry at
several colleges. CO is an incredible ministry and not only focuses on the
college campus but also different parts of the world. It’s really easy to join
as well, all you have to do is show up to our weekly meetings and events that
we have. There is a CO at Georgia Southern and even as an East Georgia student
you can still become a part of this growing campus ministry.
First
off, what I learned was what impacted me the most and was what the summer was
all about. We had several different “training packages” that we went through
during the summer: Theme training, Bible study training, Prayer training,
Evangelism training, and Life training. Our theme for the summer was “Fully
Persuaded” based off of Romans 4:20-21. We had our theme training meetings on
Monday nights; my favorite one was our second theme training “Fully persuaded
that God Loves Me.” The Word of God is filled with so many promises and learning
about those promises is something that will stick with me for the rest of my
life. Knowing God’s promises truly brought comfort to me during the beginning
of the summer. The training package “Evangelism” was another one that impacted
me very deeply this summer. If anything it took me out of my comfort zone by
teaching me that sharing my faith is scary but in the end rewarding. It also
showed me that the end results of sharing my faith are completely up to God, not
me. On Saturday afternoons we would go out onto the beaches of Daytona and
share the gospel to people. It was extremely frightening and hard at times, but
there were times that I saw God really working in me and the people I reached
out to. A very important aspect to the Evangelism training was being able to
share our faith to people at work and within the community
The summer was
filled with new experiences and new changes in my life. I worked at McDonalds
during the summer as my very first job. Let’s just say I’m not fast food
material. Sure it wasn’t all that great but an experience that I am thankful
for and will never forget. It taught me so much about myself and taught me
patience for others (co-workers, managers, and customers). I met a girl that worked
there named Nacole, a college student just like us, she was one of my trainers
and now a very good friend. Work was filled with many challenges and struggles
but also filled with some learning experiences and some amazing opportunities.
I never thought I would have worked at McDonalds or any fast food place for
that matter. However, I wouldn’t have traded that for the world because it
taught me so much. It taught me patience, how to work quickly but efficiently,
but more importantly it made my weaknesses stronger. There were days that I didn’t
want to go but I knew that they needed hard workers and besides, who doesn’t
like getting a paycheck? My co-workers and managers are a part of a special
family that I developed while I was down there and now they are some very close
friends of mine.
Aside from work we also did volunteering within the
community of Daytona. Mostly it was manual labor like yard work and things of
that nature. I’ll be honest with you I actually enjoyed volunteering more than
work because being out within the community you meet all sorts of people. It
humbles you when you see homeless people just lying in the parks trying to find
somewhere to sleep or stay for a while. It reminded me of all that I have and
how grateful I should be. Also, I grew in compassion for them and wanted to
help them. Although I wasn’t actually able to help them in the way I wanted to,
I did get to show them Christ through the work that I did and how my attitude
was when I did volunteer. I know you may think that doing yard work isn’t all
that fun, but we had some awesome people to work with and they made it
enjoyable. I was always excited when I had to go volunteer because of the
reward I got. The reward was compliments from complete strangers about the work
that I was doing.
Friday nights were my favorite part. We had what they
call “socials” and we would all dress up in whatever the theme was for the
social and go out as one big huge group and do something fun together. My
favorite one was a Disney social that we had towards the end of the summer. We
all dressed up as different Disney characters and went ice skating. I had one
of the best times of the whole summer that night. Just hanging out with friends
and building friendships also having a fun time was just what I needed to end
the week. Another one of my favorites was the last one we had which was
Christmas in July. We decorated with Christmas decorations, had cookies, and
played some Christmas type games. It was so much fun and a great way to end an
incredible summer. It was so funny to see the different outfits that people
would come up with and how they took time into to making them.
Coming home was very difficult because I didn’t want to
leave all the new friendships that I had made and how many memories I made down
there. Even though there were struggles and it was hard at times; the
experience was something that I couldn’t have received anywhere else. I could
go on and on about my whole summer because God taught me so much and I learned
so much from some of the leaders that are older than me and farther along in
their faith than I am. I grew a ton spiritually, mentally, and emotionally; I
learned how to live on my own, manage money for the most part, also how to
prioritize my time better. I am definitely going to go back as many summers as I
can in the future. Everyone in Campus Outreach invites you to look into
becoming a part of our growing campus ministry and come on Summer Leadership
Project. Applying doesn’t start till late in the spring for those who are going
on their first Summer Leadership Project. Trying to find the right words to
describe the summer and what all happened and all that I learned is so
difficult because there’s so much detail that I want to say. It’s hard to
explain and even harder to really put into words what exactly happened during
the summer. Overall though, my summer was an impactful, intense, extraordinary
event in my life that I will never forget and can’t wait to have again.
