Final Update

This will (most likely) be the last post on this site, since Summer Project is officially over.

My apologies for not giving an update last week - these last couple weeks have been pretty intense.

Overall, this summer has been the best of my life. The things that God taught me, the people I encountered, and the life change that I expereienced were just incredible. Thank you so much to everyone reading this that supported me on going, whether financially or through prayer. I want you to know that you did not do so in vain. There were well over 200 people that decided to trust in God (or if you want to use the Christian lingo, accepted Christ) throughout the summer - people that will now get to experience a relationship with Him because of your support. Also, countless people will be effected through them, and through all of us who learned and grew over the summer.

For myself, I learned more than I will ever have time to write. My faith and trust in God has grown immensely, and I've made friends that will last for eternity. And on a less spiritual note, I had a blast. When 70 college kids get together devoted to seeking God for an entire summer, crazy and fun things just naturally happen. I have too many memories to count, or even recount, and all of them good. If you want to hear some of them, you'll have to ask me in person :)

Make sure to check out the photos I took throughout the summer (the link is to the left). Thanks again for the support, and God bless.


the sun rising on virginia beach

In Him,
Shane

2 Weeks Left

Hard to believe it's almost time to go back to Colorado... This last week has been great, and I'm writing in the middle of our 'Tearing Down the Bricks' week, which is kind of like the 'Killing the Giants' week that we did if you remember that. We all put 5-10 goals on these paper bricks that would stretch our faith and help reach out to people here. Then we put them up to look like a wall - once we accomplish the goals, we take the bricks down. It's pretty cool to see everyone here really trusting in God to help aqccomplish all of these things. A few of mine are to read the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) during the course of this week, to go share my faith on the boarkwalk every day this week, pray for Mines (my school) every day, memorize a few verses this week, and things like that...

When I went out last night, me and my friend Mike (see picture below) talked to a bunch of high school kids who were really interested in what we were saying. A couple of them had never heard the gospel before, and they said it was good to know exactly what it means to be a Christian. One of them was really thinking about it and seemed like he would give it a lot of thought, which is awesome.


me and my friend/roomie/disciple mike right before we went to play laser tag


sunset at men's retreat


ryan and sean at men's retreat...


kaveh praying for all of us before fishing at men's retreat


reeling in the big fish

Update Number Six

Let's see... what to say about the last couple of weeks...
First off, the slip n' slide outreach was great - a ton of people came and we got to talk with a lot of them. I've had some great conversations in the last week with random people out on the boardwalk and the beach. One guy we (me and my friend Mandy) were talking with, Andy, explained how his son was having a hard time with his faith and everything. We told him to come to Pac. Ave. (our weekly meeting) and join us to get plugged in, and he seemed really excited to ask him. Andy was so greatful that he actually paid for both of us to go out on the pier (2 bucks a person) since we had been telling him that we wanted to see what it was like.

Another guy named Brian that I talked to (this time with another friend, Zach) was really curious as to what Christianity was really about. He had never really heard the gospel before - he just got his impression of Christianity from TV and watching people that considered themselves Christians. It's amazing how many people refuse to accept Christianity without knowing its meaning. So anyway, we told him everything from the beginning, and he was really interested. It was amazing to see God change his heart throughout the conversation, going from a very closed mind to the whole idea to actually being interested in accepting it.

In terms of myself, God has been working on my faith in the last few weeks - how much I trust Him with and what I believe He can and cannot do. Please keep on praying for all of us down here, as our time starts to kind of wind down. We definately need it.

God bless,
Shane

Goodbye Staff

Alright, so as I said in my last update, the staff left last Friday. Which means that students are running the entire project right now. So far, it's going pretty well, and I definately thought that there would be more kinks than there have been. It's really cool to see the students step up and take ownership of the rest of the summer here. I just hope that we can continue to get excited and encourage eachother to keep growing and keep pushing harder, since we don't have any leadership to do so. And I have confidence that we will... the amount of community and fellowship at this project is by far more than I have ever experienced before, and it's incredible.

As far as ministry goes, our outreach for this Saturday is a giant Slip n' Slide into the ocean. I think it's going to be a great way of gathering people and just hanging out with them. A thing that I've learned here is that just because people don't talk about spiritual things in their daily life doesn't mean it needs to be a taboo subject. I usually just assume that people are touchy about that kind of stuff, but the reality is is that it's just another thing to talk about - and as I've been learning, the most important thing on earth to talk about.

Anyway, sorry for that rant. Here's a few photos of our last night with staff:

All of the guys from Colorado School of Mines


This is Scott, the (former) project director and his kids, Zack and Gabe.


Me and Scott


A bunch of people at the Agape Feast

Update Number Four

Hey again,

Hard to believe I’m writing the half-way-done-with-project update already… I feel like I’ve only been here a little while – but at the same time, I feel like the relationships I’ve made so far have been a lot longer than 5 weeks.

So here I am on the 4th of July – I got off of work at about 9:30, went home, took a nap, and now I’m sitting here at the coffee shop with my friend Nate with about 4 hours until my next activity. Feels good to finally have some time to slow down.

