The Summer I Smelled Like Coffee

If you follow me on Facebook, you have probably seen the ridiculous amount of pictures I have been posting from Socials and Group Dates from Summer Beach Project. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve seen my tweets about all the different things I overhear old men say at Starbucks on a daily basis. At this point you might be asking, “What the heck is she actually doing this summer?” Well, this post is to tell you EXACTLY that! 

What is Summer Beach Project?

According to the SBP Official Website, “The Summer Beach Project (SBP) is a summer opportunity where you will live, work, play & learn with other college students for nine weeks in Daytona Beach, Florida. Each student works a full-time job during the day & participates in Bible studies, evangelistic outreaches, discipleship groups, ministry training, fellowship, & other activities during the week. This demanding, yet challenging schedule creates an ideal environment for students to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ & develop ministry skills & leadership qualities.”

So pretty much, I’ve been spending my summer in Daytona with 130 other students from GSU, GCSU, VSU, Mercer, GRU, USC-A and USC, drinking from a spiritual fire hydrant and working in Starbucks. Now, I’m not an actual Starbucks employee. The wonderful Morgan Family graciously hired me to be an “Item Update Manager” for their company Roundeye Supply. What this means is that I sit in Starbucks at my computer and update descriptions of different products on the Roundeye Supply website.  This leaves me and everything I own consistently smelling of coffee and me consuming much more caffeine than anyone ever should but I love it and I am so blessed and thankful for this job.

Aside from working, I’m learning things like how to have a gospel-centered view of the Christian life, learning how and why to spend time alone with God daily, learning how to clearly share the gospel and my personal testimony, growing in fellowship with amazing new friends and learning the value of discipleship as God’s way to reach the World.

Stay tuned for future posts about what I learned in more detail in the next few weeks!

Why did I choose SBP?

As a college student, the options are endless as far as what to do with your summers. In elementary school, I attended Camp Winshape at Berry College every summer and absolutely loved it! Not only did I have a blast at the camp every summer but my younger brother, Will, surrendered his life to Christ during one of his summers at Winshape so the camp means a lot to my family.  It was always a desire of mine to work there so I applied in October of 2012 and wouldn’t find out if I got the job till spring of 2013.

In the mean time, I got involved with Campus Outreach at school. Jes Epting began to disciple me (which is a completely separate story of God’s sovereignty that I’d love to share if you’re interested.) and SBP was something brought up multiple times. I had friends who had been and had an amazing summer and I knew SBP would be an awesome opportunity.  I ended up getting the job at Winshape and literally had 24 hours to decide if I wanted to take the job or if I wanted to do SBP. After 24 hours of prayer, pros/cons lists and receiving wise advice from parents and friends, I chose SBP. While both options were GOOD and I was confident that my walk with the Lord would be challenged at both, SBP was the BEST choice. I need to grow in how to lead college students to Christ during this season of my life. Beach Project was by far the best outlet to accomplish that.

What do we do?

During the day, students are diligently working all over Daytona. We have students at McDonalds, Daytona International Speedway, Steak and Shake, Hollister, and Miller Lite, just to name a few! Nighttime is when we have the “meat” of Beach Project. We have awesome training sessions on prayer, how to study the Bible, evangelism, discipleship groups, and stewardship. Saturdays we get the chance to go out on the beach and share the gospel. Weekends also include socials and group dates. These provide chances for the students on Project to have fun, fellowship and get to build lifelong friendships. Ultimately, Summer Beach Project is a perfect combination of growth in your walk with God and having an absolute blast. 

I know this post was long, but hopefully it provided a little more clarity as to what exactly I’ve been up to the past two months. As of today I have one more week in Daytona and while I’m so sad to be leaving, I’m excited to see my friends and family and begin to apply all God has taught me back on campus! For more info on Campus Outreach or Summer Beach Project, click here or feel free to ask me anything about my experience with them.