Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~After Mission trip: Self Awareness Journey~

Just an FYI this is a long post!

When I got back from summer mission I was a bit overwhelmed and excited to start this self-awareness journey to dig deep into my true identity in Christ, to learn about myself and how I can grow in my relationships with God and others.

I just started googling and looking on Pinterest self-awareness questions and activities and took an entire week really focusing on myself, doing a little self-care and taking myself on dates 🙂

Below are the questions I prayerfully answered throughout the week. To start I would do my daily devotion or read my bible, pray and then answer some of the questions. After I answered them I would go back and pray about what God revealed to me, the lies I had been living and give it all back to God after that I would worship God. It was a hard week, it was a good week and I would recommend it to everyone!

First I looked into vision statements answers questions like the following

• What will your legacy be?
• What will your life look like 20, 15, 10, and 5 years from now?
• What’s your North Star? What are you working to achieve over the long term?

Then I looked into a mission statement answers the following questions:

• What do I do?
• Who do I do it for?
• How do I do it

In addition, you can create a manifesto which I did at the end and is now the picture on my desktop. Ask yourself questions such as the following:

• Dealing with disappointment and hardships.
• Dealing with failures and mistakes.
• Dealing with opportunities and risk-taking.
• Daily interaction with others (waiters, cashiers, neighbors, and so on).
• Choosing your attitude.
• Your general approach toward life.
• How you’ll treat your body.
• How you’ll spend your money.
• How you’ll spend your time.
• What do I stand for?
• What am I willing to die for?
• What are my strongest beliefs?
• How do I want to live my life?
• How do I choose to define myself?
• What changes do I need to make so that I can live my best life?
• What words do I want to live my life by?
• Here are five general guidelines for writing your manifesto:
• Make it uplifting.
• Use strong language (don’t be wishy-washy).
• It can be as short or as long as you like (but don’t make it so long that you can’t read it every day).
• Write it in the present tense.
• Keep it positive.

Here are 204 self-awareness questions and let me tell you these are not easy, I had multiple panic attacks, multiple times when I was thinking oh my gosh I am the worst person in the entire world. But don’t let the enemy feed you lies, keep your eyes on God during this time. God wants to help you grow and dig deep into your heart to root out the sin so he can fill you up with his love and you can start producing good fruit in your life. After I answered all these questions I made a list of the top 6-10 things I wanted to change in my life, the things I would give God to help me grow and weed out of my life. This is a long journey and I am nowhere close to the person I want to be but I know God is with me and transforming my mind and heart to be a better witness of him. Talk to God he is your heavenly father and let him be your friend though it all.

***This is just what I learned and how I used these questions for self-awareness and discovery, every person is different and every person should seek professional counseling, medical help, talk with trusted friends and family, mentors and disciples if you have any thoughts of harm towards yourself or others. These questions take you to the deepest darkest place of your soul and sometimes when we go there those emotions and feelings come to the surface, we stir up the muddy water. ***

