Two Weeks in North Myrtle Beach!

   As of today, I have been in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on summer mission for two weeks. What a whirlwind these two weeks have been! Leaving from southern Minnesota, I drove down with two of the guys from my campus, Andrew and Jon. We pretty much drove straight through, stopping for a few hours to view the Nashville nightlife. Then we arrived at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 22 and were greeted by loud cowbells and loads of cheering from our excited staff team.

   That week, we kicked off our summer mission with some training as we began to settle in for the summer. We met our roommates, got unpacked, and got jobs. We also went out on the beach for 3 or so hours a day, 3 days in a row, sharing the Gospel with anyone who would listen. We soaked up the sun (some of us a little too much), the sand, and the saltwater.

   The following week, we started our jobs. I, along with 8 others of my Cru teammates are working at McDonald's for the summer. McDonald's has been both a blessing and a difficult experience, as they have been very wonderful with getting us set up with our jobs and providing a great deal for us financially. However, it is a very difficult work environment, as many of the coworkers do not get along. This, combined with the late Cru activities and early/long days of work has made it difficult to want to go to work. This is aomething that truly forces me to cling to God, even though it sometimes feels like His plans are not good for me.

   In addition, our evenings are filled with amazing ways to grow in our faith. Multiple times a week, we get to go out and engage with people on the street and the beach, sharing the Gospel with many of them. In the last two weeks, we have shared the Gospel with well over 100 people, seeing about 20 or more choose to give their lives to Christ! For this, I praise God! We also have the opportunity once a week to have a Bible study, to spend an evening alone with God, and to spend time together, building community among the whole team. It has definitely been a huge and difficult transition, but I am so excited to see what God does in and through us during the rest of this summer!

While in Nashville, we stopped at this awesome music shop.

The beach in NMB... We are so blessed to live just a short couple blocks from the sand and the saltwater.

Hanging out in "lower Bryant", one of our main co-ed hangout areas.

The whole team (minus a few people)

We had a scavenger hunt on Sunday night with our impact groups (a girls' Bible study partnered with a boys' study)... my team won!

Most (not all) of the staff team... For the scavenger hunt, one of the challenges was to find the staff. As you can tell, they really got into it.