OCSP13 here I come!!

It's finally time! I leave for Ocean City in 8 hours!! I can hardly believe it is already here! I am so excited to see what God does this summer! Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this a reality! God truly is amazing, and I can't wait to get to know Him more this summer!! 

I am so excited to go to Ocean City with my best friend, Aubrey!! I can't wait to grow with her and come back to Sac State in the fall even more excited to do ministry on our campus. 

I told some of you I would post my Ocean City address before I left, so here it is: 

1301 Central Ave. 

Ocean City, NJ 08226

I would love for any of you to send me encouragement throughout the summer. 

Here it goes!!!! Please keep me and everyone else in Ocean City in your prayers. 

Bye Bye Cru Girls House

This last year I was so incredibly blessed to be able to live in the Cru Girl's House. I will never forget this past year. God has grown me so much by allowing me to live with such beautiful, God-fearing women. There were 7 of us, and it was truly incredible. It is hard to put words to. I came out of living with these women a better person. They each poured into me, taught me, encouraged me, supported me, helped me, inspired me, and loved me. We weren't just 7 girls living with each other; we were a family. We loved hanging out with each other. We didn't fight. We pushed each other closer to God. We held each other accountable. We listened to each other. We cared for each other. We encouraged each other. We loved each other. If only I could put words to this last year.

All of us girls at the Root Beer Kegger in August

Beautiful Ladies

Sac State Cru Girl's House 2012-2013

Sac State Cru Guys and Girls Houses 2012-2013

We celebrated each of our birthdays from 12am to 11:59pm. 

Pumpkin time in our dining room

We loved having friends over to play fun games like Assassins. Such a fun night!

Our Christmas Card

Celebrating Christmas with each other

All of us but 1 at Winter Conference New Year's Dance

I am going to miss studying with everyone in the dining room

Aubrey looking super fine doing yard work

Definitely had a lot of baking going on

I will miss coming home to a constant community and friends I can tell anything to.

Elvira finally came around to liking Remi. It's a BIG DEAL!

Fun times during Melissa's Bday Party

Melissa's Bday

Car rides!

I will definitely miss hanging out on the roof

I will miss having a roommate who enjoys making you take silly old school photos.

I love these two girls

One of the biggest blessings from living in the Cru Girls House was getting to know Aubrey more and becoming best friends. I will miss living with her so much!

I seriously had the best year living with these 6 lovely ladies. God richly blessed me through the Cru Girls House. As sad as leaving the house is, I can't wait to see what God does through next year's Cru Girls House. 

8% left to raise!!

5 days until OCEAN CITY SUMMER PROJECT 2013!! Can you tell I am excited?!?! The staff are already there preparing, and I am so excited! God is amazing and faithful! I have $308 left to raise! I would love to be 100% supported before I leave for project, and I think God might make it happen! Please be praying for my summer in Ocean City and what God is going to do there! I can't wait to keep all of you updated throughout the entire summer!

While there is only 5 days left until OCSP13, I still have one more final and more paper. I hope I can be all done with school tomorrow at 2:45pm! I then have an incredibly busy weekend full of moving, cleaning, graduations, graduation parties, a wedding, family dinners, shopping, and packing. And after that busy weekend, I take off for Ocean City with my best friend Aubrey bright and early Tuesday morning. I literally cannot wait!

Please Grow Me

Ocean City is coming up incredibly fast. Only 8 more days! I am beyond excited! I seriously cannot wait to see what God does this summer in Ocean City, NJ! I have been preparing my heart for this summer by spending lots of time in the Word and in prayer. I am excited to see how much my relationship with God grows this summer and to experience my faith being stretched.

In the last few months, I have been praying about what God wants me to work on this summer. About a week ago, my friend Aubrey told one of our Cru staff members, Christina, that she wanted to fall in love with Jesus this summer. WHOA!! I was blown away by that powerful statement! It made me start thinking even more about what God wanted me to work on this summer. I started intensely praying about it, and God supplied an answer!