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
2. What is your greatest fear?
3. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
4. Which living person do you most admire?
5. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
6. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
7. What is your greatest extravagance?
8. What is your favorite journey?
9. On what occasion do you lie?
10. What do you dislike the most about your appearance?
11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
12. What is your greatest regret?
13. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
14. When and where were you happiest?
15. Which talent would you most like to have?
16. What is your current state of mind?
17. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
18. If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
21. What is your most treasured possession?
22. Where would you like to live?
23. What is your most marked characteristic?
24. What is the quality you most like in a man?
25. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
26. What do you most value in your friends?
27. Who are your heroes in real life?
28. What are your favorite names?
29. What is it that you most dislike?
30. How would you like to die?
31. What is your favorite motto?
32. What do I want?
33. What am I grateful for?
34. What’s missing in my life?
35. Do I see the whole world anew each day?
36. Do I take the time to really listen to what others say?
37. Do I have fun?
38. How can I bring more joy into my life?
39. What do I want more of in my life?
40. What do I want less of in my life?
41. Am I on the lookout for opportunities?
42. Do I seize opportunities?
43. Am I open-minded? Am I flexible?
44. Am I quick to judge others?
45. Do I take calculated risks?
46. Do I give others sincere compliments?
47. Do I appreciate what others do for me?
48. Where do I want to go?
49. Who do I want to meet?
50. What adventures do I want to go on?
51. Do I care too much about what others think of me?
52. Do I take offense too easily?
53. What makes me happy?
54. Do I procrastinate?
55. Do I stand up for myself?
56. Do I hold grudges?
57. Do I constantly dwell on the past?
58. Do I let other people’s negativity affect me?
59. Do I forgive myself?
60. Do I smile often?
61. Do I laugh often?
62. Do I surround myself with positive, life-affirming people who want the best for me
63. Am I a positive, life-affirming person?
64. Am I giving enough time to nurturing/replenishing myself?
65. What do I want to be remembered for at the end of my life?
66. What does success mean to me?
67. How can I add value to the life of others?
68. How can I serve?
69. What can I do better than anyone else?
70. What are my top three strengths?
71. Am I moving in the direction of my dreams?
72. Do I tell others what I really want?
73. What does my ideal day look like?
74. Where do I want to be a year from now?
75. What does my ideal living environment look like?
76. What would I do if I had no fear?
77. What would I do if money were not an object?
78. What excuses am I making?
79. What are you a slave to?
80. Do I enjoy what I do on a daily basis?
81. Am I on the right path?
82. Am I kind to myself?
83. Am I kind to others?
84. Do I take things for granted?
85. Am I doing what matters most right now?
86. Is there an area in my life that needs more attention?
87. Do I make the best use of my time?
88. What can I do right now that would make the biggest difference in my life?
89. What am I avoiding?
90. What am I tolerating/putting up with?
91. Do I have specific, measurable goals with clear deadlines?
92. Do I keep the promises I make to myself?
93. Do I keep the promises I make to others?
94. For my life to be perfect, what would have to change?
95. What am I most looking forward to right now?
96. What activities do I perform that give me the least joy? Do they really need doing? Can I delegate or pay someone else to do them?
97. How can I simplify my life?
98. Do I see myself as a creative person?
99. Do I allow myself to be creative?
100. Can I be spontaneous?
101. Am I too critical of myself?
102. Am I too critical of others?
103. Do I look at problems from several different angles and perspectives?
104. What have I accomplished?
105. What are the major sources of stress in my life?
106. How can I reduce stress in my life?
107. Do I know where my money is going?
108. Do I have a handle on my finances?
109. Do I have a financial plan for the future?
110. Do I know where my time is going?
111. Have I created an efficient time management system for myself?
112. What are the three biggest priorities in my life?
113. Who are the most important people in the world to me?
114. Who loves me? Who cares for me?
115. Are my living and work areas organized in a way that serves me well?
116. Do I have a healthy lifestyle?
117. Am I carrying any emotional baggage?
118. Have I let go of the mistakes I’ve made in the past?
119. Do I give myself permission to fail?
120. Do I learn from my mistakes?
121. Do I rebound quickly when something goes wrong?
122. Do my beliefs serve me well?
123. Do I need to relax the rules I’ve set for myself and for others?
124. What childhood dreams have I been neglecting?
125. Where have I been giving my power over to others? What do I need to do in order to regain my power?
126. Who are my role models?
