Project has just began

It's about that time of the project where things are kicked into high gear. The staff will be leaving soon, if they haven't already. All of the staff leaves, and they are done with summer project. Us students are to fill their roles on top of whatever schedule we have. We have been assigned our roles, and began training.

As mentioned in previous blogs, I wanted to really hit the ground running as soon as I arrived to Chicago. I would say I have been running pretty well, except for my evangelism. This was a particular area I knew would be challenging coming into project and it has been. I was unsure, but willing to let Jesus lead me. I have been challenged by the disappointment of DePaul and Loyola University, and also my discouragement and initial lack to trust the Lord with laying the Gospel on the hearts of the evangelized. I opened up to my discipler, Brian, before going out to UIC last week, and that conversation was more than necessary. It really pointed me to Christ and revealed to me my distrust. So, as mentioned, that day thereafter was a great day filled with great conversations. To me, this would be considered a great step forward.

Come Thursday, Brian tells me my future role will be/is "Impact Team Leader." This means I will be co-leading the entire group which previously focused on DePaul and Loyola onto the campuses of, UIC and IIT, the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Out of all the roles possible, this is the perfect fit for me, because I know it's going to be challenging and the Lord has been preparing my heart for it this whole time. Brian mentioned that from the beginning, he was voting for me to have this position, even before he knew what was on my heart.

We dropped DePaul and Loyola for this summer, because there was not a whole lot to work with. Knowing how UIC is growing, it makes sense for us as a project to invest so much in it. There will be three impact teams on UIC alone. Another team at ITT, and a team that Sara Graves from ECU will be leading at University of Chicago. At UIC, one team will be focusing on Internationals. Their movement includes the International Bible Study, and the English Club which my team will be helping out with when needed. They also have another team focusing on a Hispanic movement which is already pretty fruitful, with a Bridges International ministry already in place. My team will be focusing on the rest of the students. Also awesome, is the fact that UIC is literally across the street from where we are staying.

Some other things to pray for:
- the students would accept their given roles with humility and work them with a servant attitude
for the benefit of the entire project
- the Lord providing the small amount of support I have left
- my speech at work with co-workers would be "salty," and glorifying to the Lord

Feel free to comment or ask questions!