Welcome to La Jolla/ Week 1

Hey! I wanna jump right in so here we go.

Project officially started Saturday the 19th! I spent most of the day traveling and finally arrived at our hotel around 4 pm. Once everyone rolled into town, we had a barbecue to kick off the summer. Afterwards we sat around and shared our travel stories (most people decided to road-trip down and had interesting stories to share from along the way) and we also found out what room we were going to be living in!

I’m living in Parks Hall with seven other girls including our room leader, MaryAnne! Parks Hall was named after Rosa Parks for her deep-rooted Christian faith and resilient nature when faced with prejudice and injustice. 

MaryAnne’s main hope for our room is that we would become women who are resilient IN Christ, FOR Christ; that we would be women who are built of spiritual endurance when we face obstacles and hardships. Her central prayer for this room is that we would grow to be women who are deeply rooted in the love of Christ, where we find our truest strength and remain steadfast in Him in ALL things. Being in Parks Hall means being a woman of Resilience!
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The next day was Sunday, and later on in the day everyone on project gathered at the beach and spent more time getting to know one another. This is our first group photo together of Parks Hall, from right to left is Rachel, me, Hallie, Jennifer, Karissa, Bridget, and Gabby.

​This was when it started to set in that I was actually here in San Diego! We had all made it, and we're going to be living together for the next ten weeks! When we took this photo, I imagined looking back at it at the end of the summer and realizing that these strangers would grew to be my best friends.

Monday we started the job search (YAY!) Searching for a job can be very draining but there is also an opportunity for it to be very God-driven and glorifying. Our prayers in the job hunt were for God to guide us and open opportunities that would allow for us to bring the Kingdom of God into our workplace, that we would follow in his plan for us to impact the lives that we would meet along the way.

Each room got assigned a mall or part of town to spend the day handing out resumes and applying for jobs. We had two weeks to find a job, so we were expected to treat the job hunt as a 9 to 5 until we found one. After you were hired one you were encouraged to act as a cheerleader for the rest of your roommates and help them find jobs. I probably handed out 40 resumes over the next week and was blessed with finding a job Thursday! I’m working part-time at a clothing store called Abercrombie and part-time at another clothing store for kids called The Children’s Place.

Monday was also our very first huddle! Huddle is made up of all the girls in our room where we can talk about what we are learning and hearing from God. The main purpose is to confide in one another and hold each other accountable for following out what we are learning, and to challenging each other to grow. I genuinely feel as if every girl in this room was put together for a reason. God has such a beautiful plan for all of us, and I already feel so blessed to be a part of these ladies lives and thankful that they are a part of mine.
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This is a picture after our first huddle, if you can’t tell we were all laughing as we squashed onto the same bed to take a group photo

​Thursday some of the room leaders got a bunch of us, together and decided to go to a different part of La Jolla shores to go body surfing. We hung out listening to music, swimming, and getting to know one another till the sunset. It’s been so special to be able to spend this quality time with one another and get to know each other more.

Sunday was also our first beach party! I’m sure I’ll talk more about the beach parties more in the weeks to come, but our beach parties are made to create opportunities to invite the people we meet this summer to join our community and have gospel-driven conversations while also having a lot of fun! We have a barbecue, play volleyball, walk along the beach and dance into the night.

That's all for this week but I can’t wait to continue to share my summer with you all!

​All Love,
Sophia Rose