127. Am I being authentic? Do I allow myself to be me? Am I trying to be somebody I’m not?
128. What is my attitude toward myself, toward other people, toward God, toward my neighbor, and toward my job?
129. Do I think and act positively?
130. Am I tolerant and considerate of other people?
131. Do I honestly respect the rights and opinions of others?
132. Do I interrupt while others are speaking?
133. Do I tell my affairs to everyone I meet?
134. Do I practice the Golden Rule?
135. Do I monopolize the conversation with a big “I” and a little “you”?
136. Am I arrogant and impudent?
137. Am I honest with myself?
138. Am I persistent and progressive, without being offensive?
139. Do I cultivate habits that make me strong physically, mentally and spiritually?
140. Do I have confidence in my ability?
141. Do I dare to think for myself?
142. Do I hesitate, falter, postpone and procrastinate?
143. Do I practice the little acts of courtesy in my daily associations?
144. Am I envious? Am I jealous?
145. My favorite way to spend the day is…
146. If I could talk to my teenage self, the one thing I would say is…
147. The two moments I’ll never forget in my life are… Describe them in great detail, and what makes them so unforgettable.
148. Make a list of 30 things that make you smile.
149. “Write about a moment experienced through your body. making breakfast, going to a party, having a fight, an experience you’ve had or you imagine for your character. Leave out thought and emotion, and let all information be conveyed through the body and senses.”
150. The words I’d like to live by are…
151. I couldn’t imagine living without…
152. When I’m in pain — physical or emotional — the kindest thing I can do for myself is…
153. Make a list of the people in your life who genuinely support you, and who you can genuinely trust. (Then make time to hang out with them.)
154. What does unconditional love look like for you?
155. What would you do if you loved yourself unconditionally? How can you act on these things whether you do or don’t?
156. I really wish others knew this about me…
157. Name what is enough for you.
158. If my body could talk, it would say…
159. Name a compassionate way you’ve supported a friend recently. Then write down how you can do the same for yourself.
160. What do you love about life?
161. What always brings tears to your eyes?
162. “Write about a time when work felt real to you, necessary and satisfying. Paid or unpaid, professional or domestic, physical or mental.”
163. Write about your first love — whether a person, place or thing.
164. Using 10 words, describe yourself…
165. What’s surprised you the most about your life or life in general?
166. What can you learn from your biggest mistakes?
167. I feel most energized when…
168. “Write a list of questions to which you urgently need answers.”
169. Make a list of everything that inspires you — from books to websites to quotes to people to paintings to stores to the stars.
170. What’s one topic you need to learn more about to help you live a more fulfilling life? (Then learn about it.)
171. I feel happiest in my skin when…
172. Make a list of everything you’d like to say no
173. Make a list of everything you’d like to say yes
174. Write the words you need to hear.
175. How do I respond when I don’t get what I want?
176. How do I deal with negative people?
177. How much self-control do I have with things that I know are bad for me, but tend to indulge in?
178. How do I deal with inconvenient life situations?
179. How do I respond to situations that I have no control over?
180. How do I deal with negativity in my environment?
181. How do I deal with challenges in my life?
182. How do I respond when plans change or plans get canceled without my say so?
183. How do I deal with change? New job, new house, new lifestyle, new people, new rules, new technology…do I tend to avoid it, welcome it, fear it, like it, complain about it, stress out about it, worry about it?
184. How do I deal with stressful situations? Do I tend to worry a lot? What else do I do?
185. How do I respond to situations that force me to get out of my comfort zone?
186. How do I deal with rejection?
187. How do I deal with being misperceived or misunderstood?
188. How motivated am I to change my life for the better?
189. How much do I follow through on what I preach and talk about?
190. How do I deal with emotional pain?
191. How do I respond when someone judges me, makes fun of me, or calls me names?
192. How do I respond when I make a mistake or when I fail at something?
193. How do I deal with other people’s mistakes and unpleasant behavior?
194. How do I deal with uncertainty, the unknown or a future event that I have no control over?
195. How do I deal with people who have hurt me in the past?
196. How do I respond to obstacles, hardships, and “bad” things that happen in my life?
197. How do I spend my free time?
198. How do I respond to new ideas and new ways of thinking?
199. How do I respond to someone who is different from me or whose ideas and beliefs I don’t agree with or understand?
200. How do I respond to bad or inconvenient news?
201. How do I deal with violence, hate, and suffering in the world?
202. How do I recharge, rejuvenate, and replenish my energy?
203. How much do I prioritize spending time and energy on myself and on my passions?
204. How fulfilling is my everyday life?

