THE FIRST WEEK OF SDSP12

Staff getting ready for welcoming students

The first week of SDSP has been really fun and crazy. We have had God challenging us in many different ways.
One thing that happened this week was an awesome experience with evangelism on the beach. "I'm not really the most outgoing with my evangelism. I just have to be able to put the trust in God and jump in to talking to the people." -Zach Lefever.

Playing some welcoming games

All dressed for the staff hunt

All students arrived out here on Tuesday and already can feel God moving. God has blessed us all with kindness, so it's not too crazy. The first day we were out here was great. That time was mainly getting checked in, meeting everyone, and exploring around our new home for two months. The next day, Wednesday, was also great. Wednesday, we all met and had a great message about the 1st chapter of Luke. Throughout the summer, we're focusing on the book of Luke. Daily devotionals were handed out as well: Four Sevens. It's a great way to get up in the morning and get to spend time in the word and talk to God before starting the day. After breaking into our DNA groups, we all split up and shared our Story of the Soul. It was an awesome way to get to know those who we're going to be grouped with the entire summer. The Story of the Souls is everyone's personal testimony. Wednesday night, it was more just organizing and meeting one another. There are so many people here: about 100 students and almost 50 staff . Thursday was an awesome day here in San Diego. It was day one of job searching. All 100 students are out looking for jobs as we are here so we can practice evangelism within a work place more. But, after job searching for awhile, we had our first evangelism schooling. After that, we went out on the beach to practice our skills. My group of three approached two women from Argentina. They didn't understand much English. We basically found out they were Jewish and just visiting the west coast. We talked with them (or atleast tried) for about 40 minutes. It was awesome just talking to complete strangers about what they believe and their culture in Argentina. That night, we had the second round of Evangelism school. After that, around 7:30, we went out to speak to some more people, unfortunately, my group didn't get a chance to speak to anyone. But, many other groups had such great stories to tell. Like one woman who was approached was a huge drug addict, but her sister brought her to Christ and now she's living life with Jesus. Amen. And another story was about a 25 year old man. He came out here to live with his sister because he got into trouble with the law, got kicked out of school, had issues with his wife, and is 125,000 dollars in debt. So, out here for two weeks, he just fishes three times a day. He said out of those two weeks, not one person talked to him. Except two young men here at project. I guess they talked about the Lord, prayed for the man, and just really got to know him for about an hour and a half. Every Friday, we have a community service then a small party type thing called Friday Night Live. So on Friday, that was a day of job searching through the morning and afternoon. Later, students got into ministry groups, having dinner, and then FNL. Saturday was another day of job hunting mostly. At the end of the day from 6-8 we all had a staff hunt. Many of the staff dressed up in costumes and hid all through mission beach! It was a blast trying to find them all. So, that wrapped up the first week of SDSP12! It was such a welcoming and fun week. Especially with getting to know each other and how God is moving.