home.

First semester of my junior year has come to an end. It's difficult to believe that five semesters of college have come and gone, and only three remain.  When I reflect upon myself from the time I arrived on campus at UW-Oshkosh to now, a significant change has occurred.  That change occurred when I stopped finding satisfaction in grades and my achievements and placing my faith in Christ.

I'm home for Christmas break now, and I have been reflecting a lot on my friends at school as I settle down from the busyness of exams. To be in such a loving, caring, and accepting community of people, that's essentially what I had been longing for all of my life.  Jesus helped fill that longing.  He is faithful and He provides.  I know that my friends are the friends that I will have for the rest of my life.

Along with being home I have also been thinking about my family.  God has provided me with a family that is loving, caring, funny, and a family that has helped shape me to the person I am today!

From the Christmas tree, to the coffee, homemade food, and hugs; home is a wonderful place to be.

My heart is filled with so much joy, especially during this time of year.  Something about the snow gracefully falling from the sky, the sun shining through the trees, and the hustle and bustle in the streets.  The world seems to come alive during Christmastime, while we are celebrating the birth of Jesus.  Through everything happening during this season, there is also a peace in the air.  Proverbs 14:30 says, "A heart at peace gives life to the body."

I wish you the most joyful Christmas as you spend time with family and friends, and that your hearts may be at peace as we rejoice in the birth of our Savior.

Blessings,

Jenna

Captivated.

"Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies."

Psalm 36:5

The winter season is upon us, and I am finally finding time to write another blog post!  To recap my junior year of school so far, it has been filled with endless blessings.  From the six wonderful ladies that I share a dwelling with, Fall Retreat, Life Options, to helping lead a freshman, discipling two ladies, and attending Action group with other sophomore and junior ladies; I have been surrounded by a Christ centered community and am continuing to learn how to be dependent on God throughout my daily life.

My word of the year has been JOY.  Recently I started to read a book about joy and how I can learn how to nurture joy in others along with how to nurture and build joy in myself.  Sometimes, it's the little things in life, like not assuming the best in others, that can take joy away from them.  After learning, even the smallest portion, of what it looks like to live a life filled with joy this year, I have gained a new understanding as to what that looks like.  Focusing my thoughts on how to nurture others with joy, I have been pondering the five unchanging attributes of God.

• God's Worth is Incomparable (Psalm 148:13)
• God's Word is Reliable (Psalm 119:111, Psalm 19:8, Job 23:10)
• God's Works are Awe-Inspiring (Psalm 111:2, Psalm 65:12-13, Psalm 98:4, Psalm 92:4, Philippians 4:4)
• God's Ways are Loving (Psalm 18:35)
• God's Will is Good (Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139:12)

God is the spring of living water, and he will NEVER changes.  Even if we feel like we're failing.  God's will is always good.

In this season of giving thanks for what God has given me, I wanted to share with you my A-Z thankfuls.  With that, here is goes! :)

Ability to speak Spanish

Bonding with others

Confidence in Christ

Discipling gals

Eagerness to grow and learn

Family

Going to college

Having a place to call home

Inner jogging

Jesus' sacrifice

Knowledge that has been passed down to me

Loving friends and family

My totes ma goats supes dupes awesome friends

New friends, responsibilities, and opportunities

Openness to becoming an avid drinker of coffee

Personal relationship with God

Quiet times

Random moments with friends

Sisters in Christ

The opportunity to go to NMB Summer Project

Unabashed silliness and youthfulness

Vintage photos

Waking up each morning

X-cellent roommates

Yeppers, my love for squirrels

Zeal for the Lord

I am going to include some photos from this semester so far. Enjoy!

Blessings,

Jenna

Abbie and I at Life Ops!

Cheering on the UWO Men's Soccer Team!

Halloween 2013

Fall Retreat 2013 Juniors

Door County

Let's Go Kayaking!

Kayaking is by far my favorite hobby.  In the summertime, my family and I will pack up the kayaks and canoes and head out for an adventure to Devil’s Lake State Park or another nearby lake.  For anyone who hasn’t gone kayaking before, I would highly recommend it.  When the water is calm with a slight breeze on a warm summer day, those are prime conditions for kayaking.  You can also go fishing while you kayak, or you can enjoy the sights of nature from your seat.  At Devil’s Lake State Park I take in the sights of the bluffs that surround the lake, the clouds, blue sky, and the various eagles and turkey vultures that make their way through the sky in an eloquent way.  This past summer I had the opportunity in August to go kayaking several times and I absolutely loved it!