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie

Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~Overall Summary~

The highlights of my summer were evangelism times, trusting God to grow me in the confidence and talking to strangers about him. I learned a lot about God during e times like how much he cares for all his children, the lost and the found. They are all equal in Gods eyes. I saw how much God can speak for you when you have no more words left. I saw the hand of God on my shoulder, in my feet, in my voice all the time, when I prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide me only great things happened for the kingdom of God.

Some of the parts that were challenging were quiet times, being consistent and growing or learning something. I struggle with finishing things or sticking to things (that’s a lie) I have finished so many things. God has put a pull, a longing for him and it’s hard to say no, it’s hard to do something else when a part of my heart is searching for God.

God revealed himself in so many ways this summer, he showed me a lot of my own story and has begun healing parts of that in my life like my emotions, my feelings. I am rediscovering how to handle and express my emotions. I have always been playing situation in my head about what I wish I could be doing and I just need to do them. I just need to express them.

God used many people this summer to help me grow. My discipler challenged me and pushed me in telling my story, being authentic and believing my voice matters. My new friends have helped me grow in loving people and my emotions.

I saw God work through me in the lives of people around me by being intentional with them. Helping them and not expecting anything in return. I confess I did not pour into a lot of coworkers or focus on a few, I had a bad attitude towards Pecos from the beginning and did not change my mindset until close to the end and that’s when I could really see Gods love and compassion work thru me to share those characteristics of God to my coworkers.

God challenged me to take steps of faith this summer by relying on the holy spirit, knowing who he is inside of me and obeying his pushes. Taking steps of faith in praying aloud to groups, praying in general.

The scriptures God used to speak to me: Gossip and lifting others up, saying kind words about each other.

God changed the way I live from this summer by digging into his word daily, praying daily and being intentional with everyone around me. I need to remember and have the desire to read the bible, pray and love people.

Stats- over 700 spiritual conversations, 64 people gave their lives to Christ.

My overall summary: Trusting God with my summer wasn’t enough, he showed me parts of my life that I had not surrendered to him ever before. When I finally gave everything to God that’s when the miracles started happening in those people around me. God worked thru me and everyone else on the summer mission to bring so much glory to his kingdom. There are too many stories to tell but the summary of them all is God has the most magical story for you, the pages are all written out by God but it’s your choices, it’s your attitude, your actions, your feelings and emotions that will determine what pages will be rewritten. Let God be your everything, give God your everything and do everything as you would with God standing right there in front of you, he deserves it all.

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie

Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~Personal Growth~

The first 5 weeks with the staff we had discipleship groups where I had one of the staff ladies and 3 other mission girls in our group. We met weekly and talked and poured into each other and also did some evangelism. During the first week, we took an entire afternoon and did what Cru calls soul to soul, each of got time to share our life story, our struggles, our highs and lows and what we are expecting God to do through us and in our lives. I hadn’t really looked at my entire life story in depth before like we had to do, they expected us to be honest and real with each other and share things no one else knew. That’s when God started showing me a lot of past hurt and pain that I had never processed.

I had brought a book called First Love by Bill Bright a staff member of cru and I started reading that. I knew my walk with God was not as strong as I wanted and had fallen far from my first love. Some things God taught me is that no matter how far I fall from my first love, I can return to him. God always has wide open arms for us to run into during the hard times.  It was overwhelming and I started back down that road if I don’t have time, it is too much, I am too far gone from God no way would he want to fix all this brokenness. It was hard to sit and listen to God show me things I needed to surrender to him like fear, anxiety, hurt, sorrow, relationships, gossip, lies I have been believing to name a few and have him show me all these things I needed to surrender to him because he is the only one that can fix the broken pieces and make them into a masterpiece, we are his creation.

