Summer LINK Clemson: Living Life Together

Holding down the fort here in Clemson! Our team had a great time of learning through the word and bonding with each other last week in Myrtle Beach. You can read Shelby's blog below about our time there. Since we arrived back in Clemson last Saturday, we have had a full, but fun week!

For me, this week has been the first "normal" week of Summer Link activities in Clemson. I was taking a class the first part of the summer, the week after my class ended I had the opportunity to go to Summersalt with the Crosspoint youth, the week after that was Myrtle Beach, and now here I am!

As most of the other summer link teams were sent off to their locations this past week, I had the privilege of helping drive the India team to the Atlanta airport on Tuesday. Tuesday night was a fun time as we all got to be a part of Sammi's surprise birthday party!

(Who knew a few balloons could be entertainment for hours?)

Yesterday for July 4th, Sean and Alex had the team over to their home for a cookout.

(the girls, minus Shelby and myself)

Tonight, we embraced the rain and went to all 9 innings of the Greenville Drive baseball game! They won (all because of us, of course)! We saw a beautiful firework show afterward!

(showing our support for the Greenville Drive...and America!)

As for my personal growth so far this summer, the most important thing I have learned is how to be a witness for Christ in the same town I live in. Before, I have always gone far away on missions, but it has been cool to serve the community through Crosspoint. It is such a sweet time to be saturated with the Word and live our daily lives together with the team. I have loved being poured into by my discipler, Mary Emily.

(Mary Emily and I catching a quick nap in Myrtle Beach)

This summer, I have grown to have a longing and thirst for the Word that I do not think I have ever had before. Christ is clearly working in my heart and changing me.
Psalm 42:1-2
"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God?"
I am excited about what God has already started to do, and I'm excited to see what He has yet to do (in myself and our team) during the rest of the summer! Thank you for your prayers.

By: Kaitlyn Odom

SummerLINK Boston: A Small Recap

Hello from Boston! I am going to try to do my best to give a small recap of everything that has been going on since we have arrived in Boston. I’m still trying to process all of the amazing things we have gotten to do so far so bear with me if it's a little long!

            

We arrived to Boston late Saturday night and were able to make it to Redemption Hill Church on Sunday morning. RHC is only about 2 years old and God has blessed them with growth in those past two years. This past Sunday we had the opportunity to meet a lot of people from the church and see how the church operates. The team behind this church is made up of some amazing people who have truly devoted their life to living out God’s calling. It has been incredible to see the way RHC is received and the reputation they have in the community of Medford (suburb of Boston where we are staying and where the church is located). RHC has made it a goal to love and serve the community of Medford in a way that points them to the Gospel. I am so blessed to be serving alongside this amazing church full of people striving to live for Christ.

            

These past few days have been full! On Monday we had the exciting, but also daunting task of a scavenger hunt around Medford/Boston! We were split into 2 teams so that we could learn how to navigate around the public transportation and also get to see many of the places RHC serves and places that we will be serving in as well throughout our time here. I was so encouraged how much RHC has immersed themselves in their surrounding community. Boston is such a unique city full of so much history so I’m excited to call this place home for the next 5 weeks!

(Tufts University) 

Tuesday we had the amazing privilege of getting to hang out with children at the Boys and Girls Club of Medford. I love getting to hang out with kids so I’m so excited to get to do that every week! One of my teammates, Kelsey, blogged about our time there yesterday so you can read her post below to hear more about it!

            

Wednesday afternoon we embraced the American spirit and headed to see the Boston Pops concert. The show on the 3^rd has much less crowds so that’s why we took advantage of going yesterday. We had a great time and are looking forward to seeing the fireworks tonight!

(Boston Pops Concert)

We have been meeting a lot of people throughout the community during our time here and are praying for the Lord to open up opportunities to share the Gospel with the people we meet and that He would begin bringing more locals into RHC. We will be studying the last couple of chapters of Luke while we’re here and we are also breaking off into men’s and women’s time, during which we will be learning about each other on a spiritual level and encouraging one another. We are reading Life Together by Bonhoeffer while we are here and I have been so encouraged by this book. The Lord has blessed me with amazing Christian community not only here in Boston, but back at home and at Clemson as well. I have been really learning how to never take that for granted. I have been learning a lot about boldness in Christ, what being intentional in all areas of my life looks like, and how desperately our world needs Jesus.

