New Look To Blog/Agape Week

Posted by JJ Raymond | 7:41 AM | 0 comments »

Hey guys! First off I just want to say thank you for tuning in to this new post. As you can see the website looks a little different. I am still not done with the overall website, but it is getting close. Let me know what you guys think of the new look!

So the last time I blogged it was on how the last couple of weeks have been about the importance of fully relying on the Lord. This week on project, we have been learning about God's true love. The project director Bob Fuhs, had a wonderful message last night. He emphasized on the fact that our spiritual growth is not measured by our spiritual resume. An example of a spiritual resume would be one saying, "oh I have been to two winter conferences, I share my faith everyday on campus, and I am interning for Campus Crusade." This is also known as "dot to dot" growth. All the conferences and days that one shares their faith does not represent spiritual growth. Bob then explained the way that someone experiences spiritual growth is by putting their full faith and reliance in the Lord and living by the spirit. The Christian life is not about trying harder, but is about trusting and putting full faith in the Lord. Bob's talk was very refreshing and encouraged to continue my walk with the Lord and rely on the spirit.

This is also the last week that staff will be on project with us as they will be heading back to their campuses! It is crazy to think that the next four weeks will be all student lead. We were all assigned specific project roles by staff. My new role is an action group leader. As an action group leader, I will be leading the bible studies that my roommates and I have. I will also be there discipler and will be meeting with them individually once a week. I am very excited for this new role on project, but at the same time I am nervous. This will be a stretch in my faith but I know the Lord will provide. What is awesome is that this new role is a grat opportunity for me because I will be leading bible study back in my ministry at Chico State. Tonight, we have training for all of our new roles and I am very exicted for that. In my next blog I will let all you know how the training and first bible study went!

If you have time, please pray for:
For all the students on Ocean City Summer Project. Our new roles are going to be tough and a stretch in our faith.

Everyone on the boardwalk that we have been sharing the gospel to.

Staff as they go home and have safe traveling. Pray that will bring everything that they learned back to their ministry on whatever campus they are on.

For us as students, that we will have confidence in going out on the boardwalk and sharing God's love.

Ocean City Baptist Church. They have been so awesome and brought us in with open arms.

Thank you so much for your prayers and thank you for tuning in!

Reliance In God

Posted by JJ Raymond | 6:26 AM | 0 comments »

Hey guys! Sorry that I have not updated my blog in a while! Things have been crazy and really busy the last couple of weeks on project. Even with the craziness, project has been amazing and the Lord has shown me so much. For those who tune into my blog and follow me on twitter, you noticed that I fasted from twitter for a week.

The twitter fast lasted for a week and it was a result of putting my full reliance and faith in the Lord. That week the Lord stretched me in so many ways! In the last video blog I posted, I talked about how as a project we were in the beginning of our week of outreach. That week I set a goal of sharing the gospel to 56 people in one week. As a project, we set a goal of initiating a total of 4,596 spiritual conversations!

The begining of the week was hard at first. I did not witness that many spiritual conversations; in fact on the first day I spent a total of four hours on the boardwalk and I only experienced two spiritual conversations and no gospel presentations. I felt so discouraged on the first day, but I knew something was wrong. I had a feeling that I myself was trying to hard and not letting relying on the Lord to help me reach my goal. I prayed to Lord and confessed to him that I was not relying on him and from that day forward I will put my full reliance into him.

The next day was just amazing! I was able to share the gospel with a couple of high school students and I also witnessed six people receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior! I felt like God was trying to tell me that effective evangelism will not happen unless I put my full reliance in him.

As the week of outreach went on; we shared the gospel in Atlantic City. Atlantic City was a hard setting to share the gospel, but it was still awesome to see God work in a different part of the country.

By the end of the week of outreach, I was able to experience 57 spiritual conversations with seven people coming to Christ! It was the most amazing week! As a project we surpassed our goal of 4,956 spiritual conversations and ended up with a total of 5,983 spiritual conversations! God totally stretched me in my faith, and now I feel like I can share the gospel to anyone! Glory to God!

This week, we are being introduced to need of ministry in different parts of the world. The Lord has already shown me how important to share the gospel to the different groups of people around the globe. As Americans, we have more skills and talents within the faith than others. We are ready to go out and share the word of others and spread the perfect love of God. The only thing holding us back, is ourselves. I do not know if the Lord is calling me to do ministry in a different part of the world, but I have definitely praying about it and how I will fit into God's plan.

I know this is a long blog, but there is so much more that I can tell you! Thank you for your prayers! There is another picture slide show in this blog. Some of the pictures are from the week of outreach and our softball game against staff. Thanks for tuning into my latest blog!