Sunflowers

When I think of sunflowers I think of their profound beauty.  They have the potential to grow extremely and they are all so different from one another.  Yellow peddles and their black inner body creates a magnificent contrast for the eye.  Whether there are a plethora of them in a field or just one in a garden, they are one of my favorite flowers.  This past summer on the drive home from Door County in Wisconsin we stumbled across a field of sunflowers.  The sun provides them with nourishment and they are constantly facing the sun for that.  I came across this quote about sunflowers and would like to share it with you!

“Sunflowers.  Just as they follow the sun throughout their days, we too must follow the Son throughout our days.”

Squirrels. Squirrels. Squirrels.

Yes, it is rare to meet someone whose favorite animal is a squirrel. BUT, alas, you have now officially been introduced to a girl whose favorite animal is a squirrel.  There’s something about them that’s different from other animals.  To be specific, black and grey squirrels are my favorite.  Their fluffy tails and adventurous minds make them unique.  Countless times during my walks to class across campus at UW-Oshkosh I have found myself squirrel watching, and other people notice it!  Have you ever seen a squirrel with a short stubby tail?  Or one with fluffy brown ears?  Maybe you’ve even seen one carrying some sort of exotic piece of people food.  The next time you’re gazing out your window, driving, or walking to class take a moment to appreciate the squirrels that surround you!

Fall Retreat!

Fall Retreat is October 4^th through the 6^th!  There’s something about driving three hours north to McNaughton, WI in the peak of fall that rejuvenates the soul.  Fort Wilderness will forever have a special place in my heart.  Last year was the first year that I traveled up there to spend a weekend in nature with an incredible community of people.  Building friendships and learning how to grow in my faith, it was simply glorious!  Not to mention, fall is one of my favorite seasons.  The changing of the leaves, the crispness of the air, and the contrast of the bright blue sky against all of the fall colors all bring joy into my life.  With fall come many other fun activities such as carving pumpkins, hot apple cider drinking, eating caramel apples, adventuring to places off the map to see fall colors, and enjoying those warm fall bonfires.

#FallingPlates

I first saw this video at a winter conference with Cru last year called TCX! I remember when I first saw this video it impacted my life in several ways.  It makes me think about how I am living my life.  Am I living it for myself or others centered?  Am I seeking acceptance from others and centering my life around people pleasing?  Or am I living to glorify God?

Galations 1:10 “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

My freshman year of college I got involved with an organization on campus called Cru.  I have made so many incredible friendships through Cru and can truly say that I live in community with around 200 other  wonderfulpeople.  Living in community is important for our lives because we were created to be in community!  Seek out others and live life with them!  The friendships you make in college are truly a blessing.

Sailing on a Ship.

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig!

Tomorrow will mark my official first full week of being home! What a wonderful first week it has been, filled with visiting friends and spending time with family!  I realized, though, that I neglected to write about my last week of project. So let's begin there.

The last theme week of project was What are the Odds. Odds was a game we played while on project, similar to a game of dare.  Many people had to do crazy things such as eating a caterpillar, licking asperagus juice off of a gym floor, going into a park pond knee deep, wearing silly clothes to our end of year banquet, and the list goes on! The vision behind What are the Odds week was, what are the odds each of us on project would take back to campus what God had taught us this summer.  What are the odds that we would take on the challenge of being leaders.  Well, challenge accepted! After spending 10 weeks in North Myrtle Beach and growing alongside of 85 other students, we have been equipped to head back to campus this fall and continue the movement! To end our project we had a banquet to celebrate everything that happened.  We also spent our last few days cleaning and spending time into the wee hours of the morning together before we parted ways.

After spending weeks sharing on the beach, at local malls, on the streets, and at work we ended up with 5,476 spiritual conversations! 3,054 Gospel conversations! AND 300 people prayed to receive Christ into their lives. God worked in incredible ways!

