I'M HERE!!!

After a long, 22-hour car ride, I arrived in North Myrtle Beach around noon yesterday. I drove down with Will, who also goes to UW-La Crosse, and Chandra, who goes to UW-Eau Claire. We made it through the night without stopping (with MUCH help from coffee and energy drinks), even though each of us got about 3 hours of sleep and had a super fun time getting to know one another on the way down. Plus, we drove through the Smokey Mountains just as the sun was rising... such a beautiful sight to see.

Yesterday, I was able to meet a bunch of new people including 4 of my roommates (the 5th is actually Chandra, who I drove down with!!). They are all absolutely wonderful! The heat was a bit of a shocker, but all I need to do is remember to load on the sunscreen, drink a TON of water, and try to cool off in the AC as much as possible. We had a cookout last night for everyone on the project, and it was great to get to know even more people... but there are SO MANY of us here - 97 students plus about 30 staff!

This morning, we started right away with breakfast and our first meeting, spent some time in the Word, and spent a few hours sharing our faith on the beach (which we will be doing a lot of this summer)! I shared with a girl named Kelsey, and we had 3 really great conversations with a Christian mother and her two teenage daughters (very encouraging!), three 14-year-olds who are starting high school in the fall, and a young woman who definitely needed to hear the Gospel. After dinner, we were able to meet with our bible study groups and talk about our spiritual backgrounds. I was seriously blessed with such a wonderful group of five other women. I am so excited to grow with them this summer!!!

Tomorrow, we have another morning meeting and then job hunting in the afternoon!!!

Prayer requests:
1. That God would work in the hearts of the people we talked with today on the beach
2. That God would provide jobs for everyone as we search the next few days
3. That God would continue to work in and through us as we continue our first week here