God speaks to me mostly through visions and pictures and during one of my extended times with God he showed me this picture:

1. When your watch breaks or jewelry sometimes we try and fix it by ourselves and usually it makes it worse or it’s a temporary fix. Only when we take it back to the creator, the artist is when it becomes new again. When we are broken we have to go back to our creator to be put back together again.
2. . In the first love book, one of the first chapters was removing boulders from my life and I knew why I was having a hard time connecting to God and having his word take root is because these boulders in my life were taking up so much room that Gods great word had no room to take root. I had felt stuck in my walk with God even though I was not putting much effort into it, I was not growing or producing much fruit.
3. That’s when I remembered the parable about the sower and the seeds how some seeds fell among the road and the birds ate them, some fell in rocks and sprouted and withered away because there was no soil, some seeds fell among thorns and were choked out while others fell in good soil and produced a crop 100 times as great (Luke 8:4-15). I wanted and prayed to have fruit that people could see and know that it had strong roots that nothing could pull those roots out because they would be intertwined and wrapped around the word of God.
4. I knew I had to go back to my first love, go back to the time when I was so excited to go to kids church, when I was so willing to do random chores or help people without thinking I have this to do and that needs to be done, I had to go back to the time when I was 7 years old jumping up and down praising God for giving me mac and cheese and ice cream for dinner and reading my bible and praying every day.

God has removed many of these boulders from my life, I have never felt so much peace and comfort knowing God has control of my life and as I keep surrendering to him every day, giving him all that I have and bringing my focus back on him the glory will always be his. It’s a process and it takes time, boulders are not easy lifting but know that God has so much strength to throw those things out of your life only if you allow him to. He is able and willing, you have to ask yourself if you are able and willing to let God.

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie

 

Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~What I would tell people going on this mission trip~

I had to idea what to expect, I had no idea the experiences and life-changing events that would happen in 10 weeks, I was going into the last summer of “freedom” before going into the real world and working and I honestly wanted to know more about God and meet new people. Those were my only goals for the summer.

Like I said going into the summer was a whirlwind, a lot happened during those last months leading up to leaving to Orlando and I had to trust God more than ever.

Here is a little snid bit into my journal during that time:

“The past 1 ½ has been difficult for me to balance everything with school, studying, clinical and my relationship with God. With that, it was easy for me to make excuses to not dig into my bible every day and my walk with God was almost nonexistent. But somehow I still heard Gods voice in all the studying and working long hours to go on one last mission trip with Cru. Cru has over 50 summer mission trips all over the world. I was drawn to the 3 week Germany trip and applied to that. I was accepted and one of the leaders called me to tell me the dates which were different from the website and I was going to have to miss my college graduation and I did not want to do that. So my next option was the Disney World summer mission. When I looked at it 10 weeks was way too long, I had never been away from home more than 2 weeks by myself and it was all the way across the states, no way! I told myself even though it was Disney, Nope! I pushed the whole mission trip aside and started looking for jobs after I graduated and focused a lot on studying and school. The enemy crept into my mind and started telling me how could I serve God when I haven’t even spent time with him this past year, I am not equipped to go on a mission trip. I need to get back with God before I can go do anything. When I started believing those lies God showed me that this is not my life, this is not my body, my time, my energy. Everything that is within me is his; he bought me with a price and what I’m I giving him back in return. There were no job openings around here and I kept finding myself back on the CRU WDW mission page, I trusted God that this was where I was supposed to be for the summer and applied. I got accepted to the mission trip and kept praying that a job would open around the valley so I could 100% focus on the mission trip and be present there. I passed my registry and was almost fully funded for my mission trip. Shortly after that, I applied for an x-ray position in a nearby town, and the day after graduation I had a job interview with that town hospital and accepted the position to start as soon as I got back from Florida PRAISE GOD!! While all the behind the scenes stuff was happening God was orchestrating my summer and I had no idea how amazing, powerful and fulfilling the summer was going to be.”