The roadtrip home began August 3rd, and we arrived back in Wisconsin on August 5th! Saying goodbye to project family was difficult, but we will all have a reunion together at the Cru winter conference this December/January called TCX!  After arriving back in Wisconsin, we had a mini-reunion at the Wisconsin State Fair with some project friends when we went to see Hillsong in concert, such a treat! Thanks to Halie for letting me stay at her house for three days before I ventured back to Baraboo!

I arrived home on August 8th, and since then it's been whirlwind of excitement! Friends came to visit for my birthday, my cousin in visiting now, and more friends are coming this weekend. Needless to say, I am spending every last minute of free time before school starts with friends and family!  Buying books for school, figuring out furniture for my house, and preparing for the freshman who will move to UWO and praying for them has also begun. I'm excited to see what happens this school year in the UWO Cru movement!

Hopefully I will be able to continue this blog to share what life on campus is like this coming year! Check back for updates!

Love,

Jenna

 

Last Sunday morning at Starbucks!

 

 

Fellow Oshkoshians at the End of Project Banquet!

 

 

Sunrise in NMB at the inlet!

 

 

Hillsong Concert!

 

 

Birthday Adventures!

 

Devil's Lake!

 

 

Home.

This is the Stuff.

Hello all!

Hoping ya'll are having a wonderful Wednesday afternoon!  I realized today that I haven't updated my blog for about a week and a half, but a lot has happened since the last update!

Our theme last week was Sucks to Suck.  The vision behind that was what to do when evangelism doesn't go well, and no relying on our own strengths to determine whether or not we were successful during our outreach efforts.  The only part we can do is plant the seed and hope that the person receives what we have said and accept it into their life.  During last week many of us came down with colds, mono...the list goes on forever.  With that being said, I can speak for myself and many others who experienced a lot of troubles last week with evangelism.  This week though, it is progressively getting better and our health is coming back!

This week the theme is Talk to Me relating to prayer.  Prayer is intentionally conveying a message to God.  Through petition, praise, thanks, confession, and desperation we can connect with him anywhere and anytime.  After our speaker spoke about prayer, our landlord from project, Muriel, spoke to all of us students.  This lady is so great! She has a sense of humor and a loving and kind heart for others.  It just so happens that this lady is very adventerous and is an incredible leader as she was previously involved with education.  She wrote a book by the title of, "Footprints on the Heart."  In this book she mentions a little bit about her background and how to leave a legacy and to not get caught up in the many titles that each of us are given in our lives.

Outreach these past few weeks have been challenging but still successful.  Students have ventured to Cherry Grove Beach, Broadway at the Beach (tourist/mall area in Myrtle Beach), Myrtle Beach, Barefoot Landing (mall area), and several other areas.  Tourist season is still booming here and our work is surely NOT done.  There are consistently always people to talk to, even at 9 in the morning as my friend and I experienced today.

As these last couple of weeks have come and gone much too quickly, project ends next Saturday.  During my day off on Monday a few friends and I ventured to Charleston, SC for some sight seeing in the beautiful city!  I never could've imagined a beach town to look the way Charleston did, it almost felt like I was in Europe!  Today my friends and I got up during the wee hours of the morning at 5:30 to go to an inlet about 15 minutes away to watch the sunrise!  Breathtaking.  That's how I would describe it.

It's hard not to think about next Saturday when all of us will be leaving NMB.  But as it's said, all good things must come to an end.  Each of us will go back to our campuses with a totally new and refreshed view on outreach and just leading campus in general, not just in CRU but in our classes.  I am excited to be an Ambassador to the College of Business this coming year and understanding how to lead and build friendships.  The community here in NMB has been incredible, and each of us can take that back to our campuses in hopes of building up the community there as well!  There is so much potential for each of the students on this project to make a difference in the lives of many people.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support and pray for all of us down here!  I plan on writing at least one more blog before I leave here after this one.  Our last day of work is next Wednesday.  After that we will begin cleaning and have our end of summer meetings and banquet to wrap things up.  Please pray for safe travels for everyone as we head home beginning next Saturday!

Shalom,

Jenna

Charleston, SC

 

Battery Park

 

Angel Oak- Biggest Tree East of the Mississippi River!

 

Angel Oak!

 

Sunrise over the Inlet

 

Nice ladies at the sunrise!

 

 

Going Hard in the Paint.

Happy Saturday!