I am going to be extremely honest. I am scared of dying. I think a lot of people are. They are scared of the unknown, but we rarely talk about it. I hate that I am scared of death! I love Jesus with my whole heart, and I know He commands believers to not be scared of death. I have assurance in my faith, and the fact is that I know, to a certain extent, what awaits me after I die. I am tired of being scared of something I shouldn't be scared of. I am tired of thinking so much about me. I WANT TO LONG TO SEE MY SAVIOR!! I want to be pained by the fact that I have to wait to see my Lord face to face until I die. I want to passionately tell others about the assurance they can also have by asking Jesus to be in control of their lives! That is what I am going to work on this summer. I am going to work on falling more in love with Jesus, longing to see Him, understanding the importance to always share your faith, and to stop fearing death!! Because of Jesus, death has no hold on me!

God is continually working in my life, and I am so grateful. Currently, I am $400 away from being fully supported for Ocean City Summer Project 2013. If you can in any way help me reach my final goal. Please email me by clicking here or support me online by clicking here. If you would like to know more about what I am doing this summer and/or how you can help, please email me or call me. I would love to talk to you!! I leave in 8 days, and I am trusting that God will provide the funds. Praise the Lord for everyone who has already supported me and $3,350 that has already come in!!

Why OCSP13?

So here's the thing, last summer I had no idea I would be where I currently am today. What?!?! Yeah, it's true. Last summer I went to Germany for half the summer to spend time with my sister and her family. I absolutely loved it over there and was amazed at how much I loved living in another part of the world and loved learning about the culture. I already thought this would be true because I felt the exact same way during the vision trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina I got to be a part of last spring. Imagine me coming back from the summer, loving life, loving traveling, loving adventure, knowing God has called me to full time ministry/missions, and wondering where I should go the next summer for summer project with Cru. Of course I came back thinking INTERNATIONAL! It makes sense right? I could have a mini view of what living in another country as a missionary would look like. I came back from my summer pumped for my next summer abroad, but God had different plans.

Immediately after I got back from Germany, I started doing ministry on my campus (Sac State). It was amazing. My passion for the lost at Sac State was huge. I couldn't believe how much I was enjoying doing follow ups with several girls and launching the Bible study I was blessed to lead this year. I started seeing the huge need at Sac State, and I realized I needed to pray about where God wanted me to go for summer project. I started praying intently about it, and I felt like He was saying no about going international. I was so bummed! I seriously sat there saying "Seriously God! Why?" I didn't understand why I couldn't go; why I didn't feel a release to apply to go international. All I kept hearing was Him saying, "Laura look at the need here, I want you to learn to have a passion for the lost amongst your peers." OH! Dang that got to me. You see I do have a passion for the lost, and I have lived my life always having a personal ministry. But sometimes, we all need to be revamped.

I began to ask God where He would want me to go. Sometimes I am a little selfish, and I kept saying, "God where do you want me to go? I know you want me to stay stateside, but I really don't want to go to Santa Monica. I know my friends just had an amazing summer there, but for some reason, I just don't want to go there." I kept asking God where He wanted me to go, but I didn't hear anything. So I waited.

A little while later, I took my friend out for her birthday dinner, and I told her about how I was feeling called to go on a stateside summer project, but I didn't know where to go. I didn't feel called to go to Santa Monica. She very excitedly started suggesting Ocean City, NJ. Immediately I was all OH YEAH!!! I had heard about her Ocean City Summer Project experience the previous year, and I completely forgot about how excited I was when I had heard hers and the other students who went's stories. It was in this moment when everything became very clear. I was stoked about a stateside project, FINALLY! I wanted to go to Ocean City, NJ, and when I prayed about it, God did not say No. In fact, I believe this was and is exactly where He wanted me to go. I just had to wait for Him to show me where He wanted  me to go in His timing, not mine.

