Rock it like it’s 1985

I hope I’m done waitressing forever. I don’t think I will EVER give a waitress less than 20% tip on anything. I had to serve on Thursday unexpectedly, and it was the craziest day I have seen there all summer! I was in charge of TEN TABLES. It was insane. People just kept coming and coming…and coming some more. It was the most stressful day I’ve had since I started working at the Dough Roller, but I made $82. Which isn’t GREAT, but not BAD. So when I went to work on Friday (Natalie was off) I was not feeling so great about it and really didn’t want to be there. But it ended up being an awesome day! I got to expedite, so I got to sit down alot. And everyone was just in a really, really good mood! It was fun. And it went by fast!

Earlier this week, Ashley (who is in charge of Women’s Time) told us that Friday night all of us girls were going out to eat and just hang out together, and it was all paid for, and to be ready at 6:15. So we all got ready, you know wearing our sundresses and everything, and gathered on the porch, expecting to just hang out just us, and then Jon (who is in charge of Men’s Time) walks up in a shirt and tie and tells us that the guys have cooked dinner for us! They did a Creative Date without us ever finding out about it! We were wondering why the guys were having so many secret meetings this week, but didn’t really think anything of it. So as we are standing outside, the guys with cars pull them around the corner and open the door for us, and drive us to Atlantic. Then some of the other guys came out and escorted each of us inside! They had put out tables with tablecloths and even made centerpieces out of napkins. And there were typed out menus and a poem that one of the guys had written about how much the guys appreciate us! We were soooo surprised. It was awesome. All of the guys were wearing shirts and ties and they waited on us the entire night. They had made salad and pasta and broccoli and bread, and had three different choices of dessert. It was SO much fun! We felt so special. Later that night we watched Tristan & Isolde, which I thought was mostly a girl movie, but the guys liked it too.

On Saturday I went to Salisbury with Meg, John Mark, and Mark to look at the thrift store for our 80′s prom apparel. We ended up getting lost, and then couldn’t find Goodwill, so it took a little longer than expected. But we finally found the Salvation Army and got some incredibly tacky 80′s bridesmaid/prom dresses. Mine was this obnoxious fuchsia color with puffed sleeves and a big bow on the back. It was fantastic. We headed back to Ocean City then because we had outreach at 1, but the traffic was horrible so we ended up not getting back til 1:30. So we met everyone on the beach, and they had already been playing tug of war, so after a few more minutes of that we all went out in pairs with Soularium, KGP’s, and the Satisfied booklets. I went out with Anna, and we walked up and down the Boardwalk for a long time, but no one wanted to talk to us. It was pretty discouraging because it was the last day of outreach and we didn’t get to talk to anyone, but instead we just prayed for the other people who were evangelizing. It’s really hard to enjoy outreach when I haven’t had very good experiences with it, but we were just trying to remind ourselves that prayer is just as important as talking, and that just because we weren’t talking to people directly didn’t mean we were failures. It’s hard to remember that, because alot of the time I feel like our “success” at being a Christian is measured by how much we DO. But it’s not.

Saturday night we had our 80′s dance party! It was SO much fun. Everyone was so incredibly tacky and we danced ALOT. Laura and I tried to do Thriller, but we realized we have never done it with the music before, so we didn’t know which steps happened when! We remembered a few pieces, but not all of it. So we’re going to keep practicing and hopefully have it down by the Farewell Banquet which is in…only 6 days! AHHH!

I can’t believe today starts the last full week of project. We are going to the beach this afternoon after we eat lunch.  One of the guys in my life group is cooking today, but he’s been cooking for almost 2 hours, and I think all he is making is rice. Hmmm. I think I might go see if he needs help.

This is the final countdown

13 more days.

Our employee cookout went GREAT! None of my co-workers came, and alot of other people’s co-workers didn’t come either, but it was actually a good thing because about 50 people from the Jolly Roger Waterpark came! 6 people from our group work there as lifeguards and water attendants, and they posted a flier in the break room. At first we couldn’t get the charcoal started, and no one was coming, and we were really worried that the whole thing was going to flop. But then things started working, and food started cooking, and people just kept coming and coming! We were worried that we would run out of food by then, but I felt like it was a fish-and-loaves type thing. We prayed that God would provide, and we ended up having EXACTLY enough of the side dishes for all of the co-workers to eat, and had hamburgers and hotdogs left over! Seriously, throughout the whole thing it was SO apparent that everything that happened was all God, and not us. It was so close to failing, but God provided for us, and it was so cool to see that.

