Beach Blessing

This past weekend, I made a little surprise visit down to Ft. Walton Beach/Destin to see all of my friends at Summer Beach Project.  In case you are unfamiliar with SBP, it a group of college students with Campus Outreach who spend all summer living and working at the beach while doing evangelism training and really learning how to live and disciple as Christ did.  A lot of my closest friends from Berry went this summer so I couldn't help but take a quick weekend trip!!

It was such a blessing to see all my Berry friends and made me really miss college!  I kept it a secret from Rebecca even though she begged me to tell her when I was coming.  It worked out perfectly though and she loved the surprise!  I got to spend a lot of time with her, catch up with Alesa Hammaker (one of my Winshape friends who I love dearly), and hang out with almost all of the Dana Boys!  Several have graduated and I will likely not see them again for a while and the rest are still at Berry so I will get to see them when I visit next year.

I left Mississippi right after we got done with school on Friday (so like around 4:30) and got to Destin around 11pm.  They definitely don’t go to bed early at project so I hung out and met some of Rebecca's co-workers Friday night.  Slept in for a while on Saturday and then went to breakfast with Rebecca, Will, and Ben at IHOP.  Spent part of the afternoon on the beach with Rebecca and Alesa before they had to go to work.  After they left for work, I drove to Niceville to visit with Michael, Dana, and Sadie (sweet friends and former youth pastor) for a little while.  It's been over a year and a half since I have seen them and it was so good to catch up!  I worked on some lesson plans before going to dinner with a whole slew of the Dana boys at Joe's Crab Shack, where Rebecca works.  It was really neat to see the impact they are having in Destin this summer and how the Lord is growing and using them for his glory.  We hung out until late into the night again but managed to get up in time for Sunday School and church.  All of the Berry people go to the same church for the summer and they do their own Sunday school meeting.  After church, Rebecca, Alesa, and I got lunch at Tropical Smoothie and then I headed back to Mississippi around 1pm.

It was definitely hard to leave but I also had some work to do for Monday.  I made it back to Delta State around 8 and went straight to the copy center.  Finished my lesson plans and got in bed around 10.   I was so tired from this weekend but it was SOOOO worth it!  My trip made me so thankful for the relationships I had in college and the influence they had on my life.  I didn’t take any pictures unfortunately but my next update will be about the Fourth of July in Hazlehurst so look for some pictures with my next post!