Ok so now that you have a little history of my life before the mission trip here is what I would tell the people looking into the 10-week Walt Disney world mission trip, who have applied and who have been accepted:

Rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you, wake up every morning and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you up and know how to listen to him. Pray and never stop praying! Get to know your roommates, get to know other mission trip people. You will know your carpool group pretty fast by going to work every day with them but still pour into each other. For me, I wanted to know everyone and I knew everyone for sure when I left but I being an introvert got to know just a few people at a personal and deeper relationship and I am glad that I found my people. So in that find your people in the mission trip group, they are your family and friends for the entire summer! Find the nurse, find the problem solver, find the listener, find your go-to person, find your people 🙂 On the first day of training pray to have God show you the people he wants you to pour into a little more and obey. Disney is a dark place, a lot of hurt and pain surround the walls and backstage. Be the light and don’t forget to build each other up on the mission trip.

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie

Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~Story Time: Work~

Here are a few stories I wrote down from my 10-week summer mission trip to Orlando Florida with Cru.

Ever since I got here people have been talking about Waffle House and I got the opportunity to go after work one night with my carpool group and some other Pecos Bill crew and I believe that will be my first and last time at that Waffle House. It was an experience when you get 10 college-aged, sleep deprived hungry people in one place. It is time I won’t forget! (I still like Waffle House even though there were knives and food on the floor at the first waffle house I went to)

Training has been hard at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. My group started the first day on the 3^rd day of training so we started at the counter. Pecos Bill is the 3^rd busiest quick service restaurant in the world and I felt it as soon as I stepped behind the counter! I have never worked in food service before and it was an eye-opening experience. Our trainer was super helpful and gave us a lot of tips and tricks. The second day of training was the dinning room and our trainer was amazing! We watched the 3 o clock parade and the fireworks we also went backstage and toured around Frontierland.

The best memory I have at work is taking the lost and found to main street while it was pouring rain and coming back thru jungle cruise backstage and being scared by the lion roar with one of my friends. I don’t know why we thought a real lion was back there but we were both scared for our lives and started running!

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie

Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~Story Time: Magic Kingdom~

Here are a few stories I wrote down from my 10-week summer mission trip to Orlando Florida with Cru!

I worked at the Magic Kingdom in quick service so I was there almost every day and somehow when I had my off days I was back in the Magic Kingdom 🙂

My favorite memory at magic kingdom was getting no strings attached fast passes from cosmic rays and meeting up with mission trip people after they got off work to watch the fireworks and then steaking them onto the 7 dwarfs mine train :0

Haunted mansion with one of my friends and being scared the entire time, because we got the coffin that hits every scare time precisely!

Going on splash mountain after work in our costumes because we closed fast and it was some of the cast members last day.

Space mountain is the indoor dark rollercoaster and I took my friend on it for the first time and she screamed the entire time, like terrified scream and I was laughing the entire time barely getting enough oxygen but I will never forget that!

Just the other day we went to Magic Kingdom to see our friends working and we played sorceress which is pretty fun and exciting! I am looking forward to playing that on my days off. I also made reservations at the Plaza to watch the fireworks and have bottomless milkshakes but we did not get a table until after fireworks. But 5 of us girls downed 14 milkshakes and we had the best experience at the Plaza with our waiter John.

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie

Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~Story Time: Epcot~

Here are a few stories from my 10-week summer mission trip to Orlando Florida with Cru.

Epcot was the park I went to the most outside of work because we did a lot of activities there because of the world showcase. Some of those activities I can’t write about because that would ruin the moving concepts behind them but let me tell you just trust the leadership and go in with an open mind!

My favorite memories at Epcot was a random act of kindness day we did on our Wednesday outreach day. We wrote cards and letters and then split up into each park to hand out these cards to fellow cast members. The smiles and expression of pure joy was the best feeling ever to make someone’s day. After we handed out cards, one of my friends from the mission trip and I stayed back and rode some rides.