The two Swedish girls came too! I thought they were supposed to be in New York that weekend, but it was the next weekend, so they came. It was so fun to see them again! I didn’t get to talk to them during the cookout because I was cooking hamburgers inside (I am a GRILLMASTER!) but several girls got to talk to them while they were eating, and I joined later. After everyone got food and sat down, the guy who leads the outreach team (Dylan) got up and prayed over the food, and basically just presented the gospel very concisely, and told them all why we are here. So that sparked spiritual conversations for alot of people. Sarah asked Jennie and Jessie (Swedish girls) what they thought about God, and heaven, and all of that stuff. She said Jessie didn’t really talk, but Jennie was very strong in saying that she doesn’t believe in a God, she only believes in herself. It’s a mindset that is typical in internationals from Europe and the surrounding area..not to say that there aren’t people here who believe like that, but it’s just alot stronger in those areas. Sarah presented the gospel to her again, and just talked to them about it, but they didn’t really ask alot of questions or want to know more. So be praying for Jennie and Jessie. Pray that God would capture their hearts and just make it very apparent to them how He exists, how much they need a Savior, and how much He loves them and wants to know them!

This week at work has been pretty eventful. Christina, who Natalie and I had gotten the closest to, quit on Sunday. She dropped the strawberry daiquiri mix on the floor, and got angry, and just walked out. So I’m really sad she’s not working there anymore. It’s kinda strange being at work without her, because we always worked with her. But on the way back from work today I ran into her on the boardwalk and got to talk to her a little bit, but not about anything really important because her boyfriend was with her. It was good to see her still, and I let her know that we miss her there and we wish she was working! Because Christina’s gone now, Natalie and I have been changed around alot as far as our jobs. On Monday I expedited, and she was a waitress! And yesterday and today we were both servers. Yesterday was NOT good for me. I was in charge of 6 tables, but the hostesses don’t know how to seat people, and they sat me 4 times in about 10 minutes, and I had no idea what I was doing, and I felt so incompetent and stressed out! At the end of the day I made…..$27. Yes, that’s right. For 6 hours of work. People just don’t tip well. One table ordered $34 worth of food, and gave me $1. So needless to say, yesterday was not fun, and I hated it. I was really worried about serving again today, so worried that I had nightmares about it last night, and I kept waking up and couldn’t fall back asleep! But I prayed alot about it, and today was just a GOOD DAY. I was assigned to 4 tables, and pretty much all of my customers today were really nice and tipped normally. I had seriously the world’s best table today too! They were a really old couple, and they were sooo cute and nice! They asked my name, and where I was from, where I went to school, what I was studying, and why I was here. It ends up that they have a daughter named Alison, the lady used to live in Columbia and she is from South Carolina and went to nursing school there in the 40′s, until she joined the military and met her husband and moved to Maryland. And they have family who live in Augusta and Martinez! SMALL WORLD! I only had 3 tables at the time, so I talked to them for a while. I think the lady had Alzheimer’s because she kept repeating herself, but the man was so loving to her and I just love seeing elderly people who have been married forever. It’s adorable. And they tipped me $7.50 on a $25 check! I was stoked. Today was such an encouragement after my disastrous experience yesterday. God is awesome.

In other news, my friend Laura and I are learning the Thriller dance! We found instructional videos on Youtube and we’ve learned like the first minute of it so far, but we ARE going to learn the whole thing before the end of project! Ideally, we would like to have it done by this weekend, because we are having an 80′s dance party this Saturday, but I’m not sure if that’s possible. We will try.

Ok so here’s another prayer request for ya’ll. Laura’s cousin, who she is really close to, got in a terrible motorcycle accident last week, and his girlfriend was with him. The girlfriend is injured, but she will get better. But Laura’s cousin had extremely serious injuries, and it’s a miracle that he is still alive. Last night she found out that there has definitely been damage to his brain, and he will be in a coma for another month or two, so they won’t be able to see the full extent of his injuries until then. And most of his internal organs are swollen and damaged, and he’s only 19 years old. Please be praying for her and her family. They are all really close, and it’s been really hard on them.

Tonight is our next to the last Family Night I can’t believe project is almost over! But I am getting excited to head back to USC. I MISS YOU ALL!

Oh goodness. 3 weeks.

This past Tuesday marked the three weeks left point of our project. AAHHH! Part of me feels like we just got here, and part of me feels like I’ve been here forever. I can’t imagine NOT knowing the people here, and not being with them every day! Leaving is going to be rough. I already told Tyler to expect me crying pretty much all the way to Baltimore. He’s ok with it…I think. No just kidding, I should be ok. Maybe.

