Venice Beach and Such

So it's day four here in Pasadena, and what an interesting four days it has been. 

You are already up to date on days one and two, so allow me to let you know about day 3, probably the most interesting one so far. 

So, yesterday was Saturday and in the morning we had some evangelism training. We learned the bridge illustration using Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Let me know if you're not familiar, perhaps I'll show it to you sometime)

The illustration itselfi isn't very hard, the hard part is getting the guts to actually use it. 

But the IT Project, in their infinite wisdom, allowed us with just such and opportunity. 

How sweet of them!

Yesterday after lunch, we all loaded up in the vans and headed down to Venice Beach. 

The beach was interesting enough without the 40 Christians passing out Bible tracts there, but I guess it doesn't hurt to mix it up a little. 

We were put in pairs and told to go out. We would walk up and introduce ourselves and then tell them that we were with a group of college students studying world religions, and then ask if we could get their opinion on this illustration about the Bible. 

My partner and I asked a total of four people if we could talk to them and only one said no. So we were able to share the illustration with 3 different women, Rebecca, Lindsay and Theresa. Surprisingly, Rebecca and Theresa were both Believers. Both were both very gracious and let us stumble through the presentation anyway. We were able to have some really unique and interesting converstaions with each of them! Lindsay was not a Believer, but was still very gracious and seemed somewhat interested. 

It was a tiring and challenging day. I have come to the conclusion that the approach is the hardest part, but that I also don't really like evangelism like this. Mostly, because I don't know how much I would want some stranger coming up and talking to me while I was relaxing at the beach. 

But it was still a good day, it was good practice for me and a good way to get out of my comfort zone.

Last night we had our first session of training in the Inductive Bible Study Method. Oh my gosh, I'M SO EXCITED! I can't wait to get started doing this! It's basically like studying and analyzing literature, which I love! We will be going through Philippians using this method and I can't wait! 

Today is sort of our day off! We have home church this morning with just the project members and staff. This afternoon we have free to just do whatever, which will be nice! This evening we're having project dinner! 

So it should be a pretty nice and relaxing day!