Hello from the LAST DAY on PCB!!

This is the girls reporting from suite 606 where today we had our day off before beginning our grueling drive home to Ithaca (is cold), NY. This past week has been such a blessing from God that He has allowed us to partake in His ministry and Kingdom. It feels reminiscent of what the disciples must have felt like ushering in the Good News to a broken world.

OH – an addition to our last post – so, at the beginning of every morning and evening session, our emcee Shelby introduces this Cru tradition called the ‘Love Seat of Love.’ Essentially, he’ll ask a random trivia question and people will run up and try to get the answer. If they get it right, they get to invite another person up to the LSoL. This whole week, Adam’s been wanting to get it because one of the prizes is also a free Big Break T-shirt. And lo and behold – on Tuesday night, HE WON! By guessing how many people in the world share the same birthday as him (9 million). It was a victory for Cornell overall, and he called our very own Jeanne Lee up to share the love with him We DO have video, so stay tuned for that.

Wednesday was another good day – morning session, one of our speakers reminded us that we’re not self-justified yet it’s our first reaction to anything. Quick lunch of sandwiches again, then we headed off to Sharky’s, a popular restaurant near some of more luxury suites. Here, we were able to set up Soularium again and engage with people in conversation. It’s been a little discouraging because most of Wednesday, I talked to people whom were confident they were Christians and in their salvation, yet did not see Christ as Lord…

On the bright side though, a sister from West Virginia U and myself were able to share the Gospel with two Catholics whom recommitted their lives to Christ!! We spotted them with John Piper’s book Passion of the Christ, yet when we were chatting, they were unsure if they were saved and what was needed for salvation. We went through the Knowing God Personally booklet and prayed for the Holy Spirit to (re)enter their lives and for God to be sovereign.

At night, the girls cooked for the guys again – baked barbeque chicken, homemade mashed potatoes, steamed veggies and potato fries. We had a campus time after (no evening session) where we were able to share honestly about our high and low points and our emotional and spiritual barometers – then prayer for one another.

After campus time, we went to everyone’s famous all American drive-in – SONIC!!! The guys had already been numerous times, but for the girls, it was a glorious experience. We all got milkshakes and food, and nearly overwhelmed our poor waiter. Jeanne and I split a strawberry malt (per recommendation of Nic) and it was delicious. Jeanne would like to clarify to she finished most of it. Sarah had a cool run-in that night also – she was wearing her Cornell Sweatshirt, and was picked out by someone who had been in her physics class! Turns out a group from Cornell had been at PCB also – a group of sophomores from the soccer team. It was cool talking to them, but was a sober reminder that we would eventually return to school and continue the battle there.

The next morning (Thursday) was our last full day on the beach L One of our sharers shared about the name of God and how it’s tied to the attributes of God – it’s all about perspective, and even though we don’t ‘see’ we must believe. Quick lunch again of sandwiches, then off to La Vela/Spinnakers again. We also picked up a few stray students from Purdue who needed a ride. We found street parking, then off we went to the beach to EV for the last time. Jeanne, JW and I set up Soularium again near the Lil’ Wayne MTV Concert where we were able to talk to a number of people. It was a little harder at first to talk to people and we had to constantly battle feeling discouraged from this — in the end, the Lord did bless us with several good conservations and planting seeds.

We took Adam out to a local seafood restaurant to celebrate his birthday (today!) and ended up being a tad late to the evening session. We caught the last bit of people sharing again about people coming to Christ, and found that in total, over 13,000 people were approached, over 3,000 heard the Gospel message, and over 1,000 accepted or reconfirmed their faith in JESUS CHRIST as LORD!!! What an amazing encounter with the power of the Lord. When people shared, story after story was about the faithfulness of God and how He answers prayers. We can only pray that these new brothers and sisters will find accountability and continue to grow and seek after Him.

Roger Hershey spoke one last time about what it means to be warrior in the long term with a couple of great scenes from LOTR:TT and Gladiator. He made this great illustration that many times, we’re not excited for eternity because we have this skewed view that heaven is just sitting on clouds and singing the same worship song for 102894710934+ years, yet it’s so much more. Drawing from Rev 19-21 and the greatness of glorified bodies, a new earth, and being reunited with believers that have passed away (including one of Roger’s sons who passed away while serving the nation).

After evening session, there was a dance hosted in the ballroom which some people stuck around for. I tried doing the prayer journey on the side, then realized it was a bad idea when Black Eyed Peas was blasting in the next room the gals made dessert for the guys again, which was meant to be a surprise birthday cake and caking for Adam, but his brothers had come in and he couldn’t make it L We ended up eating it all by ourselves, then called it a night.

