Greetings!
It's not surprising that college students would spend their Saturday at the beach, but when college students volunteer to spend 8 hours of their Saturday at the beach talking to strangers about God, well, that's an entirely different thing.  | |
Ollie at the beach before witnessing
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15 CSP mentors from Biola headed to Huntington Beach a couple Saturdays ago to do just that. As CSP cluster leader Ollie explained, "We wanted to combine a challenging spiritual atmosphere that also had elements of physical fatigue to it. Normally, we only go for one hour, so we don't often get to have more than one long conversation at a time. But this gave us the opportunity to have many conversations." The group split up into pairs and spread out over the beach sharing the gospel. They talked to a range of people from young atheists to a middle-aged immigrant from Israel. In one conversation, CSP mentors Betsy and Ariel were able to clear up misconceptions an atheist had about Christianity. In another, they came across other Christians in the process of decided whether to share their own faith. After hearing the mentors' encouragement, the other Christians walked over to share the gospel with a homeless person.  | |
Mentors sharing the gospel with kids at the beach
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While the campus mentors had many fruitful gospel conversations, they definitely had their fill of difficult ones. After witnessing weekly to high school students, they learned that it is a lot more difficult to talk with adults who are more set in their beliefs. They were reminded to trust the Holy Spirit to work in peoples' lives. As Ollie reflected, "It was a rough day, for sure, but I guess it's a wakeup call to what's out there in the world. We need to answer the call and step up and continue to be bold witnesses."  | |
Mentors praying for God's help in reaching people
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Betsy shared what she learned from the day: "It was a humbling experience. Lately, I've felt that I've got the whole 'sharing the gospel thing' down from my experience talking to high schoolers, but today I realized that I don't have any amazing power.
It's always been the work of the Holy Spirit." Sometimes it takes a long, hard day to remind us to rely on the Lord. "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." II Corinthians 12:9
Pray With Us
- Pray that God will water the seeds that were planted during the witnessing day.
- Pray for a strong finish for the ministry and outreaches over the semester.
Thank you again for partnering with us in prayer!
- The California School Project
www.californiaschoolproject.com | 