God has been proving to me that He did/does want me to go to Ocean City this summer. First off, I was accepted to OCSP13. Second, He is supplying the money to get me there. Third, He has already set up two job interviews for me when I get over there! I AM SO EXCITED!! All I have heard is how amazing summer projects are, and I can't wait to experience my very first one. I am praying for God to change me this summer and to break my heart for the lost. I am preparing myself every day by digging into His Word and praying for this coming summer, for everyone going on the project. I am praying for God to do big things, and I trust that He will. Please pray with me that God will change lives while the team I am going with and I are over there. Please pray for everyone to be able to raise the money needed to get us there. I/We serve an amazing God, who is always faithful. I can't wait to see what He does this summer to bring His name glory!!! HE>i. John3:30 "He must increase, but I must decrease." Please be praying that verse for me and the OCSP13 team this summer. God deserves all the glory.

Kingdom Vision

The last couple of weeks have been amazing. My health has been restored; my grandparent's "dog car" (nicknamed "the boat" by my friends) that I am currently driving hasn't given me any trouble; and school and work are finishing up. 

About a month ago, I started praying for God to somehow provide me with a car until I can financially afford one or for Him to provide me with the means for getting a safe, reliable car. One thing I have always been confident in is that God answers prayers, and He takes care of His children. God answered this prayer swiftly! I am so amazed and thankful! Without my knowledge, my dad found a car for me and bought it this last week. He and my brother will be working on it this summer while I am gone, and if all goes well, I should have a new car when I return from Ocean City! I am so incredibly thankful and excited to hopefully have a reliable car!

I am getting really excited about my summer. I find myself thinking and praying about it constantly. I just have a feeling that it is going to be the best summer of my life and that God is going to do some amazing things.

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to one of my good friends who went to Ocean City Summer Project in 2011. She read me some parts of her journal from her summer, and it made me even more excited about going on project. Especially when she told me the stats from her project. They had 6,326 spiritual conversation, 3,096 Gospel presentations, and 394 people accepted Christ as their personal Savior!!! WOW!! (click here to read more about her summer in Ocean City) When I heard those numbers, I realized even more how much God uses this project and how excited I am to be used by Him. God has called those of us who profess to be His children to not stay quiet about our faith, and I can't wait to learn even more about how to live a life where I am constantly thinking about eternity rather than things of this world and sharing what I know to be true with others.

Last weekend I had so much fun. My friend Aubrey, who is going to Ocean City with me, and I went to Chico to meet the students from Chico State who are going to Ocean CIty this summer. We had a blast, and we got to see a glimpse of what God is doing at Chico State through Cru.

Aubrey and I left Chico on Saturday in order to get back to Sacramento in time for Cru at Sac State's Vision Dinner. The dinner celebrated Cru at Sac State's 45th anniversary. Bill Hansel, who started Cru at Sac State 45 years ago, was the main speaker. It was so awesome to hear him talk about the past and what God has been doing at Sac State for the past 45 years. There were also student testimonies as well as updates on what God has been doing through Cru at Sac State in this last year. On top of all that, I was so blessed to be able to talk to Cru at Sac State alumni from over 30 years ago. So many of them have incredible stories. One lady was led to Christ through Cru (Crusade) while she attended Sac State over 40 years ago, and after she graduated college, she joined staff with Crusade and did college ministry for 14 years. She is now in full time ministry through her church. How amazing is that!! It was definitely an amazing and inspiring night.

My mom and grandpa came to the Vision Dinner

The guy who helped start Cru at Sac State, Bill Hansel

Jon, me, James, and Sarah each shared what God is doing in our lives currently and how Cru at Sac State impacted our ministries.

After hearing about my friends experience in Ocean City, seeing God at work through Chico State's Cru, and hearing everything God has been doing through Cru at Sac State, I was so encouraged and excited about continuing with ministry through Cru. I can't wait for this summer in Ocean City, and I am so excited that God has called me to join staff with Cru after I graduate in December!

So where am I at in raising support for Ocean City? God has definitely been providing. I have raised approximately $2,861 of my $3,700 goal. I am trusting that God will provide the rest in His timing. I am so grateful for everyone who has partnered with me either financially or prayerfully. I can't wait to tell you all about what He does this summer. 22 more days!!

If you would like to partner with me financially/prayerfully, click here to give online or email me at laurathorpe@live.com for more information.