Reflection

Well now that it’s been a couple days after project, it’s time for the last blog entry (sad day).  I thought it’d be good to do a little recap of what I actually learned this summer.  It might be a tad long, so stick around.  First, let’s do a fun list of 10 things that I learned from working at Disney:

1. It’s not wise to drink your weight in the free soda that you are allowed to have for working in food & beverage

2. Last year, on vacation, when my family ordered 8 root beer/pineapple floats, the cast member was dreading our order.

3. The best deal at Disney is a free cup of ice or ice water.  Granted, there are still hundreds of guests who go for the $2.50 bottle of water (or worse, the $3.25 Smart Water)

4. The lyrics to the Wishes nighttime fireworks spectacular

5. To make a big Dole Whip, you have to make a “bubble” at the bottom of the cup to give it support so that you can swirl higher.

6. Never will I ever be that guest that hands crinkled up dollar bills.  People, do you know that I have to straighten them out to put them in the register?  Nor will I be a guest that pays in all nickels and dimes…

7. People actually do order pineapple floats with chocolate ice cream on top…whether or not they actually enjoy it, who knows.

8. It gets hot in Florida in the summer.  And when it gets hot, ice cream melts.  Quickly.  Who knew?

9. People cannot read menus.  No, we don’t have chocolate ice cream at the Aloha Isle.  Nor do we have smoothies, milkshakes, cones, sandwiches, turkey legs, or anything else not mentioned on our menu.

10. Extra Magic Hours for guests (when the park is open for 3 hours after regular park closing a couple nights a week) = Extra Tragic Hours for Cast members

But on a serious note, God taught me a lot more than how to perfect the Dole Whip Soft Serve Swirl.  I could ramble on forever about what I learned, but here are 3 things that I can really take from this summer:

1. Vulnerability builds community instantaneously. 

This summer I’ve had the privilege to have lived with a group of 39 other awesome students who have come from all different lives and stories.  Being real with each other has brought the most growth in my relationships with others.  The second night when 4of us went to the Wilderness Lodge and shared our life stories (the good, the bad AND the ugly), it brought us together immediately.  There was so much grace and love, unlike I’ve experienced in any other community.  Also just confronting conflict with others helps the community grow.  But in order to do that you must approach the conflict with a humble, loving heart.  This is something that I definitely plan on taking back to campus.

2. We are links in a chain. 

This summer had a missional aspect too.  We talked with people about Jesus and spiritual things.  But as a very “results oriented” person, I can have an unrealistic approach to evangelism, expecting people to come to Christ instantly.  Obviously this doesn’t happen as often as I’d like it to.  But there was one metaphor that stuck with me regarding this.  When someone accepts Christ into their life, it is the result of a chain link of people who introduce or talk to them about the gospel.  So when we go out sharing we don’t know if it is the very first time that someone has heard about Jesus (the first link in the chain) or we’re in the middle somewhere.  And if he blesses us, he can use us towards the end of someone’s chain link, even perhaps the final chain link.  Regardless of what chain we are in a long string, we don’t know how our actions or words will affect people in the long run even if they are hesitant in the immediate moment.  We can provide the good news, but after that, it’s in God’s hands and his timing…which brings me to number 3.

3. God’s timing is far superior to mine. 

I came into project with some expectations for my future.  God took those and threw them out the window for his perfect plan.  I am very much a planner.  Therefore, I LOVE picturing God as the Ultimate Planner!  He has an excellent plan for all of us, and he orchestrates them so that they all ultimately bring him glory.  One clear example of this during this summer is how I thought I would have to wait at least a year before becoming a discipler (or spiritual leader/mentor).  I felt like as a relatively new Christian I couldn’t be able to lead others.  But God was like “NOPE!” and placed me as a discipler of two amazing, spiritually sound men.  I learned a lot from both of them, and the whole process of being a leader was a very helpful time of growth in my relationship with God.  He has also put it on my heart to disciple an incoming freshman this upcoming fall.  Who that might be, who knows?  God knows.  But so much for waiting around for a year…

As I was crying my eyes out at the airport coming home, one of my roommates said to me (and I’ll never forget this), “Stephen, you did a lot of growing up this summer.”  It’s true.  I became a lot more independent as a human, but I became a whole lot more dependent on God.  I grew in my relationship with the Lord like crazy.  The whole summer was on hyperspeed, with no concepts of time or sleep or hunger, etc.  I’m really excited to continue living for Him as I return to USC and take what I learned from this summer and apply it to “regular life”.

