"It All Began With A Mouse"

Starting off this last and final post is a difficult one. These last few weeks of project can only be wrapped up in one word: amazing. God put so many wonderful, inspiring people into my life and in strange ways I did not even expect, I have grown. There were so many times we were stretched, beaten down, and just challenged in our faith in God. Somehow in my carpool’s 4am Steak N’ Shake after work outings with coworkers we inspired them in their own faith and their belief that there is good in this world and God is certainly working everywhere. It was only a week after staff left midway through project that a coworker told me how much of an impact us Cru students had made in his life by being there and being able to share his faith with us as well. It was at that moment it really struck me that we were really actually making a difference at Walt Disney World, not just playing and working, but that God is at work in ways I couldn’t have imagined by having us specifically in the kitchen at Pecos Bill in the Magic Kingdom; “The Most Magical Place on Earth”.    

We not only had so many coworkers come to Cru events with us, but they were inviting us out to spend time with them as well. We all had an effect in each other’s lives one way or another so when the final days went flying by that last week of project and we had to start coming to the realization that we were soon going to leave this life we created in Disney World, it was definitely hard and reality struck. There were countless emotional goodbyes, farewells, and see-you-soon’s that my heart was breaking for those around me. I knew I wasn’t going to come back, while a lot signed up to become seasonal at Walt Disney World. Although I didn’t cry with any of my goodbyes I will surely miss the people I met and shared such memorable experiences with. This is a summer I definitely will never forget. I came into it praying for divine encounters from God and in more ways than one that was fulfilled. One of the reasons this project stuck out to me was that we were going to be able to work in Walt Disney World and my dream one day is to be an Imagineer at Disneyland so I thought it was a great opportunity to get inside the company. On one of my carpools first dinners with coworkers, one of the guys told me his dad was actually an engineer recruiter for Disney and had a lot of connections. I was completely awestruck by my luck. Talk about divine encounters!

I’ll keep praying for all the people at Pecos Bill and fellow students on project, thanking God for this amazing experience. Through all the hardships, working late, sickness, exhaustion, conflicts, and homesickness I can say I’ve learned truth, grace, patience, and an overall willingness to trust in God wholeheartedly. I just want to thank all my supporters who made this project even tangible, and I bless everyone for giving me this opportunity. It has made such a difference in my life.

"It's kind of fun to do the Impossible"

Hey y'all! Here's an update from the past couple weeks. I can't believe this summer project is over half over. 4 more weeks! I'm so blessed to be here and all the great people I've come to build relationships with.

This past couple weeks have been great: hanging out with coworkers, getting out of my comfort zone more, and just really coming to understand more of God's desire for my life and changing my heart to align with His.

It was a nice change of pace when we had our men's and women's day. The women had a relaxing day of mandatory nap time, watching movies, and giving each other pedicures and massages; a pamper day was definitely on the list of needs hitting that half way mark of project. The strenuous work schedule and constantly being on the go was taking its toll on everyone.

To sum up our "FIGHT" theme for women's time we ended with talking about truth. Without truth I would not have growth in my life. "Truth lasts; lies are here today, gone tomorrow" Proverbs 12:19. We were encourged to continuously speak truth into each others lives and think about a girl that I have been holding truth from and what is it that I can be speaking truth into their lives.

We just went through the transition of staff leaving and leadership roles being passed to students. As a project, we are now having to step up and rely on each other more to use what we learned from staff and take initiative going out into our workplaces and reaching out to coworkers. Mid-project banquet was exciting and full of emotion. We went to a really nice resturaunt, had a 3 course meal with speeches from the directors, new student directors, and story telling from students thanking our leaders for all they have done for us. Food was delicious, some tears were shed, lots of goodbyes and pictures, and the night was wrapped up with some good worship.

My carpool and I have been making great progress with getting to know our coworkers and taking time to hang out with them as much as we can. So far we've gone to Disney parks, seen movies, had late night feasts after work at Steak N' Shake, Ihop, and Applebee's. I'm making some amazing friends and having a good time getting to know all of them. Some of our coworkers you can keep in your prayers are: Rachel, Naiquan, Ryan, Gabby, Jordan, Dakota, Santiago, Porche, Katie, James, Krista, Stephan, Roy, Susie, Susan, Beth Ann, Izzy, and there's plenty more we work with too so also just be praying for Pecos Bills as a whole. We are definitely all our own little family now. I'm looking forward to what else God has planned for this summer and the growth we'll get to witness and experience ourselves.