I would love if you all could continue to pray for our team and that God would open up opportunities for us to build relationships and share the Gospel, that our team would continue to grow in unity, and that we would continue to aid in spreading the name of RHC around Medford.

Liz Stephens 

SLINK Honduras: Hot and Rainy

We made it!  After numerous hours of travel we finally arrived in Balfate.  On the plane there were two different teams from other parts of the USA going down to Honduras to serve for a week.  Most of them were doing medical things like passing out medication and pulling teeth so they were shocked to hear that we were going to be here for six weeks.  The plane ride was only three hours and we got to see some beautiful sites along the way. The water was so beautiful when we flew over it!!  We just wanted to jump out of the plane and go for a swim.

(and yes that is how blue the water is!)

The mission groups were pretty big so none of us really got to sit together on the plane, but we sure got real close on the ride from San Pedro Sula to the hospital!!!

Since we have been here we have been working with children a whole lot.  Half of our time we have been teaching English to a group of kids in the community.  It is a smaller class so even after we leave the Pirkles will still have influence in their lives.  They will continue to speak the Gospel to them after we leave, and teach them some more English.  It is such a joy to be around these kids and teach them; even though its only been a week we have developed relationships with them and they ran up to great us this morning.  

Even though most of our team are not Spanish speakers we have definitely gotten better over the few days that we've been here.  The weather is very much different than the United States.  You think South Carolina is hot and humid...Honduras is way hotter and humid all the time, haha.  We have had the benefit of rain every day that we've been here...which is apparently rare for this time of year in Honduras, but hey...we'll take all that we can get!  

We are continually excited and glad that we get to share the Gospel con los hijos.  Dios es bueno! Continue to pray that the Lord will open doors for the Gospel despite any language barriers.  

Blog by Zach Shuba 

Summer LINK Boston: The Boys and Girls Club

Hello from Boston!

Today has been an exhausting day, to say the least!  We started our work at the local boys and girls club.  As soon as we walk in, we hear "Look! Its new big kids!" in a high-pitched, thick Boston accent.  There were probably twenty 6-8 year old girls, and one 6 year old boy.  Then there were 4 middle schoolers, one of which was a boy.  So, the males were a bit outnumbered.

We started the day out with stretches, and then laps around the gym, and then some games.  We were tired after that, but the day was just beginning!

We spent the morning playing various versions of tag and dodgeball.  We even played tail-tag (run around until somebody de-tails you, and then you're out). Here's a few pictures.

On the other hand, the boys in our group spent the morning playing 9 games of basketball with the older boy and a few leaders.  By the time they were done, all of them were dripping in sweat.

We found that Grayson (Chad and Christy's baby/ our team mascot) is quite a hit with the kids.  They loved watching Christy feed him, and loved when they got his attention.  They also said we talked like cowboys..

For lunch our team brought pbj's made from the breakfast supplies at the hotel.  Unfortunately, the kids tattled on us, because it's against the camp rules to bring peanut butter (for food allergies).  Whoops!

We spent the afternoon coloring, crafting, having relay races, playing many more games of tag, ect.  We learned that many of the kids are from international backgrounds, meaning they were raised in the US, but their parents were not.  Many of them could speak at least bits and pieces of a native language (Ex. Arabic, Tai, Spanish).  We were able to get to know the kids really well in the 7 hours we spent with them, and they were sad to see us leave.  We'll be going there a couple days a week to build relationships with the kids and counselors, and to just show the love of Christ to a very lost and broken city.

We've been told many of the kids we see at the boys and girls club will be the same kids we will see at some of our other inner-city ministries.  This allows us to really connect with these specific families and pour into them out of the overflowing of love and joy we have received from Christ.  We are hoping for opportunities to talk with the parents, and maybe be able to get them to come to church at Redemption Hill.

Tomorrow we will be having our first team bible study and worship time for the summer.  For the evening, we're going into the city and going to see the Boston pops perform for their fourth of July celebration.  This showing on the 3rd is much less crowded, but equally as exciting, so we're looking forward to all the fun.  Hopefully, we will have opportunities to have meaningful conversations with those we meet in the city as well tomorrow.  We really appreciate all the prayers, and would ask for continued support.  It's always encouraging to know other believers are supporting your work.

