What a week it's been so far

God has done some amazing things here in Puerto Rico and it's barely Thursday. Monday was our first full day of training where we had word training and evangelism training. The last part of evangelism training was where we went out onto the streets of Condado and did a survey with random folks and shared our testimonies if the opportunity came. It was definitely nerve racking talking to people I didn't know. It was a huge learning experience though. I got a chance to hang out and talk with Travis which was definitely a huge encouragement. He's helped me a ton here in Puerto Rico and has been an awesome brother in Christ/D-group leader. I also got to meet up with DK for a one-on-one which was great.
That evening, I attempted to cook Chicken Alfredo which, state side, I've cooked plenty of times before. However, apparently, the stove doesn't like to boil water easily so it was a test of my patience trying to finish the noodles as group dates were fast approaching. We finally finished it, and then went to go get the girls for our group date. We took them out to get ice cream then over to the Conrad to enjoy sitting on the water as we talked and I quietly played guitar. The rain made it interesting so we were running around trying to stay dry while laughing all the time. We finally got to a dry spot and finished up by asking questions that the girls wrote down on note cards. It was an awesome experience.
     Tuesday we went Cuveo del Indio which is an awesome rock formation on the coast. A lot of the folks ended up jumping off a 40 foot clift into the ocean which was pretty awesome to watch. It had some amazing views and we ate lunch there. After lunch we headed over to a cave system which was awesome and came out on the hole in the side of a mountain with an amazing view (I'll post a pic at the bottom). It was an awesome day. We had our first rally that night and the worship was truly amazing hearing all of us singing praises to an amazing God.
     Yesterday was our first community service project. We were split up between La Travesia's pastors house, Jack's house and the church office. I was with Ronny, the pastor. It was great getting to fix up the kid's bikes, pressure wash the side walk and play with the kids. Hanging with the kids was pretty cool but was definitely patience testing, especially when the two girls were playing with all the tools while I worked on the bikes. They were awesome though, always laughing and smiling. When we got back, I had an awesome conversation with Alex and it was amazing to see how after only knowing folks for not even a week it was easy to start to open up with folks. Sharing our testimonies and how God's been working in our lives the past couple of years.  Of course hanging at the pool afterwards with the guys was fun. We went and had our other rally for the week last night. God spoke to me in ways that I can't even begin to describe last night, and afterwards talked to DK and Phil about it (Phil is staff that gave the talk), and was able to talk about stuff that I never had in 19 years. I talked to Travis about it afterwards. It was amazing to see how in only a week, God has changed my heart, showed me things in my life and allowed me to have some amazing friends in just a week of being in San Juan. It was truly a blessing. These next three weeks are going to be some of the most amazing weeks of my life. God is going to do some awesome things in Puerto Rico and it's going to be a blessing having some awesome folks like Travis, DK and Alex along side me as we continue to be a light and serve the community of Puerto Rico.

The view from the inside of the cave

Cuevo Del Indio

Group date

The praise and worship practice for rally

Travis and I at the cave opening

Puerto Rico Orientation is finally done

Orientation officially ended yesterday. It was an awesome first few days from playing music, to orientation sessions to getting to know folks on Project. Yesterday we got to just hang out and relax and planned for group date. Each week on project each of the male D-groups have to ask a female D-group on a group date. It's a Campus Outreach tradition on project for the guys to get to know the girls better. We planned out our elaborate plan to ask our girls group out. Then we headed off to La Travesia. It's the church we go to on Project. Our D-group helped with set up and began our group date asking out plan. What we did was took pictures of the girls when they weren't looking while holding up a note. The first note was asking them on group date and each of the following 5 were clues for them to figure out who it was. We texted the pictures to Peter who texted it to them (a friend of mine involved with Campus Outreach) back home so they couldn't look up our numbers in the Project phone list. They figured it out finally after the 4 picture. It was fun and they thought it was cute. Now back to La Travesia. It's a local Puerto Rican church that Campus Outreach goes to each summer. The fun part is, the entire service is in Spanish. I picked up the prayers here and there. The songs were easy cause I knew the English versions. They gave us a script for the sermon in English so we would be able to understand it. Ronny, the pastor is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy and is now the past of La Travesia. After church, we all went out and had mofongo, some Puerto Rican dish, which was pretty interested. Finally we came back, hung out and went to bed. It was a great way to end Orientation.

First Full day in PR!!

Wow, talk about a day. I'm telling you, San Juan is a beautiful place. I love Puerto Rico.
We woke up and went to Waikiki to have breakfast and begin Orientation training. We talked about policies and played different games like two truths and a lie. We also got to here from some of the folks Campus Outreach partners with here in PR to learn about the Puerto Rican culture. Hung out and ate lunch there before everyone headed back to La Rada (the place we are staying in) to get ready for Walmart. The girls and guys each had their respective meetings to discuss gender specific stuff for Puerto Rico. Then our interesting day in Puerto Rico's Walmart. We all went around in our D groups to get food for the week to cook on our own. We were all running around having a great time. One of the highlights was the escalator which you could take your buggy on. It was pretty sweet.
I'm telling you though, hands down the best part of the day was playing music in the girls room upstairs. Travis and I walked up the Dallas' and Malarie's room to play Dallas' guitar. We started cranking out the worship music, learning new songs and having people join us along the way. Pretty soon we had a vast majority of the project students up in the room just singing the praises of an awesome God. It was amazing worshiping God with that guitar in my hands as Travis and Gloria lead the singing combined with the voices of 20 other folks. Eventually we had to move because they could here it on the first floor so we headed over to one of the parks by the bridge and just continued to play out in the moonlight. It really was just awesome. We wrapped up with an interesting question game by the bridge before finally heading back to La Rada to hit the rack. Definitely was a great first day in Puerto Rico.