This morning being our day off, we all slept in. We finally caked/pudding/whip cream-ed Adam on the beach (more pictures later) and ended the week with some well-needed rest. In a bit we’re heading to Nic’s grandma’s place in PCB for a home-cooked meal!! Yummy

Please continue to pray for us as we rise early tomorrow morning and drive back to Ithaca (another 25ish hour drive, we assume). If you could also pray for our emotional and spiritual wellbeing as we transition back to busy Ithaca… to continue being in a posture of evangelism and feel the urgency for those on campus to know the Good News and come to know the Lord, when we know the devil will be continually tempting and planting lies into our heads.

Thanks guys!! Please continue to pray for Philly also as they end their week and transition back to Cornell.

With much love,

The gals.

PS. Best quote from JW during sharing time: “I didn’t know whether or not I should go commando… I was going to, but I didn’t know if it was because I was staff and felt like I should go, so then I decided not to… but during worship and I was praying, I felt God giving me the thumbs up so I decided to go commando.” – talking about commando cru (night-time EV)

Hey everyone! This is JW writing…

Praise the Lord, yesterday was an absolutely beautiful, warm, sunny day on the beach! I’ve spent a cumulative amount of about 2 months of my life in the state of Florida - and I had heard of the supposed warm sunny beaches of Florida, but until yesterday I had not experienced them! It was great to be out on the beach engaging students with the gospel – without a drop of rain! Finally got to use my sunscreen!

The night clubs “La Vela” and “Spinnakers” are the famous hot spots of PCB. Yesterday we headed east down the beach towards them and we stopped near “The Boardwalk” which is where MTV had their stage set-up. A couple of bands including ‘The All American Rejects’ were playing there.

We set up shop about 300 meters or from the stage. Don, Adam and I decided to use a tool called “Soularium” which is a set of 50 5” x 7” cards with different photographic images on them. Pictures including things like a family, a sunset, a barbed-wire fence, a guy covered in post-it notes, and other interesting images.

We set the cards up by flattening out a little section of sand about as big as a table and then sticking the cards into the sand so that they stood up out of the sand-arranged in a nice little formation. Students passing by would look over at it as they passed by, and we would invite them over to check out the pics and talk about God. We’d introduce ourselves, and then walk them through a few questions like:

Which 3 images would you pick to describe your life?

Which 3 images would you pick to describe your Spiritual journey?

Which 3 images would you pick to describe who God is?

After they picked the cards we’d ask them “Why?” and have them sort of explain their life, and beliefs to us in a dialog format.

Soularium works really well for getting into conversations on the beach. As we get to know people a little bit, and as we talk about beliefs, we are able to transition often to the gospel.

One another note, one of our roommates, Aaron (from NEBRASKA – yeah dogg!) just left this morning at around 7:30am to go knock on a guys door who he met last night to share the gospel. Last night the guy said he was “too drunk” to listen to the gospel and he told Aaron & his buddies to come find him in the morning at his hotel room, and he’d listen to the message then! I pray that their conversation goes well!

Hello from PCB again!!!

Yesterday was our first full day — and through the nervousness and anxiety, the Lord was able to provide and lead hearts to salvation and redemption! In the morning, we were equipped with Knowing God Personally (aka KGP) booklets that we could use to share with people. It includes an adaptation of the four spiritual laws, plus a series of questions to lead people to understand the Gospel message. After a quick lunch, we were off!

Team Cornell was sent to La Vela, the largest nightclub in the United States. After a time of prayer, we were off in groups of three to share the good news. We were also given questionnaires, so this was mostly our entry point for the afternoon. The weather was also a little rainy, which made witnessing that much more difficult. My group (JW, Sarah and I) spoke to a few groups of guys from various universities. Most of them had been part of the church at one point in their lives, but were now mostly doing their own thing.

After coming back, the gals cooked dinner for the guys (baked pasta with meatballs, garlic bread and fresh salad – yum yum), but before we pulled a fast one on the guys by saying we only made one bowl of pasta!

At night, we had the privilege of hearing Roger Hershey speak. He shared with us from Ephesians 6 under the theme of being a Warrior for Christ. His own testimony is so powerful and reminding us that we’re involved in a very spiritual battle where we’re fighting for people’s souls and not against them. He reminded us also that Satan tells us horrendous lies and we must take up our sword, or the Word (rhema) of God to fight against him. After, most of us went to Commando Cru, where we EV-ed around the pools, hot tubs, and beachside near our complex.

Yesterday morning was another good morning, with an introduction to the Soularium – a series of 50 images where we ask students to choose three images to describe their lives, spiritual lives, and God. We used these this afternoon at Pineapple Willie’s and the main PCB Boardwalk (right next to MTV’s spring break bash – look for us on tv!) Nez and I had a couple of good conversations with people about the Gospel and Jesus. We even spoke to a woman from Japan who never even heard of the concept of God before. After, the guys made the gals hamburger tortilla wraps.

