Sara in San Diego

Hey y’all! So, there’s so much to tell! Our group has met so many amazing people here in San Diego and really begun to form relationships with some of the people we’ve met. My ministry partner, Caroline, and I met this one seriously awesome girl who goes to SDSU. She is one of the nicest girls I’ve ever met. After talking to her for one lunch she asked us to go to a Young Adult Service at her church. It’s been amazing to hang out with her and get to know her. It’s also been fun to talk to her about the Lord. Learning her life story and about her relationship with God has been so encouraging. If y’all could be praying for her and her family it’d mean a lot. My prayer for her is that she wouldn’t feel the need to follow the rules of others, but feel the freedom that Jesus offers and be who He has made her (fearfully and wonderfully made).

We also met another amazing girl, who we met on campus because she was passing out flyers for a rally next week centered on Islam. I have never known much about the Islamic religion, but getting to know her and getting to know her values has been an eye opening experience. San Diego is so cultured and so diverse that there are so many different religions practiced here in San Diego. To see the center of their religions and what they are based on to me has been good for my relationship with Christ. I can see that God offers me something in Christ that other religions seem to be searching for. That instead of being completely unattainable he has changed for us in the most radical way: humbling himself as a man and bearing all of our sins on the cross. If y’all could continues to pray for our team on the campus and just our hearts. It’s hard doing ministry and keeping Christ at the center instead of putting our success at the center. It’s hard to rely on God’s strength and not our own. That’s why Christ entered this world because IT IS HARD! Our flesh can’t achieve anything without the Lord. We fail every day and every time we try to rely on ourselves. I’m still learning exactly what this all means in my life and how I live that out, but it’s been amazing to realize I’m not enough and I don’t have to be enough.

            We’ve also been doing some truly awesome stuff off of campus through Harbor Church. We were allowed to participate in three free car washes that Harbor hosted last week for three different neighborhoods. We just walked around knocking on doors and asking people if they would like us to wash their car for them for free. Of course people were skeptical because who isn’t skeptical of free things in today’s society, but when we explained to them that as Christians we believed it was our duty to serve them simply out of love people were so willing to come get their car washed and hang out with us. It was a beautiful picture of community and serving those in the neighborhoods. We also got to go to Hoover Highschool (where they hold the Harbor Church services in City Heights) and help them clean up their campus. We scraped up gum on the floors, mopped, washed walls, and moved desks. It was such a small thing that we did, but made such a huge effect on the building that we cleaned. It was cool to see that when people come together in community towards a purpose it can be easy and have such a positive effect. The church is making such a huge impact on the school and the community and I’m just so thankful that we are able to be apart of it.

            I’ve also posted below pictures of my trip so far from La Jolla Beach, Point Loma (sunset cliffs), a Spanish Mission in Mission Valley, The Firework Extravaganza, the padres game, and the boy’s prank on our room (the beginnings of a prank war)!

San Diego State! Oh Yeah!

The seals at La Jolla Beach 

La Jolla Beach

Me and Lindsay zlamin in San Diego

Point Loma Cliffs

My ministry partner, Caroline, and I 

The city view from Point Loma

The sunset from Mission Valley

A beautiful cross at the Spanish Mission

The Fireworks

Padres game. What a view it was!

Brittany putting her game face on for the prank war to begin!

Yes, those are 20-30 bags of balloons and tiny cups that were full of water. And yes, they were all over our room when we got home last night. Tricky guys, tricky.