I was under the impression that I recently wrote a new entry, but I guess it’s been 9 days; sorry! I seriously forget to write, and when I do write I feel like I’ve just done it recently, so I apologize for the long breaks in between entries. Seriously, we have been SO busy here! Project time is so unreal. Actually, this whole environment is unreal. Where else do you live, hang out with, evangelize with, and have fun with all Christians? It’s so amazing. The other night I hung out in one of the guys apartments and we just talked about a whole bunch of stuff, like our high schools, how parents affect their children for better or worse, etc. etc. It was a super deep conversation that came out of nowhere, and it was awesome!

Ohhh and I played piano for our worship time for the first time last Wednesday, and again this Wednesday! I was just thinking you know, God has given me this talent, and I need to use it. So I played two songs last week, and one this week. I was really nervous because I’ve never played while people have sung along before, but it ended up being ok. It was actually pretty cool–once I started, God completely took my nerves away, and I was actually able to sing along as well as play! I don’t think I’m playing next week, but I probably will for our last Family Night, which is the week after next. Sad

So my birthday was on Friday, and it was such a happy day! I took off work, and three other girls didn’t work either, so we went to this place called the Bayside Skillet for breakfast. They are famous for their crepes, and I got dutch apple crepes. They were DELICIOUS! And the restaurant is so cute–everything is pink pretty much, and we got to sit outside and look at the bay. Then we drove to Salisbury, which is 30 minutes away, and went to Target! I don’t know why we haven’t gone there before. I’ve been dying from lack of actual civilization, and we got to go to Target, Old Navy, Ross, and went to the Dollar Tree to get presents for our Christmas in July party, which was Friday night. It was a white elephant exchange, so I bought some random stuff. Did you know they sell bubble wands that blow bubbles in the shape of Spiderman’s head? I didn’t either.

We didn’t have outreach on Saturday until that night, so I went to Assateague with 5 other girls and it was glorious. The weather was PERFECT–about 80 degrees, sunny, and slightly windy. So it was warm enough to feel great, but cool enough to not be miserable! I don’t know how I’m going to adjust to South Carolina weather again. I may possibly die of heat stroke when I get home! But our day at Assateague was sooo wonderful. It was great to just rest and be together without having to worry about anything. Saturday night was our outreach. There’s a guy who travels around showing a surf video about Bethany Hamilton, the girl whose arm got bitten off by a shark about 5 years ago. She’s a Christian, and she and her family made a documentary of her experience and how it has created so many opportunities for her to share her faith with people. We went around on the Boardwalk and handed out fliers to it before it started, then we went and watched the movie. They set it up in the parking lot of Atlantic Methodist, and it played on a 30 x 30 screen. The turnout wasn’t huge, but it was alot bigger than I expected. And we got to meet these two awesome Swedish girls who are au pairs! They just came over here 4 weeks ago and are here until next July. We didn’t get to share the Gospel with them, but Lauren and I found them on the beach on Sunday and got to talk to them some more. They were leaving to go out of town, but I hope we can get to see them again before we leave.

This week at work has been pretty good. I feel like I’m finally getting to know the people I work with, which is great, but stinks because I leave in 3 weeks. I food ran on Monday and Tuesday, and expedited yesterday, and food ran again today. It was SO busy today! When we got to work at 11 it was already busy, and it just kept getting worse as the day went on. But hopefully I made some good money! We’ve invited about 8 of our co-workers to the cookout we are having this Saturday, but most of them have to work or are out of town, so I don’t really know if anyone will come, but I hope they do. We are having a cookout for the co-workers of everyone on project. We got hotdogs and hamburgers, and we’re making desserts and side dishes too, and having the cookout in the parking lot of First Presbyterian. It’s our outreach event for Saturday, but I’m not really sure how it’s going to be outreach, but I guess we will see. So please be praying that some of my co-workers come, and if not mine, that other people will! We want to have as many as we can.

In other news…..on Tuesday night  about 10 of us saw Harry Potter at midnight! We got to Salisbury about 10:30, so we just hung out in the theater until it started. The movie wasn’t the best Harry Potter that I’ve seen, but it wasn’t bad. It was fun just to hang out together. And I’m so glad there were other Harry Potter dorks like me who wanted to see it at midnight!

Tonight is Women’s Time from 6:30 to 8, and then reflection time from 8-10. I love Thursday nights. They are always so relaxing, and while I didn’t really like reflection time at the beginning of the summer, I’m really enjoying it now. Last week I got to listen to a sermon online, and journal like 4 pages front and back. It was so nice to spend some uninterrupted and peaceful time with Jesus.

