01 Jul SummerLINK Myrtle Beach: Seminary Week
Summer LINK Myrtle Beach continues to be grown through the intentional discipleship of Ryan Heard and Corey Dickinson. The ongoing display of their selfless considerations of the group have not only had the chance to impact us this week, but the entire summer link crew. It was a great pleasure for us to have the opportunity to host not only the Summer LINK participants from 8 locations but also the Generation LINK residents as well.
This week was slightly different from our previous weeks in the fact that Generation LINK residents were able to attend a masters level Seminary class on Missions at our very own Cornerstone Church. This class was not only for those taking it for credit; in fact, the other 100 of us Summer LINK participants were privileged to sit through the last 15 hours of class. For the Summer LINK Myrtle Beach students, having Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off was a great reprieve from our normal 40 hour work schedule. This missions class was taught by Dr. John H. Ewart, who is the Associate Vice President for Global Theological Initiatives. This man was an encouragement to all of us, showing the benefits of prayer over and over again, and really expounding on how powerful this simple tool is in our faith. He did his best to show us many critical things for us to pray for as missionaries, (forgiveness, each other, thankfulness, worshiping the Lord, future followers of Christ, our harvest, to glorify His name, obedience, boldness, and accepting hearts) explaining that through Him alone can a man be saved.
Through our studies, it became clear to us that the mission is not only limited to our trips, but really reaching the lost everywhere and seeking opportunities to share the gospel at all times. Dr. Ewart dove deep into the word with us as he shared countless testimonies of his previous international missions, really setting our hearts on fire. On Thursday, our group split up and went on to share the gospel in 5 different locations, and the Holy Spirit brought a 19 year old girl to Himself (praise the Lord). We thank you for your continual prayers as it is hitting home with many of us in Myrtle Beach we only have 5 weeks left to turn up the heat on our co-workers and many friends we have made. We have been re-focused through seminary week that our prime directive here is to spread the gospel as much as possible and pray that the Lord will save lives.
Through the group we have been blessed by truly knowing and testifying to our unity in Christ; as a team, as part of Cornerstone Church, and even as other believers find us and join our worship time regularly. Our group has been the answer to a prayer of a fellow sister in Christ who was desperately searching for others to worship with. The Lord brought Paige Boggess to us as we were praying for our outreach on thursday afternoon. With her trusting in the Spirit she went out on mission with our group as we shared the gospel that night. Paige has been an encouragement to us all by testifying to how the Lord has provided for her as she has been stepping out on faith.
On Sunday the 24th of June, a sermon on how we can please God was brought to us by Wes Fondren, a member/elder at Cornerstone Baptist. He convicted many as he gave us the truth on giving to the Lord, and how this is pleasing to God. He made it clear that having nothing to do with our salvation our hearts should be wanting to please Him all the time, not only giving money to the church through tithing but to insure that we are submitting to the Lord in every aspect of our lives.
Our home night this week, on Tuesday the 26th, was at Wendy and Fred Pauly?s house again. They have set a wonderful example how to display Christian hospitality. They fed us once again, switching up for some great Mexican enchiladas with some homemade guacamole and salsa. Their kids (Adam, Anderson, and Andrew) are also a joy to the team, and for us all it is nice to play and rest our minds. The Pauly?s also gave their input as our group discussed chapter two of Dietrich Bonhoeffer?s Life Together. Chapter two is entitled ?The Day with Others? and is by far the longest chapter. In this chapter we are given guidelines as to what true time with others should replicate in the presence of the Lord. He gives us ?The Secret of the Psalter? and explains that the prayers Jesus prayed as a man on earth still resonate through us as we have the Holy Spirit. He tried to make known how God?s Word (The Psalms) still praises Him as we also pray the same prayers not from our person, but as the Spirit of the man Jesus Christ who is in us.
?But in so far as Christ is in us, the Christ who took all the vengeance of God upon him-self, who met God?s vengeance in our stead, who thus-stricken by the wrath of God-and in no other way, could forgive his enemies, who himself suffered the wrath that his enemies might go free-we, too, as members of this Jesus Christ, can pray these psalms, through Jesus Christ, from the heart of Jesus Christ.?
This profound thought is a great example of how omnipresent our Lord is, and shows us as a group how much our lives are together in Christ. Bonhoeffer went on to tell us how we should: read the scriptures, sing, pray, eat, work, and spend our afternoons and evenings together. Setting up what we should strive to achieve as a group in close community, day by day. As we go forth we all know that our hearts are in the right place with God, and we are on the same page, unified, pushing to reach the closest bond possible in these last 5 weeks. In saying that, we all realize that reaching the depths of our community will never happen without our great Lord! This chapter gave us great conversation at the Pauly?s house, and we thank them for being such hosts of the Lord.
On Saturday the 29th our group of 10 went on to the Waccamaw River for some kayaking. We enjoyed ourselves for 4 hours exploring through some swampy waters. The highlight was finding an old rotating train trestle that was perfect for jumping off, cooling ourselves off in the rich black waters. This served as the perfect relaxing of our minds, getting into nature and exploring the beauty of the Lord that we had been learning of all week. We escaped some great thunderstorms and were back at the Sea Mist for a short while. We finally ended our night watching Despicable Me at Mackenzie Morgan?s condo in North Myrtle, enjoying some cheese cake.
by Logan Pierce