Going Surfing Everyday

Wow it has been a while since i've posted a blog. OOPS! Well since it has been so long i'm just going to combine 2 weeks of events into one blog. We're now just getting into a lot of routine stuff of work, meetings, and events so i'll just hit on a few exciting things that have been happening.

To start off we went surfing at Cocoa Beach a couple weeks ago which was so much fun. We endured to typical bipolar Florida weather, waited out the rain, then jumped into the ocean and had a blast! I've been actual surfing once before, so i didn't have much experience, but when we went out there my instincts took over and iI caught so many waves. I can see that being a reoccurance with the rest of  project of having to just catch the wave and ride with it, i.e.spreading the Gospel and having faith that God will lead us on the best waves yet.

Woman's time that week was impactful. We talked about Grace and how God gives us such an abundance of grace. They compared the difference between justice, mercy, and grace - justice being getting what you deserve, mercy is not getting what you deserve, while grace is getting what you don't deserve. What sounds the best to you? The devil often whispers lies into our ears - you are unworthy, you don't deserve God's grace, you're not pretty, you need to be perfect, etc. - we fall into believing these untruths if we don't lean on God for strength and rebuke them - tell ourselfs that YOU ARE MORE! More than what those lies are telling us because God loves us and extends grace even if we don't deserve it. " Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you." - Colossians 3:13

I'm so excited about the ministry team i'm on. Being on the community team, i get to be involved with planning the mid-project banquet, end of project banquet, and all the wednesdays that we go on "surf adventures". Perfect for me because i love party planning.

This last surf adventure definitely had an emphasis on "adventure". The objective of the day was to go on an international journey, therefore we went to epcot and spent the day in groups separated into different countries around the World Showcase. I can't say much about it as to uphold the surprise for future students who go on project, but i'll just say that i have a whole new view and heart for the countries around the world.

Woman's time last week taught about humility. We were challenged to think of a time when we didn't do something because of insecurity and i find myself struggling with that a lot in my life. I often blame the fact that i'm shy or more of an introvert to do something that takes me out of my comfort zone. Insecurities ultimately cause us to believe lies, hold us back and usually manifests as severe independence.We also don't want to be prideful because than we become unteachable and think of ourselves as our own God, which definitely isn't putting God on the thrown in our lives. In Proverbs 29:23 it says that "Pride lands you flat on your face; humility prepares you for honors." I need to live out my life in humility towards God.

Work has definitely been a new experience. My carpool group and i have really been enjoying getting to know our co-workers and have started to build relationships with some of them. We have an awesome team of managers and coordinators; i've actually gotten the chance to talk to a few of them a lot. I found one of our managers, Izzy, has family in Chico and used to be a mechanic in Hollywood Studios. He was telling me how he worked on Rockin' Rollercoaster and a few other rides in the park. I was really excited to talk to him about that and told him all about how i want to be an Imagineer for Disney. He asked me what on earth are you doing at Pecos then?? Everyone is fun to be around and we get to joke a lot with each other. Friendships are defintiely forming here.

Till next time...

Explore

All the girls from my condo in front of Epcot

This week has just been crazy busy starting with Traditions last Tuesday all the way to officially earning my Mickey Ears :)). To start off, Traditions is Disney's way of training its new employees on Walt Disney's vision for a great Guest experience -"The Four Keys":  Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency. All are very important to being a great cast member. During that long day we not only learned about The Four Keys and how to apply them to our jobs, but also we had the privilege of meeting Mickey, touring a little bit of the Magic Kingdom and the secret tunnels under the park, and earning our Cast ID's.

Wednesday we went to Cru International Headquarters and recieved a tour of the building, which was so beautiful and not what I was expecting for an office building. We got to see part of a project they've been working on called The Jesus Film, which is totally inspiring and a joy to see how many people the film can touch. It's really cool, so if you would like to check out what they have been doing here's the website http://www.jesusfilm.org/

Rockin' Roller Coaster! So much fun

Women's night this week reinforced my sense of identity and what that looks like through Christ. One of the verses that really stuck out to me that we covered was 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 "You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God's temple, you can be sure of that. God's temple is sacred - and you, remember, are the temple". We don't have to find our identities in materialistic or any other things because we can find our identity in God and that's where we are made holy and are freed from any sins. I know if I find myself within God that his light will shine through me and others will see that and be drawn to it and that I may be a good influence on others that I come into contact with, not only this summer but beyond that.

