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