My Story

Here is my story of how my life changed because I made the choice to surrender my life to Christ.

In high school I began a search for happiness. If you would have known me in high school you would have known I longed for what I called Ultimate Bliss. This was another way to say complete happiness or joy.  I was a happy person, but I just felt like there had so be something more.

I began looking for happiness  in many things -> relationships with friends, boyfriends, weight loss, acceptance, but they were never enough.  At this point in my life I knew who God was and I knew some things about him, but I did not know he desired a personal relationship with me.

Then, I entered college with the mind set of how can I find fulfillment. I searched, but I never found it.

Finally, I realized that nothing on this earth could fill that void in my heart. Nothing. After many nights of heart ache and asking if this was all there was, I began to read the bible for the first time. I began to finally understand that only through a personal relationship with Jesus could I find complete satisfaction.

After realizing this, I learned that God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life. I learned that I was broken and searching, but God was perfect and holy. God desires to be with us, but in between us stood a wall of all my sins, my past, and my failures. Since God wanted so badly for us to be together in a relationship he sent his son Jesus down to be a bridge over our sin.

Before college I knew about God, and I knew Jesus was there, but not until college did I make the individual choice to walk across the bridge of Jesus and leave my old self behind. It was only then when I made the decision to walk across that bridge and begin a personal relationship with God that I could experience pure joy.

I am continuing to learn and process what this all means. But I do know that since crossing that bridge, I have experienced more ultimate bliss than ever before.

Some days I still struggle with thinking other things will give me joy, but I remind myself of how those things took joy away from me, while Jesus continues to give me joy.

New Leadership!

Last night we had a banquet to celebrate the staff. We all gave toasts for our leaders and hugged them goodbye. This means that project is already halfway over and now is when the students take over. Every role that the staff had will now be filled by a student. Our leadership will be tested and grown as we complete all our responsibilities.

For me, I have 2 jobs. I'm pretty excited about these jobs. I will be leading my small group of girls. This means that every week I will write up the questions for our bible study and facilitate discussion. I also get a chance to meet one on one with each girl in the group and go share our faith together and just get to grow close to each other and to Christ. This is a semi new experience for me, because I have led a bible study for 3 semesters, but this one is different. There is no material, or pre-written questions. I am just told what chapter from the bible to go over each week and I create the rest from there. I'm very excited for this role!

My second role is to write a devotional for every Sunday. On Sundays we have a 2 hour extended quiet time with God. It is a great time to just relax with God and reflect on what He has shown you during the week. I'm also so excited about this role because writing is something I am becoming more and more passionate about.

Here are some photos from the banquet:

Sharing Your Story

One cool thing they train us here in Miami is how to tell your story- aka your testimony of how you have come to know Christ and how He has changed you. The challenge is to be able to tell it in 3 minutes because when sharing with others that is the amount of time people will normally listen to you.

Here are the 5 parts to your story:
1. You need a theme. -> How you connected to Christ.
     - Some examples could be love, acceptance, approval, or any way that Christ changed your life. This will be your theme throughout the whole 3 minutes.

2. Who were you before Christ?
     -Describe who you were as a person.

3. How have you come to have a personal relationship with Christ?
     -What changed in your life? This could be a gradual collection of events, or one main event that made you realize how broken and sinful you were and how much you needed and wanted to surrender your life to Christ.

4. Describe your life after giving your heart to Christ.
    -How has your theme been affected through Christ.
    -This is also a great time to throw in the 4 key points of the gospel from one of my previous posts.

5. Close with a take away point. Talk about how even after becoming a Christian you still have struggles, but how God helps you get through them. Remember you are still just a broken as whoever you are sharing your story with, so do not try to act like you are above them.



I challenge you if you haven't written out your story to do so today. It is a great tool to use when sharing your faith. I'm hoping to video mine and post it on here by the end of the summer =]

Beauty = Value

In Miami, beauty is pursued at all costs for oneself or else one does not have value.

A lot of people, but especially Miami-ans, find their value in wealth and appearance. If they have these two things they think they are satisfied. This could be compared to sitting down for a big dinner and being served chips, candy, pop, and other junk foods. Although the foods look good, and taste good, they will not leave you full for long or satisfied. Still, people think this junk food will be enough for them. In reality, the only thing that will satisfy the needs of every persons soul is the gospel.

What is interesting about Miami is there are a lot of people who have heard of Jesus before, and some actually call themselves Christians. For these people, they think they have the gospel, yet they are still consuming junk food.

In training, they taught us the gospel in 4 simple points as a way to easily teach it to others.