Final group picture.  I love these guys a lot!  They helped me grow incredible amounts these past couple months.

Thanks everyone for reading this summer.  I hope I gave a small image to what life on project was like.  If you’d like to know more, I’d be more than happy to discuss life with anybody

Circle of Life

Well yesterday was the last day of project and boy has the time flown by like crazy!  I remember the first day when we all met each other and we moved into the Cabana.  But now I’m sitting in the Orlando International Airport ready to board a flight back to the west coast.  I haven’t slept in 20 something hours…

The past few days have been a flurry of emotions.  On Sunday after church I had a really great conversation with a coworker who had been coming to church with us but is not a Christian.  I went through the gospel message very clearly and slowly, making sure that he understood everything.  The part that I reinforced over and over was that our salvation in Christ is not about “doing good” but rather the faith in Jesus as a savior for all of the screwed up stuff that we do.  By the end I told him that if his heart was not 100% sure that he wanted to accept it as truth, he shouldn’t do it; it wouldn’t be real.  God knows where his heart is at.  I’m glad that God could use me present the gospel to this guy, probably for the first time.

The last days of work were sad.  Having to say good-bye has never been an easy thing for me.  We’ve gotten to know a lot of the fellow Adventureland workers pretty well, and they were very sad that we were leaving.  My last day of work I worked at Aloha Isle all day.  I worked right up until park closing at 11pm.  I made my last pineapple float quite large!  I will miss the swirling, the guests confused about our menu, and the busy atmosphere for the small, tropical soft-serve place.

For our last day we had a free morning/early afternoon.  I went and turned in the last of my costumes.  We started to clean up the Cabana.  I packed all my stuff…sad day.  At 4:30 we had one last project dinner.  It was a really good time and an awesome time of sharing stories about how God has worked in and through people’s lives.  After dinner we went back to our resort and watched a FANTASTIC slide show and video that one of the teams created.  It was a great collection of pics and clips that truly wrapped up the whole project.

We then rushed over to the Polynesian Resort (which is the hotel across the giant lake from Magic Kingdom) and, as a project, watched the fireworks (Wishes) from back there.  Then we boarded the monorail and went into the park for a little bit.  I purchased a Pineapple float, said good-bye to the Aloha Isle, and rode on the last Splash Mountain boat of the evening.  We all met up as a project at 12 (the park officially closed at 11) to watch the “Kiss Goodnight” where they have a little closing speech and they change the castle lighting.  It was the perfect ending of a wonderful day.  It would only be appropriate for us to end our project at the Magic Kingdom.

Getting back from Magic Kingdom a little after 1, it would have been a waste of time for me to sleep because I left for the airport at 5:30AM.  So I went around to all of the condos and said my good-byes.  I cried.  A lot.  I hate good-byes.  But one thing that gives me peace and that I love about Christian community is that it’s not good-bye forever.  It’s “See ya later”.  We have that hope.  Doesn’t mean it’s not sad, but it makes it a little bit better.  Said my last good-byes at the airport about an hour ago, and my flight should be boarding soon.

I’m going home.  Through despair and hope.  Through faith and love.  I experienced it all this summer.  It was a great experience.  I would not trade it for anything else.  Don’t worry I got 1 more blog on the way in a couple days after I reflect (hint hint) about what I’ve learned from this summer, so keep looking for another update.  Thanks again for everyone’s support and prayers.

P.S. I was writing this in the airport but couldn’t connect to the internet to post it then.  Yes, I did sleep on the plane, so we’re all good.