Here's a couple more pictures from the day!

Kelsey Gallman

SummerLink Boston

SummerLINK Myrtle Beach: Seminary Week

Summer LINK Myrtle Beach continues to be grown through the intentional discipleship of Ryan Heard and Corey Dickinson. The ongoing display of their selfless considerations of the group have not only had the chance to impact us this week, but the entire summer link crew. It was a great pleasure for us to have the opportunity to host not only the Summer LINK participants from 8 locations but also the Generation LINK residents as well. 

This week was slightly different from our previous weeks in the fact that Generation LINK residents were able to attend a masters level Seminary class on Missions at our very own Cornerstone Church. This class was not only for those taking it for credit; in fact, the other 100 of us Summer LINK participants were privileged to sit through the last 15 hours of class. For the Summer LINK Myrtle Beach students, having Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off was a great reprieve from our normal 40 hour work schedule. This missions class was taught by Dr. John H. Ewart, who is the Associate Vice President for Global Theological Initiatives. This man was an encouragement to all of us, showing the benefits of prayer over and over again, and really expounding on how powerful this simple tool is in our faith. He did his best to show us many critical things for us to pray for as missionaries, (forgiveness, each other, thankfulness, worshiping the Lord, future followers of Christ, our harvest, to glorify His name, obedience, boldness, and accepting hearts) explaining that through Him alone can a man be saved. 

Through our studies, it became clear to us that the mission is not only limited to our trips, but really reaching the lost everywhere and seeking opportunities to share the gospel at all times. Dr. Ewart dove deep into the word with us as he shared countless testimonies of his previous international missions, really setting our hearts on fire. On Thursday, our group split up and went on to share the gospel in 5 different locations, and the Holy Spirit brought a 19 year old girl to Himself (praise the Lord). We thank you for your continual prayers as it is hitting home with many of us in Myrtle Beach we only have 5 weeks left to turn up the heat on our co-workers and many friends we have made. We have been re-focused through seminary week that our prime directive here is to spread the gospel as much as possible and pray that the Lord will save lives. 

Through the group we have been blessed by truly knowing and testifying to our unity in Christ; as a team, as part of Cornerstone Church, and even as other believers find us and join our worship time regularly. Our group has been the answer to a prayer of a fellow sister in Christ who was desperately searching for others to worship with. The Lord brought Paige Boggess to us as we were praying for our outreach on thursday afternoon. With her trusting in the Spirit she went out on mission with our group as we shared the gospel that night. Paige has been an encouragement to us all by testifying to how the Lord has provided for her as she has been stepping out on faith. 

On Sunday the 24th of June, a sermon on how we can please God was brought to us by Wes Fondren, a member/elder at Cornerstone Baptist. He convicted many as he gave us the truth on giving to the Lord, and how this is pleasing to God. He made it clear that having nothing to do with our salvation our hearts should be wanting to please Him all the time, not only giving money to the church through tithing but to insure that we are submitting to the Lord in every aspect of our lives. 

Our home night this week, on Tuesday the 26th, was at Wendy and Fred Pauly’s house again. They have set a wonderful example how to display Christian hospitality. They fed us once again, switching up for some great Mexican enchiladas with some homemade guacamole and salsa. Their kids (Adam, Anderson, and Andrew) are also a joy to the team, and for us all it is nice to play and rest our minds. The Pauly’s also gave their input as our group discussed chapter two of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. Chapter two is entitled “The Day with Others” and is by far the longest chapter. In this chapter we are given guidelines as to what true time with others should replicate in the presence of the Lord. He gives us “The Secret of the Psalter”  and explains that the prayers Jesus prayed as a man on earth still resonate through us as we have the Holy Spirit. He tried to make known how God’s Word (The Psalms) still praises Him as we also pray the same prayers not from our person, but as the Spirit of the man Jesus Christ who is in us. 