My other favorite memory and I think this is a top highlight of the summer was 4th of July, we had a mid-summer banquet and said goodbye to staff as they went back to their homes and campuses and put student leadership in charge. My roommates and I headed to Epcot after the banquet to watch the fireworks at Epcot! It was such a fun time being with my sisters of Christ and celebrating America!

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie

Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~Story Time: Hollywood Studios~

Here are a few stories I wrote down during my 10-week summer mission trip to Orlando Florida with Cru.

My favorite Memory at Hollywood Studios was ridding rock n roller coaster with my roommate for the first time and some mission trip girls and coworkers that we had been hanging out with all day. We went again and then watched Fantasmic. It was such a great day again just meeting new people and hearing their stories. These park days were also great times to learn more about the other mission trip students which were always awesome times.

The first time I rode Tower of Terrible AKA Tower of Terror, I did not like that ride one bit I was with other mission trip people and I was honestly scared out of my mind! I don’t like heights, I don’t like dropping/falling but I knew I had to do it once. I would probably go on it again with new people just to experience it with them but going on it will never be my idea. After spending some time at Hollywood I got a Mickey pretzel and churro and watched Fantasmic!

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie

Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~Story Time: Animal Kingdom~

Just a few stories I wrote down about Animal Kingdom during my 10-week mission trip to Orlando Florida with Cru.

As a cast member, you do get free entry into the parks and we used that opportunity to explore Disney World as well as take co-workers to the parks on their off days or meet up with them to learn more about them. It’s really the easiest way to have fun and invite coworkers.

I went to Animal Kingdom and rode Pandora- Flight of Passage and let me tell you…WOW! What an amazing ride, I have never seen Avatar but it was such a beautiful and unique ride. We also rode Mt Everest a few times and the Dinosaur ride. I remember the Dino rode when we went in 2003 and I was trying to recreate the image from that time but failed.

One day we met up with some coworkers and had some fun with them, we rode almost all the rides and went to the Finding Nemo production and It’s tough to be a bug. For me, these park days with coworkers deepened our relationship with each other and allowed us to work better and eventually started spiritual conversations. These days I had the mindset of serving others which we should have that mindset every day but being more intentional and asking questions to learn more about them.

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie

 

Walt Disney World Cru Summer Mission 2018 ~Story Time: Evangelism~

On the mission trip, we have different teams we are part of; I am part of my discipleship group which has 4 of us girls and a leader in that group I have my prayer and share partner. Another team is our bible study that is about 10ish people that includes my discipleship group and two other discipleship groups. This summer we are going through the book of James and learning how to be intentional with people, loving them well and trusting God for his plans on our life. The other team is our ministry teams which are broken down into 5 groups; CO-OP, Community, Prayer, Evangelism and World Vision Team. I am part of the evangelism team where we plan events of evangelism for the group each week to participate in. I am super excited to be a part of the evangelism team because I love listening to peoples stories and getting to know new people.

(Names have been changed or shortened for confidential purposes)

H- We went to Lake Eola to evangelism one Saturday. Lake Eola is in downtown Orlando and is just a couple blocks away from the gay night club shooting that happened here in Orlando recently. Lake Eola is also one of the spots that have a large number of homeless people. I was excited to go and spread love to those that needed Jesus in their lives. I went with a group of 3 all of us girls. We got rejected a lot and then when we were heading back to our car a gentleman sitting on the side of the lake stood out to me. We walked past him and then I told the girls we should go and talk to him. I started the conversation, Holy spirit leading and after we introduced ourselves he just started talking about his life, his struggles, and his spiritual background. We barely asked any questions. I have seen God work in mighty ways when I have had my mind set on God going into these evangelism outings. H had some sores all over his body and he was on the list to get some papers so he could go see a dermatologist. He is homeless and sleeps around downtown Orlando, he works 3 days a week as a custodian for a college. H is a Christian and walks with the Lord which was encouraging because he was still joyful even though he was frustrated and worried about his sores. We all laid hands on H and prayed for healing, comfort, and wisdom for the doctors. I went back and gave him my number and a knowing God personally booklet. A couple weeks passed, and Harold texted me great news, some of his spots had gone away and he had an appointment in the next week to see a dermatologist for the remaining sores. Praise God!!