Here's another update for everyone to read! As of today, there are only three weeks left of project.  Time has gone by so fast, but the memories and experiences here have been so incredible!

This week our theme is Going Hard in the Paint! This is a basketball term for going hard inside the lines during a game.  Our outreach goal was nearing our initial goal of 2,500 gospel conversations so the outreach team raised our new goal to 3,000 by the end of project!  This week is similar to the Killing the Giants week that we had previously while staff was still here!

Outreach this week for a group including myself happened at Barefoot Landing, an outdoor mall about 15 minutes from where we live!  We had the opportunity to share with 3 girls, one of them who was in college and the other two were still in high school.  They all had solid faith foundations as well as the rest of their family- such an encouragement!

Today during my day off my friend Jaci and I took an adventure to Myrtle Beach to visit the site of the TLC show Welcome to Myrtle Manor.  While we were there, we saw a few celebrities from the show and took pictures with them!  I'll attach a few just for fun!

Other than that, I would say it has been a quieter week here in NMB!  It has been rainy here the past couple of days, so please pray for sunshine as tomorrow (Sunday) we have outreach in the afternoon!

Ta ta for now!

Love,

Jenna

Praise Like Fireworks.

Good afternoon from North Myrtle Beach!

I am currently writing this blog post to you from Starbucks! I cannot wait to write to you all about what has happened since my last blog post last week Friday.

Last weekend on Saturday the staff team officially left project, and project has now been student lead since then! It has been incredible to experience students leading and relying on God to lead the project as well.

This week the theme is, "It's Not About Me." During the weekly meeting on Sunday our speaker talked about how Christ doesn't want to be #1 in our lives, but he wants to be the center of our lives. Soemtime in each of our lives we have the possibility of loving things (idols) more than God.  But we need to learn how to make sacrifices, how to keep our eyes focused on heavenly treasures. It's all about God.  We shouldn't go through our daily lives thinking to ourselves, "What can I do to keep myself comfortable today?" Instead we should think about parts of our lives that we can risk to live life to the fullest, to live on the edge.  We have to die to self in order to do this and to not try to fulfull our own plans that we have made for our lives.  As a student on this project I have found that very motivating as I continue to go to work every day but also as I go out and share on the beach with other students.

This week has come and gone, and thankfully so have the rain showers.  It rained from about last Thursday until Tuesday evening.  Although that made it hard for us to go out sharing on the beach, we were creative and spent time doing outreach via social media and other technological ways!  Due to the rain we also had the opportunity to come together as a project and relax last Friday night by watching "Wreck it Ralph."  If any of you haven't seen that movie, I would definitely recommend that you watch it!  I continue to be shown hwo truly blessed I am to be here on project with the 85 other students!

As yesterday was the 4th of July, I thought it would be appropriate to title this blog post Praise Like Fireworks!  Hope you all had a wonderful day! I worked and it was busy, which made the day go by super fast! After work we had roommate dinner, so my roommates and I went to Moe's Southwest Grill. Pretty delicious. After that we went to our location for the weekly Thursday night meeting where we can invite people that we outreach to or co-workers.  Quite a few people had invited people to come and they were able to attend!  After the weekly meeting, we all skedaddled to the beach where we saw multiple firework shows. Can I just tell you- that was SO cool! After all of the rain in the past week the sky looked even more beautiful and the stars were even brighter than any other night I've seen them since we've been here!

(For all of you music fans- check out this song! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lVjO4YYaI)

Other than that, today is my day off so I spent some time with my discipler this morning and now spending the afternoon with friends!  This evening one of the men Bible study groups is taking out my Bible study for a surprise evening adventure. I'll have to write about it the next time I blog! Stay tuned for that!

Love,

Jenna

 

Fourth of July in NMB

 

 

 

 



You Are My Vision.

Good afternoon!

It's been a little over a week since my last post- so here is the promised weekly update!

Last week the theme was related to prayer and World Vision.  This summer as part of NMB Summer Project the goal is to build the greatest missionary army.  The ultimate goal is to send at least 40 students overseas for either a Vision Trip, STINT, or Summer Project to partnerships around the world!  It's been interesting to hear stories of people who are feeling called to serve in another country on the opposite side of the globe from us and how important it is that they spread the love of God there as well!

