Epilogue

Back to my ole' Kentucky home.
The last week in Vail was great and it really sealed everything up for me. Most of us stayed up all night on Saturday. People trickled off to bed and to leave for good throughout the night. Nine of us (me included) took a shuttle from Vail to Denver. It left at 4 am. We said our goodbyes to the few still at  the apartment. I knew in my head that I wasn't coming back but, even at this point I didn't really believe in my heart/gut that project was over. When we got to the airport, two of us had to leave right away to catch planes. All of us who could checked bags and then we all sat together for a couple hours. Five of us had flights around the same time so we went through security together. My flight was leaving soonest. As soon as everyone else got through security, I said my last goodbyes and hustled down the stairs to catch an inter-airport train to my terminal. The other four didn't make the train. As the door's closed and the train took off, they waved goodbye, I smiled back and they were out of sight. Vail Summer Project ended right at that moment.
I'm pretty sad about leaving all these people who I've grown with and came to love over the past nine weeks. I know that we all probably feel the same way and that God wants us all back at our colleges. But it still sucks.

Summer Project has been such a blessing to me. Thank you to everyone who helped support my going whether financially or through prayer!

What did project do for the people in the Vail Valley?
As I said in a previous post, most people there don't really want anything to do with a religion or a savior. They want to be self-reliant and they'd much prefer if you'd keep your faith to yourself. They're pretty skeptical of Christians who want to share their faith. So, a lot of our mission was to change people's perspective of Christianity. The ways our project sought to show the love of Christ was 1.) by volunteering in the community (cleaning up roads, helping build houses, moving sandbags for the fire department, helping out at the Teva Games and at the Iron Kids race,  picking up trash from the ski mountain, buying water for construction workers, helping people pay for groceries etc) 2.) by really caring for the people and really listening to them. Just getting to know people, building relationships and friendships, and loving them well. Relational evangelism was huge on this project.
We let our friendships and our actions bring up spiritual conversations by themselves (for the most part) which they will and they did. It was about respecting people and sharing the gospel at a pace they were ready for.
In other words, a lot of what we did was sowing spiritual seeds for a future harvest. That's not to say that there was no harvesting; there was some amazing crops in fruit! But much of the field was not ripe yet. (I hope you understand this Christianese). And of course I think we had a bigger impact on the area than we now know.

What did I learn?
A lot.
A couple weeks ago I wrote down a list of a lot of what I learned (I'm sure there's more that I haven't fully realized yet). I being really open with you here. I hope I make sense.

*Finding my identity in Christ alone-What I mean by this is that I can be satisfied in who I am and what I am. Much of my life I've been focused, usually unconsciously, on the social ladder. I always would try to move my way up. The ways I would do this were by sucking up to the people 'above' me and competing with people 'at my level'. This always left me performing and worrying. But on this project, God showed me how sinful and harmful this was. I know I need even more work on this but I have begun to experience the peace of not caring what others think and only caring what God thinks of me.

*Relying on God- This means giving up my worries and stress to God. Trusting that he is sovereign and that he provides. I think I learned this through traveling to Vail alone by bus and train, searching for jobs in a bad economy with limited hours/duration, and little things like taking good pictures/selling well at work. God is sovereign and as he tells us in Jeremiah 29:11" I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." This too has brought a lot of peace.

*The Power of Prayer- God answers prayers. This goes with the above lesson-in order to put your trust in God and rely on him, you must be in communication (prayer) with him. I've experienced a lot of answered prayers this summer in things like, finding a job, putting people in my path to have spiritual conversations with, little things like praying a group would get back from ziplining and immediately they arrive, praying for the words to say at an interview, praying for confidence, praying for God to take control of my emotions, praying/giving to him full control of each individual day.

*How to listen well and ask good questions- Thanks to the project book, Godspace.

*Getting better at meeting new people/talking with people I don't know- I learned this through having to meet 34 new people at the start of project and quickly opening up to them and trusting and relying on them. And work has helped with this too by making me speak to a large group of people I don't know.

*The Gifts of the Spirit- I've learned a lot about them and my view on them has shifted a lot, but that's all I'm going to say about that.

*Myself- I've learned a lot about myself. Analyzing my past, figuring out who I am, what I'm like. And having confidence in this. This 'lesson' goes with a few of the other ones like finding my identity in Christ and hearing insight from others.

*Christian Community- I've experienced nine weeks in an amazing community of believers that has its central focus on Jesus. It is so refreshing and livening. I've had communities of believers before but these always feel like we were seeking God on our own and not corporately. In Vail though the whole body (see 1 Corinthians 12 and Acts 2:42-47) was worshiping and seeking God together. It is a beautiful thing. Leaving that community and all those people was really difficult and sad.
Basically, project was real life. We all had jobs and coworkers and responsibilities but what made it different from back home life was the close, Christ centered community, living together with a sense of mission. If you don't have this type of community seek it and if you can't find it start it yourself.

Thanks!

Final Days--remoVAIL

Today is it. It's the last full day of Vail Summer Project. Tomorrow the shuttle I'm riding to Denver leaves at 4 in the morning. Quite a few people have already left.

Here's what the last week has looked like. On Wednesday I flew to Louisville for the Grieshaber wedding. It was awesome to be back in Louisville for a few days (except for the insane humidity). I had a lot of fun with friends from High School and College. Then there was the wedding itself which was awesome and beautiful. It was awesome to see those two enter the covenant of marriage with Christ at the center. As good as going back to KY was, I was definitely glad to be back in Vail for another week. I hadn't really had time to think about going home at that point and knowing that project was going on without me there was killer. On Saturday I flew back to Denver.

Went back to work for three days starting Monday. We spent most of that time training our replacements which was a little stressful. But at least one of them brought her incredibly cute puppy to work on Tue and Wed. Working there has been a huge blessing. My boss was really good to us, letting us drive his truck all summer and paying us generously (and even hiring us!).

Mt. of the Holy Cross

Thursday, I hiked up Vail Mountain pretty much as fast as I could. At the top I spent half an hour staring out at Mt. of the Holy Cross. I watched a huge storm roll in over the mountain and march over each lower foothill toward me. As the rain hit each one it would slowly fade to white. Took the Gondola down. That night the whole project got to go ziplining at the place I worked at.

Yesterday, we had our final banquet. The two head staff leaders came back to wrap everything up. The projects consistent theme has been "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Afterward we all took (way too many) pictures and then had a dance party.

Summer Project has been an amazing blessing that I'm just starting to understand. I know in my head that in 13 hours I'll be leaving Vail for good and that, honestly, I'll probably never see most of these amazing people again (in this life). I'll do one more post when I get home, to wrap up everything and give you (whoever you is) my full impression of Vail Summer Project 2010.