There are some pretty cool things that have been happening lately here in Virginia Beach. First, our outreach last Saturday was incredible. Pictures of it are at the bottom of this post. It was a cardboard and duct tape staged battle on the beach. I know that sounds a little weird, but it was really cool and very effective. All of the guys made armor and weapons out of cardboard and duct tape (they looked really good - see below). There was a red team (good) and a blue team (evil). I was on the blue team... we marched out to the beach and gathered a huge crowd of curious people (a few hundred) and battled eachother. The last guy standing after an awesome coreographed fight stood up and gave a presentation of the Gospel. It was amazing to see everybody watching us and listening intently to what Scott had to say. We got to talk to people afterward and see what their thoughts were on God and Jesus, and explain the significance of the battle - it was likened to a spiritual battle that everyone is going through. It was incredible to see God work in so many people's hearts all at once.

Also, this is a huge week for the project, because all of the staff are leaving this Friday... all of them - even the project director (the main man in charge, Scott Santee). All of the students are taking over their roles. I'm in charge of leading a Bible study once they leave, and I'm pretty excited to see how God will grow me and prepare me more for doing the same kind of stuff next year on the Mines campus. Everybody says that project really starts after the staff leave, so we'll see what happenes. It sounds pretty crazy to me, but I know it will be amazing.

I hope all of you are still doing well, and I can't tell you how much I'm learning here (or, at least without making this post a novel).

-shane

photos::


blue team at the paradise before we left


blue team leader, Ian


red team marching on the boardwalk


Ian levelling Tyson


the midst of battle


Scott giving his message

Up, down...

It's been about 3 weeks now, and it's hard to believe that project is already a third of the way over... Since the last time I updated, we've had one big outreach, a men's conference, and a bunch of training. I'm starting to find that this is a lot more demanding of a schedule than I anticipated, mostly because of the hours I work at the golf course.

The outreach was last Saturday, and we went out to the boardwalk and split into about 10 groups, each with a sign that said, "Who is He?" The goal was to get people curious enough to ask what it was all about. We wanted to ask the question, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" I had a few really good conversations with some people...

At the men's conference, we did a ton of physical tasks like running, push-ups, and the like (which is where the name for this post comes from). It was an analogy for spiritual warfare, nd was very encouraging - I definately learned a lot.

Other than that, I've been mostly working, praying, spending time with friends, and spending time with the Lord. I'm sorry I don't have more time right now to go in detail about more people and events, but I hope that this can give you a taste of what I'm experiencing. I hope all of you are doing well - please keep me in your prayers and let me know if there's anything I can do for you.

/Shane

Another Update

Sorry I haven't been able to post an update recently - internet access is not as common as I would have hoped. Here's the scoop of what's going on here...

Today has been and currently is insanely rainy... it has been pouring since I got up this morning - our courtyard has about 3 inches of standing water in it right now. They're saying it's because of the hurricane.

Saturday was our first official outreach, and it was pretty incredible. We all went to the beach to the biggest sand soccer tournament in the world and handed out DVDs of a few famous soccer players giving their life stories and how God changed their lives. I got to talk to a few really awesome people, and invited them to join our worship service that following Sunday. Here's a couple pictures...





All of the people in the area are very receptive and willing to talk about stuff that they don't talk about in everyday life, like God and spirituality. It's really encouraging to watch as God has a hand in every conversation and helps to give us boldness and strength.

For those of you that don't know, I broke my arm right before project playing Ultimate Frisbee. I have a water proof cast on right now, so I can still go to the beach and everything, but it makes a lot of things harder. However, I'm almost finished - only 15 more days!

Also, I finally found a job - I started work on Monday at The Princess Anne Golf Country Club, doing maintenance on the golf course there. It's a good job, but early hours (starts at 6:30) and hard work (especially with my arm). Yesterday our boss worked us for 10.5 hours... a little too long for my taste, especially considering all of the stuff going on here.

I hope all of you are doing well, and please continue to pray for me. Thanks for your support, and feel free to leave comments below. Oh, and as promised, here are some shots of the beach...





Shane

First Post from Virginia

Alright, I'm here! We started on Saturday, but we were really busy and I didn't have time to post... then yesterday we tried going to the library (that's where I'll be going all summer to access the Internet) and realized they were closed. Now, I finally have a few minutes to let you guys know how everything's going (although I really do only have a few).

First, this place is amazing! I already love the beach (although the mountains are much better) We're going through a bunch of training and orientation right now, so there's not too many exciting things going on yet, but I know there will be plenty of things happening in the next couple weeks. For one, the biggest beach socc tournament in the world is here next weekend and we'll be holding a mini-service for people to attend on Sunday outside - that's our first official outreach. To hold you over until more happens, here's some pictures:


my room... not bad, eh?


another picture of my room...


the paradise resort... where there is neither paradise, nor resort.

I promise the next post will have some shotsof the beach ;)

God bless you all,
Until next time,
Shane

Up and Running...

The web log is up, and the first [real] post should be around June 3rd. Thanks to everyone who made this possible for me - God bless.