A few pictures from a couple of fantastically random college weekends. The first included a game of sardines in the student center followed by a trip to Coldstone. The next night, one of our girls is an RA and was putting on an event called Haunted Hallways. A group of us decided to go out and support her in that, despite our fears :) We screamed our way through Wonderland... such a rush and we tended to make everything a lot more scary than it actually was. Haha! But Sam and Eddie made sure 
weall made it out alive. Afterwards we headed for Krispy Kream to find the hot sign on. We got a dozen doughnuts and sat out on the curb laughing and eating the melt-in-your-mouth hot glazed along with some fun Halloween sprinkle covered ones. It's 11pm in a college town and we've just eaten a lot of sugar, so what now? Obviously we go to the beach. Picked up a few extras ("we've got trunk space!") and headed for the ocean. We literally parked, walked out and made sure the Atlantic Ocean was still there. We stopped, stood and just talked for an hour or so about life before all deciding it was cold, jumping back in the car and heading back to campus. Good times!
So, then there's Halloween. Caramel apples at our house. We had some absolutely adorable trick-or-treaters come by. Then, instead of pumpkin carving, we carved potatoes to look like someone else. We drew names, and then had to guess who each potato was supposed to be. You can only imagine the hilarity of the entire situation. Plus, we had all consumed a lot of sugar with candy and caramel apples, so things were much more funny than they normally would have been :) Then, of course, we played Dutch Blitz until super late. "I think you need to check your shoes, cuz I smell de-feat!" Good times just hanging out. I feel like we have gotten to the point as a core group at least that we are know eachother well enough, we're starting to run side by side, living life together, encouraging and challenging one another. How God brought us here is beyond me, but I know it's only by His grace and His power. I have been so stretched and challenged here just in building relationships and going out on limbs in contacting and pursuing girls and being all things to all people (none of these girls want to go hike a 14,000 foot mountain at 4am but sitting at the beach and watching a sunrise is a baby step :). In all of my weaknesses, He is so strong.Saturday, we as a church had an aid station for the Beach2Battleship Ironman Triathlon in 
Wilmington. Hardcore athletes (Tom is one of them)... 140.6 miles in one day! So awesome! Jilly, Sarah, and I went out and helped for a while. Sweet taking care of athletes again! Then, we headed downtown to catch a water taxi to the finish line at the battleship. We grabbed some food and sat down right next to the guy who won the race! Leave it to Josh Harcus to strike up a conversation with the winner :) We cheered Tom across the finish line after witnessing so many funny and inspiring finishes. We then headed back to the aid station to find a crew of people still there. We cheered on the last bunch in their final leg of the race. We had one guy who was starting to get hypothermic, but after some coffee and a jacket at our station, he felt like that would get him home. He was a little delusional, but made sure he figured out where we were from and got most of our names before he was back off on the course. They broke down our booth before the last person went through. The final athlete was a girl in a wheel chair determined to finish. We waited until she came through, made a tunnel and cheered her on with all the enthusiasm we had. Too excited to go home at this point, Sam, Jill, Sarah, and I headed back over to the finish line to see them finish. Just a sweet day to be out in the community loving and serving people. We played worship music, and several athletes commented that that was just the pick up they needed at that point in the day. God is good.
Wilmington. Hardcore athletes (Tom is one of them)... 140.6 miles in one day! So awesome! Jilly, Sarah, and I went out and helped for a while. Sweet taking care of athletes again! Then, we headed downtown to catch a water taxi to the finish line at the battleship. We grabbed some food and sat down right next to the guy who won the race! Leave it to Josh Harcus to strike up a conversation with the winner :) We cheered Tom across the finish line after witnessing so many funny and inspiring finishes. We then headed back to the aid station to find a crew of people still there. We cheered on the last bunch in their final leg of the race. We had one guy who was starting to get hypothermic, but after some coffee and a jacket at our station, he felt like that would get him home. He was a little delusional, but made sure he figured out where we were from and got most of our names before he was back off on the course. They broke down our booth before the last person went through. The final athlete was a girl in a wheel chair determined to finish. We waited until she came through, made a tunnel and cheered her on with all the enthusiasm we had. Too excited to go home at this point, Sam, Jill, Sarah, and I headed back over to the finish line to see them finish. Just a sweet day to be out in the community loving and serving people. We played worship music, and several athletes commented that that was just the pick up they needed at that point in the day. God is good.Amidst all of this silliness and laughter have been some amazing conversations about God and what He is doing in these girls' lives. They are really opening up and desiring to know God more and seeking Him through prayer and His Word. They are coming to us with tough questions, and they are also building a community amongst themselves on campus.
In the church body, we had a baptism on Sunday morning, and then Sunday night a woman confessed some things to the body and spoke about how God had been working on her and had opened her eyes to His true saving grace through Christ the end of last week!!!!!!!! Praise Jesus, He knows our wretched hearts, loves us and pursues us anyway. His salvation is a supernatural work that only He can accomplish within us.
So, prayer requests for the next few weeks.
RETREAT!! We are having a retreat to the Harcus' and Desmonds' homes on the 14th and 15th (like a mini summer project! :) and really ask for your prayers for that. Retreats are huge for just solidifying relationships and brining out gifts and leadership in students. I am so excited for it, although, I will not be there for it. just so happens, the date picked is one of two weekends I would not be in town this semester. Total bummer, but it works for most of our students, and God certainly has a purpose in giving me plans months ago for this weekend... He's big enough :)
AfterDark is coming to UNCW November 12th. Pray for people to see what a true relationship with Christ is... to have the message of the gospel penetrate them at the heart level, despite the fact that they may have heard it all many times before and call themselves Christians. Pray specifically for Rachel and Lauri, two of our girls that want to go. Pray for our girls to take advantage of this as an outreach opportunity. We have been so inward focused in building the ministry, it would be sweet to start to get them to be thinking more about the outreach aspects.
Worship leader... we still need one. Saul and Tom are filling in sort of temporarily, but this is adding to their already extremely full plates and is not something they can realistically keep up.
Sorry for the length of this one... kind of a beast to read! Wanted to share with you some more of the real life and practically how these relationships are building here. I have learned a lot about finding my joy only in Him as I have gone through spells of loneliness and depression. God is bigger than my circumstances and I can trust and be content in Him exactly where I am at.
Love you all!!