O- Just this past weekend for evangelism time we went to a local outlet mall and talked with a vendor from Venuswala. She talked about how just her mom and her are here in Orlando and the rest of her family are stuck back in Venswula because one of her brothers are in the process of getting a VISA. She told us about the conditions of starvation because the government is storing away food and not giving it out and how there is no freedom, they live in fear every day. She spoke about how she was involved in the Church in Miami but could not find a close enough church where she lives now. I asked her who Jesus is to her and she explained that she believed in God and herself she did not know of the Trinity or the gospel even from going to a church just a few miles away. I have reached out to her but no response. I will continue to pray that God works in her heart and someone will come into her life to share the truth of the gospel with her.

Nut lady- My discipleship group went to a small amusement park to share the gospel and I went with two other girls. We got rejected many times before we went up to a vendor selling candied nuts and asked her some questions about her life. She spoke about Christ and her family. She is a believer and we prayed for her family, the salvation of her son and the health of her family. After we prayed for her she gave us some candied nuts.

G- We went to the outlet malls and met with an Italian woman who works at Epcot in the wine stand at the Italy pavilion. The other mission girl I was with initiated the conversation and went through the quest survey and our Knowing God personally booklet with her. G wanted to know God or had a hope she could have the life we were telling her about. We prayed the salvation prayer with her and she said she would like that prayer to be her life but was still not sure and had a lot of questions. The main question she had was how we could serve a God that is supposed to be loving and good but there are so much hate and evil in the world. I explained to her that God loves his children, he loves every person on this world because they are all created in his image, but the enemy entered their life, they believed the lies of the devil and went on the path of destruction, hate and evil. God is waiting for those people to turn back to him but the enemy rules the world.

Lake Eola- One of the guys from the mission trip and I talked to stop with a gentleman sitting on a bench. We asked him how he was and if we could go over the quest questions with him, he agreed. The first question was to describe your life currently and he said bad, very bad. I asked why, and he explained that he had broken some ribs a few weeks ago. There was a language barrier as he was from Puerto Rico. I asked him about his family and he said they were still all over in Puerto Rico and he has been in Orlando for 15 years he was coming to the states to work construction and a better life. He was still smiling despite the fact his life was not going in the path he would want it to. I asked if he had a spiritual background or attended church and he said yes, he goes to church. I then asked him about what he believed in and what he thought happened after death and he did not know. At that point, I pulled out the KGP and went through that cru tool with him. He asked how we can believe in God when he is not here, and we explained about faith and what the bible says about God. At one point the gentleman told us about a dream he had a while ago; he said he was drowning in sink sand, just his head was barely above, and he was sinking fast. He called out and said, “Save me Jesus” and he remembered a man in bright white robe pulling him out of the sinking sand. He asked us if that was real, can God talk to him like that without ever seeing him in real life. I explained that it was, in fact, real and God is always there to pull us out of the situations we put ourselves into because we stray off the path God had intended for us. It was such a great conversation and he thanked us and told us he will never forget the words we told him that day.

N-  One night after work we took home one of our coworkers to Disney housing. N is from Thailand and we had a great conversation about her family, her home and her future. One question I asked her was how she was doing, and she stopped for a second and said that was the first time someone has asked me since I have been here. God works in such mysterious ways, a little/simple question can change someone’s perspective of you and your culture. I also asked her about her family and she also said that was the first time someone has asked her that. Caring for each other, asking them how they are and being involved in each other lives. Too many people pass your path and you don’t talk to them, maybe you smile and that’s great but complementing them, encouraging them and lifting each other up is what the bible tells us to do.

“See you all real soon”

-Jackie