My Baby...

It has been over a week since our leadership team first landed in San Diego and 3 days since the students arrived. Sometimes I feel like leading a summer project has to be a little like childbirth (minus the physical pain and the need for hardcore drugs)...you spend time preparing for the little one to come, decorating the room, brainstorming names, eating for two (or stress-eating as I call it), and you feel like you're probably ready. Then, the time comes. The kid (or college "kids" in my case) come and you realize as much planning and preparation as you may have done, you are completely in over your head, yet you're responsible for them. And you just try to stay one step ahead and keep your head above water. You do your best to seek their best, to lead them to Christ, to make sure they have food, a place to stay, and a loving environment to grow. And the cool part is you get to watch them grow. It's been 3 days and I feel like I'm already seeing so much growth. The students are even naming their apartments, so you know they're bonding:)

The Lord has been really gracious to us in providing so many cool things: a church in walking distance of our apartments that lets us host meetings multiple times a week for free, apartments that have free gym passes and are clean and spacious, Destino staff to come and train us on culture and how to reach Latinos, and students who are eager to grow and trust God for big things this summer. I could go on and on, but it has been fun to watch the students bonding and getting excited about the spiritual conversations they are having. And I'm excited to see how our students and this Destino ministry will "grow up" the next 5 weeks.

I think our team really has been bonding (do you sense a theme? lots of team bonding, which was one of our main goals this week-decoding the campus, getting adjusted and bonding as a team)...it has been fun to pass along some of my favorite bonding activities like watching "Hands on a Hard Body" on a projector whilst eating popcorn, playing racquetball, eating frozen yogurt (although I may have accidentally told some students to get off the city bus a little too early causing them to walk an extra mile or so....I guess I just wanted them to earn that yogurt) and joking around and living life together. We've taken public transit to a bi-lingual church where the blind pastor read (and even lead worship) his notes in braille, then seamlessly translated them back and forth from Spanish to English. It was truly amazing, and it was great to cross-cultures and see how Latinos worship the same God in a different way.

I'm excited for all there is to learn this summer about the Lord, culture and myself. One thing I have learned is that I LOVE leading Bible study. Seriously, I can think of fewer things I enjoy more than getting to connect with women and proclaim the truths of Scripture. I love seeing their faces as the gospel becomes clear, hearing the thoughts they have about Jesus and to getting to connect in vulnerability in the ways we fail to believe and live-out the gospel. We're studying Ephesians this summer as focus on "identity"-a topic that will hopefully apply to both our students and the Latinos we work with.

There have been many laughs, a few moments where I lost my cool and had to ask forgiveness (and there was pressure as I just gave a training talk about conflict resolution), lots of fountain drinks, and a lot of promise that the Lord is going to make this baby we call San Diego Destino Summer Project into the project He's created it to be. I'm grateful I get to be a part of it!

I also met a lady on the bus who had to have been Sweet Brown's cousin. She didn't get up to get a cold pop, but she was excited to get home to her husband. Trust me, she was a hoot.

Here's the link if you don't know who Sweet Brown is...you should.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udS-OcNtSWo