Friday through Tuesday was none stop Disney Training. We learned a lot of cool facts about Disney and it's history. There was so much thought behind the design of the Magic Kingdom by Walt and his Imagineers, from the second you step through the gates to, the number of lights hanging in Liberty Square (13 lanterns, to be exact, are hanging in the tree representing the original 13 colonies), and also The Magic Kingdom was actually built above ground. Depending on where you are in the park you may be as high as the 3rd story. The ground level (underground to guests) is a complex city of corridors called utilidors whose walls are color coded to signify the location. The utilidors function like a city below the park consisting of complicated tunnels with cafeterias,  employee check cashing services, rehearsal rooms, and sanitation stations just to name a few.

Work is crazy! I'm in the kitchen at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe located in Frontierland. YEE-HAW!! There are at least 25-30 staff in there at all times and it's the 3rd busiest restaurant in the WORLD. The Magic Kingdom also has another restaurant that made the top 10 list, which is Cosmic Rays at number 2. There's so many different positions and things to know when working there but I've quickly gotten the hang of it. I can already tell the smell is going to get old really fast but it's just one of the many things I'm going to have to deal with. The people are all pretty friendly and available to answer questions. This summer, though, is going to be a lot of just working, sleeping, and eating (in that order of importance); the first two days of training we worked from 4:30 to 12:45 but we went over time and didn't get home until 2:15.

Goofy time in China

I thought the story behind Pecos Bill was pretty funny so I'll share it with you:

Over the years Pecos Bill, along with his trusty horse Widowmaker, have made quite a name for themselves forging new trails and taming others. Pecos Bill was considered by many to be the greatest of all cowboys. Pecos Bill can draw faster, shoot straighter and ride a horse harder than any other man alive. Legend tells us several tall tales, like the time Pecos jumped on a powerful twister and rode is like a bucking bronco. Then there was the itme when Pecos was so bored one day that he took his handy six-shooter and shot out all the stars in the sky except for one. That is how Texas received its name as the "Lone Star State." In 1878, with the encouragement of his friends, Pecos Bill decided to open his own watering hole, a restaurant that he called the Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. The restaurant quickly became a popular hang-out for some of Pecos Bill's legendary friends. As time went by, it became a tradition that when each friend paid a visit they would leave something behind for Pecos to place on the walls and remember them by. As you can see from the items that adorn the walls, Pecos Bill has some mighty impressive friends. Seems every tail eventually led to the Tall Tale Inn and Cafe.

“If you can visualize it, if you can dream it, there’s some way to do it.”

 — Walt Disney









Some more pictures...

Italy

In front of Cinderella's Castle

Diving In

This is week 1 of my 10 week spiritual journey on the Walt Disney World Summer Project in good 'ole sunny (humid) Orlando, Florida. I'm a little behind in starting this blog as it is now the middle of week 2, but I will go back and recap the first week. My plan for this blog is to write a post after each week to highlight key stories from that week and tell what God is speaking to me as the summer progresses. I thought this would also be a good way to keep friends and family updated on my project :)

As a umbrella theme for the whole project, "Going Surfing Everyday" is our goal which is an analogy for spreading the Gospel and taking risks to get out of our comfort zone. The theme of the first week of project was Diving In. 


It was an intense week of training and "surf instructions": developing our skills to get out of our comfort zones and plant spiritual movements. There are 60 students on the project plus staff and student leaders. Being an introvert, it was very hard to step out and try and meet so many people... and even remember names. All was overwhelming and seemed impossible at times. There were many moments where I was homesick and even alone with so many people here. Luckily, I've been connecting well with all my amazing roommates, which I live with 5 other girls in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo. It's been a lot of fun getting to know them and sharing good times laughing late at night, crowded onto a king size bed sharing stories.

During the first week some of the activites we did were: Soul to Souls, Surf Intructors Graduation Celebration, Evangelism Training, Women's Time, and Surf Stories. In Soul to Souls, I'm with 3 other girls and a student leader and we went around and told our testimony and about what God has been doing in our life. It was weird at first sharing such intimate details about my life with girls I barely knew, and also not having any experience giving my testimony, but it was uplifting to be able to tell them about it. For instructors graduation we went to Fantasy Surf and got to surf indoors, which was a lot of fun. Our theme for our Women's Time this summer is FIGHT: Freedom, Identity, Grace, Humility, Truth - fighting for each other and supporting each other as we walk with the Lord.  Brad Rex, former VP of Epcot, came and spoke to us for "Surf Stories" about working at Disney and how our presence there can change lives forever.

That pretty much wraps up the first week in a nutshell. I'll be sure to go into more detail about some stories as the weeks go on, but for now, a good note to end on is that "All dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them" - Walt Disney