In the evening, Roger Hershey spoke again about being a warrior when we don’t feel like it, battling three main feelings – inadequacy, shame, and pride. Commando Cru was on at night again – most of the Cornell gals went back to the Spinnakers/La Vela nightclub scene to once again share. The scene changes at night though – it’s an entirely different world. I was feeling a little anxious being thrown into the lions, with fears of being harassed by drunken men, being run into by drunk drivers, or even getting separated from the group. The mission field is much larger than any of us have expected, I believe…. I spent the majority of the evening talking to an ex-drug dealer sitting across the street from Spinnakers who is being deported next week, pleading with him that heaven and hell are real places with real consequences. The Lord protected us through the evening and

Please continue to pray for us through the week:

- Pray for the hearts of the EV-ers themselves. The Cornell team is starting to notice a trend of a very numbers-based success mentality amongst the conference-ers – please pray that God will humble our hearts for why we’re here – for HIS glory and not our own.

- Pray for those whom we’ve talked to by name – Amy, Matt, Brennan, Ashley, Miranda, Tasha, Kay, Kyle, Eric, John, Cody, and so many more. Pray that God will cultivate a desire to know him more in their hearts.

- Pray for our team as we continue to press on through the week. It’s easy to be tired, weary and discouraged when it seems that no fruit is coming out of our ministry – please pray for trust and faith in the Lord’s ultimate purpose.

Thanks guys for your prayers. Our eyes are being open to the desperate need for Christ and Truth beyond the surface. We’ll try to add one more blog before we heard out!

Wendy

Hello everyone from Panama City Beach!

This is Wendy reporting from Spring Break Central! We left Friday afternoon around 5pm and safetly arrived in PCB Saturday at 6pm after 25 hours of continous-ish driving (minus many bathroom breaks, waffle houses, and stopping at Adam’s house in Atlanta). Praise God for keeping us safe from many late hours, dense fogs, falling rocks, and crazy traffic!

Joe and JW passed out after driving.

Coming into the city was the most surreal experience… all around us were college students who were woot-ing and drinking and being .. spring-breakers, essentially. There’s this tension between our ultimate mission and those of the other college kids here… Our hotel is on the ‘Strip’, which is a 8-mile long street of bars, clubs, hotels, and food joints right on the beachside where the wildest partying happens. We’re actually only a mile away from MTV’s spring break madness, so maybe you’ll see some of us on TV sharing the good news

Yesterday was our first full day (after much, much needed sleep the night before). The girls (Sarah, Jeanne, Nez and myself) are staying in a mini-suite and the guys (plus two guys from Nebraska) are staying a few buildings down. We went to Cici’s lunch buffet for lunch, then ran to the local Walmart for groceries and forgotten items.

After, Nic led us in a time of devotions, sharing, and prayer for our time here — we went through Judges 7 and the story of Gideon. Just like God is faithful to Gideon, He will be and remain faithful to the 1000+ students here proclaiming the good news. Some of us feel anxious, weary, and unprepared for the task that lies above us, but we know that because of this, there is no way that any fruit is of our own strength but solely the power of the Lord (Judges 7:2-3).

Last night was also our first evening session — imagine 1,000 college students, jumping up and down, praying and praising God, in one ballroom in spring break central. Crazy right?! It’s pretty wild (but in a good, holy type of wild hehe). After, we had a time of prayer for the spring breakers, then had woman time with Christy (the gals did — Adam and Joe did ‘pre-EV’ on the beach, and the others went to Sonic hehe) talking about beauty and what it means to find satisfaction in the Lord’s definition of Beauty. The guys also had some man-time in the car with man-issue topics. I’m really thankful to all three of them (Nic, JW and Christy) for leading these times and constantly being here for us in their goofy and encouraging ways. Then off to bed!

Now it’s morning and only half an hour away from our first morning/teaching session!!! I am eating a newly acquired blueberry bagel as I type this

Additional things to pray with us for!!

• Today is our first full day of training, EV, and debrief at night. I have no idea what to expect.. please pray!! Pray for the staff who are leading us through training and faithfully shepherding over us.
• Pray for the students we’ll talk to — that they will have open hearts to the good news that is true and good. Pray for their safety and wellbeing as many, many are constantly drunk and stumbling about the strip.
• Pray for us and the other Believers here that we may rely solely on the strength of GOD to be our provision. We’re still tired and recovering from our drive down, and the weather is pretty wet so please pray against discouragement and frustration. Please also pray for our team specifically that we may be have unity and accountability as we fight through the week.

Thanks so much guys! We’ll be sure to try and update you guys more often with stories and good news

over and out!

wendy + rest of cornell EV team (plus jack!)