We did a handful of fun and eye opening activities last week to experience what it may be like to serve overseas and had a taste of different cultures.

Last Sunday we had student lead evangelism, and I'd love to share with you some of my experiences that day!  We approached two girls on the beach and initiated a conversation by asking if they'd like to do the Prospective cards.  These cards are similar to a game but help get into spiritual conversation.  We had a wonderful conversation with the ladies and sent them away each with KGPs because one of the girls had to work.  Our next and last conversation that day was probably the most encouraging I've had so far since project has begun.  We approached three ladies on the beach and asked if they'd be interested in going through the Prospective cards also.  After going through the cards, we had the opportunity to share the KGP with each of them.  Two of the ladies had heard the gospel previously, but one of the ladies did not know much about the Bible or what it meant to have a personal relationship with God.  Our conversation lasted about an hour and a half and consisted of answering many questions and explaining things.  After leaving the ladies, a feeling of encouragement and joy overwhelmed me and the other ladies I went sharing with.  The crazy part about the conversation was that the lady who did now know much about God had been asking her friends questions about faith and religion the night before!  Divine appointment for us to encourage her!  So amazing.

Sunday night kicked off the theme for this week which is Behold Our God.  Standing in awe of God and who he created us to be.  His love is unending and he truly delights in each and every one of us!  After sharing in NMB on Main Street with my discipler and having quiet time Wednesday night I have been in awe of everything!  This week has been so great that words cannot even begin to describe it to you!

Last night was our Mid-Project banquet.  Staff leave tomorrow. Crazy.  Last night was a celebration of what has happened so far here in NMB and what it will be like as we continue with the next 5 weeks as students begin taking over the leadership positions.  We all had to opportunity to dress up, take pictures, eat delicious food, and join together in community to celebrate what God has done!  It is sad to see the staff leave as they have all been incredible role models for the other students and I this summer, but it will be exciting to see what happens during these next 5 weeks.

Thank you so much to those of you who have shown love by sending me mail and packages! It's a joy to receive boxes of love while I'm here in NMB!

Please continue to pray for us here in NMB, especially during this next week as the students begin to really lead the project!  Please also pray for safe travels for the staff as they head back to the mid-west!

Love,

Jenna

My discipler Cassie and I

 



 

Bible study ladies!

 

UW-Oshkosh

 

Roommates!

Alive.

Good morning!

Today marks being in North Myrtle Beach for 4 weeks! Time has literally FLOWN by but has been simply glorious at the same time!  Today is my day off, so I figured I would write a blog post for ya’ll to read and catch up the life of Jenna!  This morning I got up and went for a run and then walked a bit by the ocean.  I have found that walking by the ocean at that time is the best because there are less people and the air seems to be fresh and crisp!  Afterwards I got coffee with my friend Haylee.  She is such a joyful lady and has such a loving and kind heart!  Making new friends here on project has been beyond what I could have ever imagined.  Everyone here has such an open and loving heart and really love God!

To jump back to last week, the theme was All For One. I can honestly say that last week was an experience in itself and the technology challenge really contributed to everyone here on project becoming even more of a family.  Sometimes you forget how consuming social media and cell phones are until you give them up.  I am truly blessed and thankful to be surrounded by so many wonderful people here on project.  Friday night the men on project treated all of us women to mini golf.  Needless to say the golf lessons I took when I was younger didn’t quite work to my advantage while we were mini golfing, but it was fun to get to know people I hadn’t yet had a chance to hangout with!  To end the week on Saturday we played a project softball game-so fun!  The best part was being able to encourage one another while we were up to bat or out in the field.  Each of us on the project have unique God given gifts and it has been a treat to experience the gifts that everyone has!

On Sunday during outreach I went with some friends to the beach to share.  We used a tool called Soularium which has a variety of pictures people can use to describe their lives as we ask them questions.  The pictures can be interpreted in many different ways so it’s always interesting to see how people will view them.  We got into conversation with a dad and his son who were from Pittsburg, PA.  It turns out that the son just graduated college with an accounting degree (as a business major myself I gave him props for that).  They were here on vacation with family and it was interesting to get to know them throughout the conversation.

