The day the students arrive is my (Scott) favorite day of a summer mission! On the Santa Monica Summer Mission this summer (affectionately nicknamed “SaMoSuMi”), the students arrived on Friday, June 12th. Some literally coming directly from their last final exam, and others flying into LAX from all over the country.

Our staff team has already been together for a full week by this time. We’ve been praying, planning, preparing, and training to serve these students. Just hours before they arrive we bustle about The Palm Motel, putting finishing touches on welcome gifts, room arrangements, and door hangers with their names. The air is filled with tons of hope and anticipation!

The Palm Motel

Decorated Doors!

For the next four hours students and parents will arrive with car, truck, and van loads of suitcases, guitars, bicycles …and anxiety. It’s tough to walk into a new place with 75 soon-to-be friends, and 27 Cru staff people bustling around! We greet them as soon as they step out of their vehicles, or pick them up at the airport. As soon as we hear their name, we already know a bunch about them. These are the students who applied 4 months ago to come. We’ve talked on the phone, communicated on Facebook, and prayed many times for them.

They’ve all arrived! After dinner together at the church and a quick orientation of the weekend, they’re back to get settled into their rooms at The Palm. As the sky grows dark, light pours out of the once empty doors and windows of the motel. Sounds of chatter and laughing float through the air. We’re all excited and expectant for what God will do with this new community of faith in the weeks to come!

The First Night

Who would have guessed that just two weeks later, this community would have 1,275 spiritual conversations, give 386 gospel presentations, and see 22 people receive Christ, in a 6-day period!  God is awesome!  By the time we (staff team) left and handed off leadership to the students, they were no longer an anxious, fragmented group of college students.  They were a body of fellow believers trusting God for big things in them and in Santa Monica!

And the best part is, they’ll never be the same!  God has been in the process of growing and changing them.  After 8 weeks in community, taking steps of faith in Jesus together, they’ll each have a bunch of stories of God’s faithfulness to give them confidence to trust Him for the future!

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