Finally in Puerto Rico

It's hard to believe I'm finally in Puerto Rico. Woke up this morning, met everyone at JU this morning to travel to the airport. It was nice getting to see folks that I haven't seen since conference and meet some new folks for the first time. We all piled into a good ole fashioned school bus and hit the road for Jax International. Just on the bus ride alone we were all laughing and having an awesome time.
It was interesting going through my first commercial flight. From passing through airport security to all of us trying to find some last minute food before hoping on the plane, laughing at Alex being a goober it was fun. Of course getting to experience a jet take off instead of the good ole Cessna 172. Our take off role was faster than my C-172's cruising speed. It was pretty interesting.
After a good 3 and a half hour flight, we finally land in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Man, is this an awesome place. It took some getting use to seeing all the signs in Spanish with English at the bottom in smaller letters. It's beautiful here on the island. We hung out at buffalo wings for a while at the airport and ate as we waited for the vans to get here. Finally they arrived and took us to the place we are staying at. It's a quaint little room that the five of us, Stanley, Travis, Will, Phil and myself at staying in at project. Stanley, Travis and I make our D group for project (Travis is our D group leader) and we went over to Chili's for dinner. We shared our testimonies and back grounds to start to get to know each other better. Phil came about half way through and joined it. It was pretty amazing here the guy's backgrounds. Walking back, Travis and I went to the park and caught up from Christmas conference and had a great talk. It was definitely a blessing. I'm super excited to see how God is going to do some awesome things in our lives here at Puerto Rico Project 2013.

Well, here we go

I can't believe the trip is finally upon us. At 1141 tomorrow morning we'll be flying out of Jax International to San Juan. It's really starting to sink in now that I'm back in Jacksonville. It's taking a lot of preparation on both the student side and the staff side to finally make Puerto Rico Project 2013 happen. It's definitely going to be an awesome trip.
Raising support for the trip really opened my eyes to the generosity of people and the sovereignty of an almighty God. It was amazing seeing people willing to give without a second thought to see God's kingdom move in Puerto Rico this summer. I'm truly thankfully to everyone that supported my financially with the trip, but also to everyone who is praying for us while we are down there. Y'all are truly amazing. Even on a personal level, raising support was an eye opener. I was really nervous at the beginning of April when we did support training and Joe was helping me write my letters. $2250 was a big number and I honestly was nervous asking people to support me. Boy did God blow my mind as support started coming in. We have an awesome and all powerful God that will move mountains for His children to further spread the Kingdom. It also taught me to really trust God when I wasn't sure if I was going to raise it in time. These past several weeks leading up to PRP was a test of my faith, but also a blessing.
I know we're all excited to finally make it to PR tomorrow. I'm super pumped for the trip and I know God is going to do some amazing things there. Continue to pray for me and everyone else going on the trip that we would above all, surrender to God each and everyday and be used by Him while in Puerto Rico. Next time I post, I will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico!! Until then,
Voy a hablar con usted más tarde mi familia en Cristo

Last full week at home

It's my last full week before going to Puerto Rico. I know I get more and more excited each day to finally get to PR and it's hard to believe that it's almost here. It seems like yesterday that I was sitting in the Hyatt in downtown Jacksonville at Christmas Conference hearing Barry and Alan talk about Puerto Rico for the first time. It's going to be amazing to see how God is going to work in PR. Starting to get everything in for support for the project. Raising support has definitely taught me a lot about trusting in God and I'm still learning more and more each day just from support alone. It's been a challenge, out of my comfort zone, but it isn't over yet. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I know God is going to get me there. I've already started to make friends with some of the other folks going to Puerto Rico, and it's awesome seeing people fired up to serve God.
I'm spending my last full week at home finishing up support, hanging out with friends and just seeking God's face in prayer about the PRP. It's going to be an awesome trip and I'm thankfully for everyone supporting me, financially, through prayer and through encouragement.

The Countdown begins

With only two and a half weeks left, everyone is getting excited for the Puerto Rico Project 2013. The staff has been talking about it since Christmas Conference but it's hard to believe that it is almost here. Seeing finals week is over for everyone at JU and Embry-Riddle, all we can think about is finally getting to PR. Raising support is in full swing and though it can be nerve racking at times, God is with us each step of the way and will make way for us to get to PR. It's definitely gonna be an exciting trip.

The blog for my trip

Hey folks, I'll be keeping everyone up to date on everything happening in Puerto Rico this summer here on this blog along with Twitter and Facebook. From pictures to how God is working in the Puerto Rico community and the lives of everyone going, it'll be posted here. I appreciate all the prayers and support and feel free to message me or email me if you have any questions. Thanks and may God bless