We're Home

We just got back last night from being in San Diego for the summer. While we were sad to leave the students, it is good to be home. And by "home" I mean Nebraska. We won't actually be at OUR home for a few more weeks. Until then, we'll be between Omaha and Norfolk visiting family and friends. 

A summer project is such a neat experience for the students. They grow so much in such a short time, because the environment is conducive to growth. It's a lot like a fire. If you think about a fire, many elements need to be right in order for the fire to start, then grow, then sustain itself. I am speaking from experience here. One night, the girls in my growth group took me to have a bonfire on the beach. I am not a bonfire kind-of-girl, so this was a new experience for me! It was so fun, but it took forever to get our fire started. We came equipped with wood, matches, paper, and of course, supplies for Reeses S'mores. We even had experienced fire starters with us, but for some reason, our fire wouldn't start. The paper would burn, but the wood wouldn't catch on fire. We were quickly running out of matches, so we decided to borrow lighter fluid from the bonfire nearby. That worked, but only for a while. The fire would get big, then die down quickly. We decided that maybe we needed to look for a different fire pit. So, while Sarah and Ashley were looking for a new pit, Megan realized that there was a big metal thing in our fire pit. Now, you may wonder why we didn't notice this before, but it was dark and I thought it was just a part of the fire pit. Once we moved it, we saw a bunch of coals at the bottom of the pit. From then on, it was easy. We put more paper in there, then the wood caught on fire, then we had this big fire! The S'mores were great, but so was the experience. Summer project is a lot like a fire. All the elements are right for the students to grow a lot. They are surrounded by a group of people who love the Lord and want to grow with them, they are a part of small groups who know them well and still accept them, they have trainers who are building into them, they learn how to share their faith on campus, at work, and on the beach, they learn what it means to be "authentic men" and "women of excellence", they learn how to spend time with the Lord, and they learn how to go home and keep growing and walking with the Lord.  

While it is difficult to share everything about our summer with you, we wanted to try to share some of the highlights with you. In our next several posts, we'll share some of the aspects of the project we haven't talked about in our past posts. I hope this helps you understand more about what we've been doing this summer. We feel blessed to be able to see the Lord work in the lives of college students!