I will really, really try to update more often this week, or the next few weeks! I hope it won’t be another week or two before I blog again, but if it is…I apologize in advance.

Updates….long overdue!

Have I mentioned that our internet here is terrible? I haven’t been able to blog lately because it has been cutting out so much. So hopefully I will be able to finish this before it disappears again!

Well, let’s see. It’s been QUITE a while since I have written. This past week was our first week without the staff. I was a little nervous, but everyone has really stepped up. It has been incredible to see people taking on responsibility, and I feel like the project has really become ours now. Not that it wasn’t before, it’s just before we were kind of relying on staff to get everything done instead of doing stuff ourselves, and now we are the ones who are actively keeping our project going, and it’s been awesome to see that. I led my first ministry team meeting on Tuesday night, and it went well! And I took checks and reimbursements for the first time on Wednesday and everything went smoothly. So…I think I will be ok. Just as long as no one gets injured We also had our first combined bible study on Tuesday night, and it was great to fellowship with all those girls. We were able to really get into the Word and talk about it with each other, as well as share how we’ve been struggling and succeeding.

At the world of the Dough Roller, this past week actually went really well. The whole week was pretty much getting ready for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday…4th of July weekend! Which is the busiest weekend in Ocean City. I got to expedite for the first time, which basically means you stand between the kitchen and the trays and put the food on trays. And you also answer the phone and make the alcoholic drinks. Apparently I’m very good at pouring beer, a hidden talent that I had not previously discovered! It’s fun though because you have to make sure it doesn’t overflow or foam too much. But I am an absolute failure at making other drinks. I had to make my first Pina Colada, and first of all, I had to get help because I have no idea what it is one of those. Then, as I poured the mix into the blender,  the lid of the container completely fell off and spilled the mix aaaalllll over the floor and the counter, and splashed on my shirt, and my shorts, and I smelled like alcohol the rest of the day. Luckily it was towards the end of the day, otherwise I might have thrown up. That stuff STINKS.

Thursday was the beginning of the holiday weekend, and everyone got to wear 4th of July stuff. YAY NO NASTY BLUE UNIFORMS! Some people went all out, but I just wore whatever red, white, and blue I had. Natalie and I had to work the pizza counter that day, but it was pretty busy so it went by quickly. And on Friday I got to be a food runner, which was awesome because it was super busy! Everyone was just in a great mood in general because we got to wear holiday stuff, and so work was actually kind of fun!

The day that I was the expediter, one of the cooks started talking to me. He’s going to be a senior in college and asked how Natalie and I met, and I told him through a bible study freshman year, and he kind of started to make fun of us at first. But he started talking about his life and how his mom raised him in the church, but he fell away from it in high school and got started in the partying scene. He asked if Natalie and I drank, and we told him that we didn’t, and he was really surprised and said he admired that because so many people do. I had short conversations with him throughout the day but never shared the Gospel, but it obviously had an impact on him because the next day I was food running, and he called me over and said that he thnks he’s going to cut back on the partying for a little bit. He said he’d been thinking about what we said, and he’s realized that he was alot happier when he wasn’t into all of that stuff, so he’s going to try to not party as much! How cool is that? He completely recognizes the difference between a life dedicated to Christ and a life centered around yourself, and although I’m not sure I will get the chance to talk to him more (it’s really hard to talk to cooks because they are usually busy and not around where you are), at least he’s starting to question the way he’s living. So be praying for Rodney!

On Friday night, I went with about 6 other people and we were determined to find somewhere good to eat in Ocean City. We wanted to go to Shenanigan’s, but the line was soooo long so we went to a place called Boardwalk Joe’s instead. There were alot of tables open, and we were like YES! And then….we sat down, and realized why it was empty. WORST RESTAURANT EVER! It was actually funny how terrible it was. Sarah got a “crab”cake sandwich that tasted like a dead animal, and my hot turkey sandwich turned out to be turkey on wonderbread with mayonnaise. At first we were kind of mad, because it took an hour to get our food, but then it just became a joke, and we laughed sooo hard! Everything about it was so awful that it was hilarious. Great bonding moment for us! The rest of the night we spent working on our armor for Cardboard Wars, which was our outreach event on Saturday. Ok, so Cardboard Wars is really hard to explain, but I will try. We are divided into two groups, the Red & White and the Black & Blue. Then, we make our weapons and armor out of cardboard, and decorate it and paint it our colors. There is a general for each time, and basically, we all march out to the beach, and the generals talk to each other. Then, we all fight, until everyone is dead except the two generals. The Red & White fights the Black & Blue general, then kills him. Then, the Red general pretty much speaks the Gospel: how our physical war represents a spiritual war, how God loves us and wants to have a relationship with us, how He sent Jesus to die for us, and how we can know God through giving Christ control of our lives. The point of the war is to draw a crowd (and it’s just fun) and then at the end, hundreds of people end up hearing the gospel! We didn’t really have many really great conversations afterwards, but the ultimate purpose is to spread the Gospel, and we reached around 400 people in an hour!

