Life in Apex

If you know anything about Apex, then you know why I don't have much to write about lol. Today though I went and helped with a service project through the Summit, which is the church I go to in Durham. I love it. Anyway, we were originally supposed to be doing work at A.V. Baucom Elementary, which is my old elementary school, but they were finished before we arrived. They still put us to work though, they moved us to Apex Middle School which is my old middle school and we helped with landscaping. It was fun, the only person from the school there was my old Assistant Principal, Mrs. Avramidis. That was nice seeing her though, and kind of surprising that she remembered me since that was so long ago and it was such a large school. We got a lot of work done in a short amount of time though and I even got to help plant the new Apex Middle School Spirit Rock. =] I went out to lunch with my dad yesterday, and it was awesome, we had one of the best conversations we've ever had with each other. Thanks Dad! Later tonight I'm going to a Saturday night church service at the Summit, and then going to see Harry Potter for the second time with Chris Yow. I saw the midnight showing the other night and it was so much fun, we dressed up and everything.  We went to get dinner as a group beforehand and I got to share the Gospel with a homeless guy when I gave him our leftover Pokey Stix. For those of you who don't know, those are like garlic cheesy breadsticks, they are great. I also got to see Kenny again that night for the first time since I've been back because he came to the movie with us, love that guy! We went before the movie and visited Mike Mehaffie, he just recently had some major eye surgery so pray for a quick and successful recovery for him! It was great to see him again too. Tonight I'm going to church with Chris for the first time ever and I'm really excited about it, then we're seeing the movie and he is sleeping over at my house. I saw Chris about a week ago for about 2 hours but this will be our first real opportunity to catch up and I'm really excited for it. Also in the past few weeks I've been raising support, and making phone calls just about every day for an internship I'm doing in the Fall and that's been faith stretching.

God has been definitely moving in my heart since I've been back. I've had to be disciplined in continuing to have a daily quiet time without a team of people around me encouraging me and holding me accountable. I've had to be disciplined as well in making lots of phone calls that I don't want to make every day about raising support, it can be a pretty stressful process but I know I'm growing through it. The biggest thing God is teaching me right now is to be intentional in looking for opportunities to share my faith. They have always been right there in my lap as far as campus ministry and spending my summer's on mission trips. This is the first time in over 2 years that I've spent more than a Christmas break in Apex and I don't want to waste these months. I know there are opportunities to share the Gospel, I just have to be proactive in finding them instead of just waiting for them to fall in my lap. That's what led me to sign up for the service project I did today, and I was really excited to get to talk to that homeless guy on Thursday night. Pray for me to continue to look for opportunities and make the most of them when I find them. It's true that there are fewer opportunities here than at N.C. State but there are still plenty of people in Apex who need to hear the Gospel I just don't necessarily interact with them on a daily basis. Thanks for taking time to read this, I love you all!

Prayer Requests:
- My internship requires that I build a team of ministry partners to support me financially and make my ministry possible, right now I'm working on building that team so that I can actually do the internship in the Fall. I'm 6 weeks behind because of my trip to Africa.
- Senegal's political situation (see Pray for Senegal), and the hearts of the students I met while I was there, that God would grow the seeds we planted and prepare them to be harvested.
- For me to find and take advantage of opportunities to share the Gospel while I'm in Apex for the remainder of the summer.

In Christ,
Matt