“But in so far as Christ is in us, the Christ who took all the vengeance of God upon him-self, who met God’s vengeance in our stead, who thus-stricken by the wrath of God-and in no other way, could forgive his enemies, who himself suffered the wrath that his enemies might go free-we, too, as members of this Jesus Christ, can pray these psalms, through Jesus Christ, from the heart of Jesus Christ.”

This profound thought is a great example of how omnipresent our Lord is, and shows us as a group how much our lives are together in Christ. Bonhoeffer went on to tell us how we should: read the scriptures, sing, pray, eat, work, and spend our afternoons and evenings together. Setting up what we should strive to achieve as a group in close community, day by day. As we go forth we all know that our hearts are in the right place with God, and we are on the same page, unified, pushing to reach the closest bond possible in these last 5 weeks. In saying that, we all realize that reaching the depths of our community will never happen without our great Lord! This chapter gave us great conversation at the Pauly’s house, and we thank them for being such hosts of the Lord.

On Saturday the 29th our group of 10 went on to the Waccamaw River for some kayaking. We enjoyed ourselves for 4 hours exploring through some swampy waters. The highlight was finding an old rotating train trestle that was perfect for jumping off, cooling ourselves off in the rich black waters. This served as the perfect relaxing of our minds, getting into nature and exploring the beauty of the Lord that we had been learning of all week. We escaped some great thunderstorms and were back at the Sea Mist for a short while. We finally ended our night watching Despicable Me at Mackenzie Morgan’s condo in North Myrtle, enjoying some cheese cake.

by Logan Pierce

SummerLINK Clemson: Through the Storm

Yesterday, SummerLINK Clemson set off for Myrtle Beach. Within two hours of our departure, the back seats were all asleep and I had the quiet to reflect on life at its present stage. I am coming up on my first year anniversary of marriage, and I can tell you – the last year has been quite a ride. In between struggling as one sinner joined to another sinner in marriage (if you are married you understand the extreme hardships) and being rejected and scorned by my earthly family, the last year has been, quite honestly, a spiritual downhill mudslide. When I joined SummerLINK Clemson I was a very recent muddy wreck trying to let the Lord piece me back together. But I can testify that as long as I slid down the muddy slope, our God did not forsake me. He never left me alone. Though I went weeks without opening the Word to hear Him speak, He pursued me through His body, the Church, and spoke to me in the quiet as I laid down to sleep at night. He pursued me until I planted my feet in the mud, stood up, and took stock of my surroundings.

I firmly believe that He planted me in SummerLINK to provide me the spiritual refuge I need to rebuild. We have studied and prayed together, shared together, laughed together, and some of us have cried together. The Lord built His body as one, that we should have the heart to support each other in pursuit of Him, our glorious Father.

When we came within an hour of Myrtle Beach yesterday we were slammed by a fierce thunderstorm and traffic slowed to a crawl. It seemed that we rolled slowly through the storm for an hour, but we did come out from under that storm cloud. In my life the cloud is still over me, but our God has delt with me kindly. I have my husband to stand beside me, and I have the body of Christ to teach and rebuke me as I need it.

In Cornerstone Church at Myrtle Beach last night we kicked off our time together with a seminary lecture by Dr. Ewart and a period of corporate worship and prayer. I admit, at one point I looked up during our prayers (don’t tell me you’ve never done that before) and as I looked out over the bowed heads of my brothers and sisters and heard the murmuring of many voices beseeching our God for the sake of the lost, my joy was nearly complete. I have all I need in Christ, and these men and women who bow before a Most High God along with me are my earthly anchor in Truth. Praise be to God!

Ahead of us we have more knowledge to gain, more prayers to say, and strangers to evangelize to. We appreciate your prayers in love, and we pray likewise for you.

Blessings in Christ.

By Shelby Hercules

SummerLINK Myrtle Beach: Looking Back, Looking Up, Looking Forward

Hello there from Summer LINK Myrtle Beach! We now find ourselves at the one month mark. The team is continuing to be impacted by God’s goodness on a daily basis. In the past week, I have seen the Lord grow all of us in discipline, unity, intentional discipleship, and selflessness.

This past Sunday, the team was blessed with a worship service which some of us were able to attend with our families. Once again, Russ Bennett brought us a solid expositional sermon where we took a look at Matthew 7:12-20. In this passage Jesus continues His Sermon on the Mount by speaking of The Golden Rule, entering by the narrow gate, and being careful of false prophets.

