Moving in and Discovering Durham

All my money is now raised and I am officially moved into Durham for the summer. I want to thank everyone who has supported me, whether it be financially or through your prayers. I ask that you continue to pray for my team and I as we reach out to those around us this summer.

I am living in an apartment with four other guys from the City Project during the part of the summer I am in Durham. God has blessed me with a great group of people to serve Him with this summer. It has been awesome getting to know everyone on my team so far, they all seem to have hearts that desire to serve God and it is encouraging to be surrounded by all of them. The first day here we were able to help some people we met at the apartment boost off their car and introduce ourselves to some of the people living around us. I am still getting to know the area but we are very close to Duke’s campus and I am excited to go out and meet people who live here.

On Wednesday we spent the morning in Duke Gardens studying and reflecting on John 15: 1-17. Afterwards we went on a four hour scavenger hunt that took us all over downtown Durham. It was neat getting to see that area and getting to know everyone on my team better. In the process we went to the local homeless shelter and got a small taste of what many people in that area are experiencing every day. Later that night we had a cookout at one of the host family’s houses.

Our next day in Durham we went to a building called the “Exchange” in Durham that hosts several nonprofit organizations such as Bless Durham and Urban Hope. I found out that I will be interning with Jason Gaston, the student pastor for the Summit. Later that day the lead pastor of the Summit, J.D. Greear, came and talked to us about his book, “Breaking the Islam Code” and about ministering to the Muslim community. That night I was able to explore the Walltown area with some of the other guys from my team and ate at a local Mexican restaurant. I continue to find Durham to be a very interesting city and look forward to sharing the gospel with this community.

On Friday we went down to the Exchange again and I learned that I will have the opportunity to help establish a Christian sports camp in the Durham area. I am excited to apply what business knowledge I have and my experience working with basketball camps to this area, while at the same time serving others. We also participated in fasting that day in order to prepare ourselves spiritually for the upcoming trip to New York. We will be leaving early Sunday morning for New York and will be there until Saturday. I will be writing about the New York trip once I get back so check in in about a week to read all about my team's experience there!