I went into our San Marcos STP (summer training program) with high hopes. I was looking forward to learning ways to grow closer with God, spending focused time with students and spending time with God. I was not disappointed. The students were amazing, the program was only two weeks but they all dove in creating meaningful relationships with each other. Many of them are still in constant contact through phone calls and facebook. It was a different experience for me from our school year. At our Cal Poly Nav events there is a mixture of old Christians, new Christians and people who have yet to fully turn to God. At San Marcos it was all mature Christians who have been actively seeking God's will in their lives. It was neat to hear their stories and see where they had been and where they were heading.
Every week day the students and staff worked on campus for 3 hours, painting, cleaning etc, this was great for two reasons. One it helped keep the cost down, the two weeks cost students hardly anything. And the second is God loves when we serve others with a cheerful heart and our students got to practice this daily. There were days they were tired, when painting was not what they desired to do and yet they did, and more then just doing it they did it with cheerful hearts and to the best of their abilities. Also for dinner we rotated on who helped cook. It was a great way for staff and students to bond as we worked together to make the meal and to serve each other.
Each day a staff member discussed a different tool to help us draw closer to God, a few examples were meditation and scripture memory, studying God's word, Thanksgiving, silence and solitude. After talking about it for a bit the students then had time to go practice it. After we would get together with our groups (we had a small group for the two weeks) and discussed how it went. Was it hard? What did you learn about yourself in this? Do you see how God can use it to draw you closer to Him? How will you be able to use this practice in the future?
What I loved about how it was set up was it wasnt a ton of information thrown at the staff and students and then send them home. The time that we got to practice it was amazing! One of those days was silence and solitude, this was one of the hardest ones for staff and students. For an hour and a half we had to go to a place with nothing, I mean nothing. No bible, no music, avoiding visual distractions as much as possible. Tom, for example went into an empty closet and shut the door. Then we just talked to God. After we talked about where our minds where distracted. We talked about how it's hard for us to be in silence, we are so use to distractions. One of out students ended up falling asleep for most of the time. From a worldly grading type view many of our times could be considered failures. But we talked about how God just loves when we show up, He loves that we are trying, that we desire Him. And many of us learned things about ourselves. How we rely on distractions and noises to avoid the silence. How some of us are afraid of silence. And we brought these things before God.
I wish I could talk about all the discussions our group had. Tom and I were the leaders of a small group of boys and girls. Two times a week we had group time to check in and see how it was going, to talk about how to continue using these practices at home and what things would be hindrances when we get home to keeping us from it. The discussions were so great, and in two short weeks I saw our students grow and blossom. They are such amazing people!
It was a really cool STP, it was a smaller size but I think that's why the group bonded so well. If a few were going swimming they would invite everyone. There were games of Werewolf and Four on a couch almost every night. And when the time came to say goodbye there were hugs, exchanging of phone numbers and prayers for each other. There was so many awesome things God did in the students and the staff, Tom and I really hope we get to be a part of it again next year!
Below is a picture of our girls being silly
And here's one of the boys
This is a group photo, one Saturday we helped serve food at a wedding for 750 people! It was a long crazy day but it was a blast!
Posts