On Sunday evening, we had our prayer and praise time on the beach where we asked the Lord to continue to provide opportunities for us to share the gospel with others.  We were just about to wrap everything up when two guys names Brock and Gus from West Virginia walked up to us and started talking to us. We invited them to come to Krispy Kreme with us and they accepted. It was at Krispy Kreme where one of the members of our team seized the opportunity to share the gospel with them. It was an incredible moment. One minute we were on the beach praying for more opportunities to share the gospel, and then thirty minutes later we found ourselves at Krispy Kreme with two new acquaintances with the opportunity to tell them about Christ. 

On Monday night, we were greatly blessed by having Paul and Jenny Moore open up their home to us. Here we were able to eat a great home cooked meal and fellowship with a great family of believers. It was so encouraging to witness what the Lord has done in and through the lives of the Moore family. The families from Cornerstone church are nothing short of an incredible blessing from the Lord. They have selflessly opened up their homes to us, and taught us what a godly home should look like.

Also on Monday our group continued in our discussion of biblical community after reading the first chapter of “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Lord continued to strengthen our community and showed us that while it is our responsibility to pursue the depths of Christian community, it is not our responsibility to create it out of our own will. Christian community is not something that we can create; it is a reality that God has already created for us through our unity in Christ.

“Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer Life Together

On Wednesday, we continued to unpack Matthew 7:12-20. Many sound theological truths were discussed during the evening…truths that we will continue to meditate on and apply to our lives. I will say that the number one thing I took away from the discussion is God’s simple yet serious reminder to continue to reach the lost. In the middle of working full time jobs, and finding ourselves in a structured schedule, it is easy to concentrate on the tasks that must be completed during the day, and lose sight of God’s command to us as Christians to evangelize. We must not lose sight of the truth that as followers of Christ our command is to tell the lost the truth of Matthew 7:13-14 and to point them toward the narrow gate.

 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  Matthew 7:13-14 ESV

Thursday night was Gender night. While the ladies went geocaching, and continued in their discussion of biblical womanhood, the guys found themselves in 2 Peter 1 and discussed what it looks like to be a godly man of character. I would say that while I truly love every day that God has blessed me with here at Summer LINK, Thursday nights have become my favorite time. I cherish the opportunity to pursue growth in biblical manhood with these men. They are constantly teaching, challenging, and encouraging me in ways I have never experienced before. I am so thankful that the Lord has chosen me to be a part of this community. We have only been here for a month, and I already know that I have made lifelong friends.

On Friday, our Summer LINK team found themselves in a local coffee shop. Dustin Raley, the worship leader at Cornerstone and a few of the Summer LINK’ers played live music at the coffee shop. It was incredible to see my brothers and sisters in Christ use the talents that God blessed them with to share the gospel, and to worship Him through music. In addition to that, it was a blessing to meet other believers, and to hear about how Christ has changed their life as well.

Well, here we are finding ourselves at the threshold of Seminary Week. In just a few days Summer LINK Myrtle Beach will go from being an army of ten to an army of roughly one hundred believers on mission for the kingdom. While the SLMB team is excited and ready to welcome the rest of Summer LINK with open arms, this is also a bitter-sweet time for us. We know that this has really been the last normal week for us to be with our leaders Ryan Heard and Corey Dickinson. After Seminary Week is over they will be with us for only a few days before leaving and entrusting us to continue our mission for the summer. We know that they will always be a phone call away, and that they will be checking in on us regularly; however, we also know that we will be missing a part of our team. This brother and sister have had a tremendous impact in each of our lives, and they will be greatly missed.

Looking forward, we are excited to see the Summer LINK’ers from every location across the globe coming to Myrtle Beach. We have been looking forward to this coming week for some time and we know that God has incredible things planned for all of us. As a team we are looking forward to fully taking the responsibility of Summer LINK into our own hands. This is a responsibility that none of us are taking lightly, and we look forward to seeing God at work in and through our lives for the rest of this summer. Praise be to the God who has not only saved us by the blood of the cross, but has also given us the privilege to share the message of the gospel with the nations!


by Tim Dietrich