Last Saturday night we had our last big social as a project which was intended to be a bonfire on the beach. We ended up with a lot of people and a lot of fun, but unfortunately were not able to secure a pit for the bonfire and returned with ALOT of leftover smores ingredients. Good thing we like microwave smores and chocolate by itself :)
Sunday was planned to be our last big outreach, and the evangelism team planned some really cool stuff to catch the attention of people on the Promenade. Every person on project made a white t-shirt with the words "I FOUND" in black caps and then a word describing something they had personally found in Jesus (such as Joy, unconditional love, acceptance, etc) underneath in different colors. Just walking around with 65 people wearing the same thing gets immediate attention. Along with just wearing our shirts we planned three, 2 and 5 minute "freezes" on the promenade inside a one block radius on the hour. We all set alarms and at a certain time froze completely for a full 2 or 5 minutes, which made sure that the people around really noticed us. In addition, we had made large versions of all of the perspective cards that we held in different areas of the Promenade trying to get people to answer one of them in order to start a conversation. We also had a table set up with Solarium, graffiti boards, and just some groups walking around sharing. We stayed on the Promenade for about 3 hours and ended with a finale of dancing and singing along with one of the performers on the street. The outreach led to a lot of incredible conversations and I was able to have a spiritual conversation with a young man from Ireland, as well as was prayed for by a couple who worked with gospel for life. I think one of the coolest things we all took back from the outreach was how many Christians there really are out there, you just don't see them. Multiple people encouraged us and were excited about what we were doing.
Last night (Tuesday) was our last opportunity to go sharing for about an hour and I set off with my partner, Nick, again to the Promenade. We passed a young Hispanic couple sitting outside the movie theater, and Nick suggested we approach them, but I was unsure if that was a good idea. He insisted that we do because I didn't want to, so we ended up asking them to participate in the worldview survey. They were actually really open to talking to us, and we found out that they were Catholics. We didn't get to talk to them for too long, but were able to pray for them before leaving the conversation and I was really happy that we took the initiative to talk to them.
We continued to walk and suddenly stopped when we thought we heard one of the performers talking about Jesus. Drawing closer, we found that it was a young Christian man just worshiping on the Promenade, trying to love on people, and with a group of others with him that were trying to draw people into conversation. As we paused to listen, one of the men approached us and happened to be a pastor working specifically with college ministries. We explained to him why we were in Santa Monica and he also ended up praying over us and our ministries. I kinda love when that happens.
Another cool thing happened on Tuesday while I was at work. I've made a lot of really good friends at camp (who I'm really really sad to leave), and built relationships, but haven't had much opportunity to have spiritual conversations with them. However, during campsite on Tuesday I was sitting with one of my coworkers who actually brought up something semi-spiritual and I was able to jump at the opportunity. I found out that he was raised Catholic, but was kind of turned off by all of the rules of the church (that is one of the hardest things for me to hear because I hear it so often!!! It seems like the biggest thing turning people away from religion is Christians themselves!) and didn't really follow anything now. We were able to talk for about half an hour, and it was a great conversation where he was able to tell me what he thought, and I was able to share with him the ideas of our sin, Jesus' love, and Grace. I am just so thankful God brought about that conversation :)
Now, stealing internet access from a Starbucks in Goodyear, Arizona while I wait for my parents to arrive and check into our hotel, I find the end of project so bittersweet. I learned such an incredible amount during my time in Santa Monica. Even though one may not initially consider it an ideal spot for a mission trip because the people are wealthy and it's within the US, there are still so many lost people. So many selfish people who need Jesus, who are just wondering around too busy to take the time to think about their purpose in life. I'm so thankful that I got the opportunity to share with these people, to love them, to really listen to them. It's incredible the difference that just listening makes. So many of the people that we talked to were just turned off by religion and people trying to preach to them and only tell them their opinion rather than listening to anyone else's. But that was not our goal on project. We didn't go in trying to convert, but to love. And that really made a difference. While I'm really sad to leave the amazing community of brothers and sisters that I had in Santa Monica and the spiritual life we had there, I am also really looking forward to returning to Tucson this weekend. There are so many people in Tucson that I want to talk to, that I want to listen to, and that I want to love, and I feel like I am finally fully equipped to do that. I can't wait to pour into our Cru movement on campus and all of my friends and strangers there. I know the rapid transition is definitely going to be difficult, but even driving here, 6 hours by myself (and God of course), I felt such a peace in the knowledge that this is exactly where God wants me to be!
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