One person you can be praying for is a co-worker of mine. Her name is Bojana (pronounced Buena) and she’s 35 years old and a student from Serbia. Natalie has been able to talk to her alot at work, but mostly Bojana works nights so we don’t see her very often, but she also goes to the Son Spot free breakfast for internationals on Friday and Saturday mornings, so several people from our team have met her. She saw our war, and Natalie and I got to talk to her, but she’s Greek Orthodox so it’s hard to explain things to her because she believes she is saved. But she’s talked alot about tradition and rituals, and doesn’t seem to believe that we can have a personal relationship with Christ ourselves. So please be praying for her, that 1). she would begin to desire a personal relationship with God, 2). that Natalie and I would have more opportunities to talk to her, and 3). that God would open her eyes and show her how she can know Him personally.

After Cardboard Wars on Saturday, we had room inspections as usual and then we had our 4th of July extravaganza! We had sign up sheets for everyone to make/buy something, and then hot dogs were provided, so we had a wonderful cook-out with our group in front of our house. It was so fun! The food was great, and it was so nice to just fellowship with each other and celebrate the holiday. Later we went to the beach to watch the fireworks, and those were so much fun. We laid on the beach for a while afterwards too, which felt amazing because I realized this was the first 4th of July EVER that I wasn’t pouring sweat and slapping mosquitoes! The weather was a perfect 75ish degrees, with no humidity. Wonderful! It rained later that night, but we were inside so it didn’t really matter.

So in my last post, I mentioned Christina who we work with. She went on a trip with her church last week and came back today. She seemed really bothered this morning, and so we were talking to her about her week, and she told us how she felt like she had to quit the Dough Roller. She’s realized how much she needs to follow God, and recognizes that she isn’t strong enough to resist the constant party scene that is absolutely everywhere at work. So she really feels like she needs to stop working there because she doesn’t want to get caught up into all of that stuff again, but she isn’t able to say no yet. How awesome is that??? She completely doesn’t want to quit at all because she loves it there, but she feels like it is what God wants her to do. The only thing is, even after she told our manager that she needed to leave, she started wanting to stay. All day she was talking about how she didn’t know what to do, and that maybe she needed to stay there to be a witness to them. Natalie and I both told her that she CAN be a witness, but that when you first start following Christ, you need to remove yourself from those situations that are tempting until you grow in your faith enough to say no to those temptations that have been a problem for you in the past. Still, by the end of the day, Christina was saying that she was going to stay. So please be praying that she would continue to seek Christ’s guidance in this, and not let her love of her job keep her in a situation that is detrimental to her spiritual life. Ultimately, pray that she would make the decision that God wants her to make, and not the decision she wants to make.

One last prayer request and then I’m done. On Saturday, one of the girls in my group, Erica, got a call from her mom that her grandmother was killed in a car accident. Erica went home on Sunday, and she’s not sure how long she will be gone because all of the funeral plans have to be made and stuff, and then the funeral itself happen, so we are hoping she will be back by the end of the week but aren’t sure. Please pray for her family. It was her dad’s mom, and her mom’s dad is also in the hospital and really sick, so their family is just going through alot right now. And for it to be a car accident is just such a terrible thing to happen. It is cool to see how God has placed certain people together this summer though, because he knew that things like this would happen, and we are able to support each other. Meg’s grandfather died in April, then Grandmama dying two weeks ago, and now Erica’s grandma. So just lift them up in your prayers please. Also, pray for me and Meg as well. When someone loses a family member, it makes you remember the people you’ve lost. And it’s really hard because hearing about Erica’s grandma brought up a whole bunch of emotions that I’ve been trying to avoid dealing with here because I don’t have the time to think about it or the privacy to deal with it, and now it’s alot more difficult to push back those feelings, so yeah.

Alright, this post was so incredibly long that most of you have probably stopped reading, so I think I will stop here. Hopefully, if the internet stays strong, I will be able to update more often! Happy 6th of July!