Other conversations I have gotten into here have been with people over a variety of ages from families to high school and even college students.  One of my favorite parts about getting to know high school students who just recently graduated is encouraging them and giving them a little insight into the life of a college student.

Last night we hosted a Hot Dog Feed/Block Party on our project property as an outreach effort to all of the college students and high school students who are renting the houses surrounding us.   A lot of the students didn’t understand why we would give them free food, which then lead to conversations about CRU, our mission here in NMB, and getting into spiritual conversation with them.  A storm rolled through during the event, but that didn’t keep the students from joining us in community for the evening.

Thank you to the people who have sent me mail and emails! It makes me grin from ear to ear when I receive mail! I am going to try to be better about writing emails and letters back to each of you- so be on the lookout! J

Below are a few pictures that I have taken recently of the beach.  I am making a promise to myself to take more pictures while I’m here of not just the beach but new friends!  Hopefully by my next blog post next week I’ll have a handful of new pictures to share with you!

Please continue to pray for lives to be changed here and that students can continue to come together as a family!

Love,

           Jenna

         

James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

Because Christ is Worthy

Hi family and friends!

 

This update is coming to you from the east coast, humid and beautiful North Myrtle Beach!

The past week has been wonderful! Last week the theme of the week was Killing the Giants week. This week was challenging in a good way. The gospel was shared around 850 times this past week-through divine appointments on the beach, downtown, or at work. Our overall goal was 1017 conversations, but with Tropical Storm Andrea hitting shore this week, we were a bit limited on Thursday and Friday as to where we could go sharing.

Work is going super well! I enjoy each and every single one of the people that I get to work with on a daily basis and it has been so interesting to pick up on slang words! Instead of swimming trunks, people down here call them board shorts. Given that I have a Wisconsin accent, apparently there are quite a few words that have a funky twang compared to how people “usually” say them.

God is working miracles down here in North Myrtle Beach. I am beyond thankful for all of the people I have met and continue to get to know! My roommates and I have been bonding since our first day here together. It’s such a glorious treat to be surrounded by each of those women. All of our senses of humor mesh together well and we are having a wonderful time serving each other and spending time together when we aren’t working or doing outreach.

This coming week our theme is All For One. What does that mean?! Well, I shall tell you right now! The thought behind All For One week is for all of us students to come together as one. With that, we have been challenged not to use technology (cell phones, ipods, laptops) for one whole week! With that, the only way we the students are going to be able to communicate it through word of mouth and having set times for meetings. Tonight after 7:30pm I won’t be able to use my phone. Below I will list my address seems how I forgot to do that previously, feel free to send letters or anything this week and throughout the rest of my time here! I love receiving mail here just as much as I do when I’m at school in Oshkosh!
 

During my free time here I have had the opportunity to do a lot of fun things! Last week Friday evening a group of us students when to Myrtle Beach for the evening and rode the Skywheel together. The sights from above were simply wonderful. To picture Myrtle Beach, think of the Wisconsin Dells except on the ocean. Mind=blown. Very touristy but classy at the same time. We ate dinner at Dirty Don’s and then ventured around for a while to take in the sights.

Thursday nights are roommate dinners! This past Thursday my roommates and I went to a taco shack for tacos and THEN we went to the Sugar Shack for ice cream. Yumm yumm. Needless to say that we’re all receiving the nutrition that we need for our daily routines!

I hope most of you know how much I appreciate the weather, but I just want to share what the weather is like down here! It continues to be fairly humid and warm- but that’s a blessing. Friday after Tropical Storm Andrea had passed through our area, it was the most beautiful day down here so far in my opinion. There was a cool breeze coming off of the ocean and the humidity wasn’t bad at all! When it rains here, it pours. Let me tell you! Hopefully we’ll be able to continue to experience the beautiful weather, especially during this next week!

Please continue to pray for all of us, and specifically the people we are working with and encounter while evangelizing. Many lives have been changed and it’s truly amazing to experience that.

Ta ta for now! I will update again next weekend after our week without technology comes to an end.

Love, Jenna

Address:

Jenna Bilz
Campus Crusade for Christ/CRU
205 2^nd Ave. South
North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582

 

Myrtle Beach! Halie and I

View from the Skywheel

 





 

NMB gang in Myrtle Beach!

 

Roommate Dinner! Callie, Melissa, Karlie, me, Krystyna, and Ari!