• God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
• All of us sin and our sin has separated us from God.
• Jesus Christ is God's only provision for our sin. Through Him we can know and experience God's love and plan for our life.
• We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.

 

If you would like to experience God personally, want to experience the fullness that he will bring you, or if you are sick of feeling empty by junk food-> call, message, or text me and I would love to talk to you about how God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. <3 Joy

 

This article explains how to have a personal relationship with God. We use this to help others in Miami come to know Christ.  ->    http://www.cru.org/how-to-know-god/would-you-like-to-know-god-personally/index.htm

 

 

 

June 24, 2012

Here are some photos from the project so far!

This is almost the whole group!

This was one of our socials from a few weeks ago. We dressed up like old people and played bingo and then had a dance party! 

Being in Miami when the Heat won the Finals was so sweet! After the win the City echoed with cheers. Every balcony was filled with people chanting GO HEAT! Today we got to go to the parade. This is my art-teacher partner in crime Erica and I at the parade.

 GO HEAT!

 A party fell from the sky!

This was taken at the University of Miami. This is where we go sharing our faith every Monday. It is a really beautiful campus, filled with beautiful loving people. It has been so cool to learn more about God as I share my faith with others and listen to their questions and ideas about God. So far on project 21 people have prayed to receive Christ!!!!

This is my girl Kelly Miller. We are roommates and have become quick friends. I am so thankful for her <3

The life of an art teacher =]

 On one of our days off from work, a few of us went to South Beach. This is Becky and I'm blessed to have her at my campus USF! It has been so cool to experience Summer Project with her. <3

 

Another photo of Erica and I <3 

My heart will be in this city for a while <3

From Death to Life

Do you know that Miami is the most unchurched city in America? I was shocked when our pastor told us this fact, but this became true to me as I talked to more and more students here in Miami.

Every Monday we go to college campuses in Miami and talk to students about the gospel. Our conversations always start with simple topics like what we are majoring in, but then soon go to spiritual topics. We ask students what they believe, what their spiritual backgrounds are, and many other questions. This can become very tiring because sometimes you find yourself walking around for a while trying to find students to have conversations with, or because the conversations can be draining. One night we went sharing and my partner Vince and I went up to 12 people asking if they would want to take a spiritual survey and each denied us. Today was more of a success because I was able to share the whole gospel with 4 people. None of them prayed to receive Christ, but you never know what seed might have been planted.

In the end, I know all of this is worth it because I am doing what God commanded me to do and lives are going from death to life. I am not sure of the exact number, but so far I think 10 or more people have prayed to receive Christ into their life just from us college kids evangelizing. This means that 10 more people will be going to Heaven than only a couple weeks ago. This is a party worth celebrating.

"He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." - Mark 16:15

"for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” - Acts 4:20

Ultimate Bliss

If anyone knew me in high school, especially during my sophomore year, they would know that I often used this phrase, "Ultimate Bliss". This was another way to say complete happiness or joy. In high school I thought Ultimate Bliss came from worldly things. Mostly I thought it came from assurance of having affection, acceptance, and approval. I thought this could be achieved through a boyfriend, friends, and family. Thus, any time I was lacking one of the three groups or felt like one of the three groups did not feel that way about me, I lacked Ultimate Bliss.

A couple days ago I reread some surveys I had posted on Facebook during my sophomore year of high school. Do you remember when those were popular to do? They were 100 random questions about life that you were supposed to answer and then tag 10 friends for them to answer too. Well when I reread my responses I re-encountered my Ultimate Bliss concept. Here are a couple questions with my answers.

What is one thing you wish you could change about your life?
-I want Ultimate Bliss.

What is the best feeling in the world?
-Ultimate Bliss

Greatest fear?
-Not finding Ultimate Bliss.

Why was I so worried about not finding Ultimate Bliss? At this point I even had the boyfriend, had awesome friends, and a loving family, yet I was still scared I would never find it. Warning sign! This feeling can not be found though people.

This feeling can only be found through a personal relationship with our creator God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Only after I gave my life up for Jesus did I have the possibility to even find this joy. Knowing who I am in Christ is making me begin to feel affection, acceptance, and approval.

A couple days ago on project a staff member stated, "The only way to experience a deeper love of God is to experience deeper the way God loves us."
I am so excited for this summer to continue so I can learn more about what this means!

I pray that you would also experience joy from a relationship with God and not seek Ultimate Bliss from worldly things.


Here are some questions to think about:
1) Where do you go for affection, acceptance, and approval?
2) What are your coping methods to get them?
3) What do you wish you could change about your life?