Leaps of Faith

Good Afternoon Friends and Family!

I’m writing my first official blog post from North Myrtle Beach!  Since arriving a week from yesterday, life has been extremely busy but fun and full of taking giant leaps of faith.

Our road trip here was wonderful.  Overall, the car ride took us around 20 hours!  The journey was filled with playing the game “my cows” and spontaneously dancing to music to keep ourselves entertained.  We stayed two nights in Tennessee just outside of Nashville.  While there, we spent some time hanging out and playing games and then visited the Gaylord Opryland Hotel!  That place was simply incredible to experience.  Below is a picture of Matt, Andrew, Branden, and I standing next to some lovely horses inside of the hotel.

On Wednesday we drove 10 hours with our final destination being North Myrtle Beach!  Once we arrived, we immediately unpacked our things and got moved into our apartments.  I am living in a two bedroom and two bathroom apartment with five others ladies!  It has been a pleasure getting to know each of them so far and I am excited to see how all of our friendships grow throughout these next nine weeks or so.  Wednesday night we spent the evening meeting the other students that we will be spending the summer with and getting all settled in to our apartments.

Thursday was a day filled with training and learning how to share our faith!  Throughout this summer we will be given many opportunities to share our faith with others, whether it be on the beach or at our workplace.  Our first day of sharing was very successful and it was amazing to see students and staff taking steps to share their faith with people they encountered!

Friday was job search day!  Many employers from around the area came to our location at a church, called the SHAK, and they hosted a job fair for us.  Businesses such as Chik-Fil-A, McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, and a handful of others were seeking out students for jobs.  I successfully found a job with a business in town by the name of Boulineau’s.  For the next nine weeks I will be working at a shop called Ocean Treasures where they sell sandals, swimsuits, and t-shirts!  My first three days of work went really well and all of the ladies I work with have been helpful and welcoming.  I look forward to getting to know each of them better individually as I will probably be spending a lot of time with each of them this summer!  We have already had discussions about traditions that are “normal” for people of Wisconsin verses what the people of South Carolina like to do!  I asked each of the ladies if they had ever heard of cheese curds- and boy oh boy did that spark a comical conversation!  The concept of eating something that’s like string cheese but better was amusing to them.  It has been said that by the end of the summer I will crave sweet tea, try boiled peanuts, and pick up a southern drawl.  We shall see what the future holds!

Saturday and Sunday were days filled with fellowship and adventuring out to the beach to share with people.  Sundays are great opportunities for us to share with people on the beach because that is when the new groups of people come into town!  Church on Sunday was wonderful and the people of Ocean Drive Presbyterian Church were beyond welcoming and are excited for all of us students to be here this summer.  After church, we the students went out on the beach to do student lead evangelism.  My partner and I came across a couple who were both believers but not plugged in to a church where they can grow in community with others.  After an hour long conversation about their faith and their relationships with God, we left feeling confident that maybe we sparked a fire inside of them to find a community to continue to grow in magnificent ways.  Please be praying for them that they would see that need to have community!

Monday was our first official bible study meeting, and Tuesday I participated in outreach night.  During outreach night we introduced ourselves to our neighbors who happen to be from Russia and are in the United States to work this summer.  Many of them are pursuing college degrees in commerce and the economy, which I found very interesting as a business student.  Hopefully we can have an impact on them throughout this summer as well since we are living in close community with them!

I just want to thank each and every one of you who continue to support through prayer for this summer.  God has already done some unfathomable things here in NMB, and I am excited to see how he continues to work through me and the other students and staff during our time here.  Please continue to pray for courage and boldness as we go out sharing on the beach and also that we can reach out to our co-workers and invite them to our open Thursday night meetings!  Please also pray that all of us here would continue to feel encouraged as we serve this summer in NMB.  I will continue to post updates either weekly or every few days, so please keep checking back!

Below are some pictures of the area where I am living!  The weather is beautiful, the humidity is causing my curly hair to go nuts, and the people are great!

Love,

Jenna

 

Gaylord Opryland Hotel

 

 Road Trip Buddies!

 

 

Oshkosh friends reunited in NMB! First night here!

 

 

Home for the next 10 weeks. Hello sunshine!

 

 

Today at the beach...