Work It!

            Here I am sitting in a laundry mat with a telanovela blaring in front of me and the smell of warm laundry sweeping over me in waves—it’s a good day. Actually, this is my first day without work since Abercrombie & Fitch and Tilly’s hired me a couple of weeks ago. I want to thank you so much for praying for me and my job search for the past few weeks. For a couple of weeks, I walked into practically every store on 3^rd Street Promenade picking up and turning in applications. And if I wasn’t on the Promenade, I was sending a mass amount of applications online. I believe I applied to 40+ jobs total! I’ve never hustled so hard for a job (granted, these are my first official jobs) and it was an incredibly humbling experience.

            A&F were the first to offer me a job and I admit I was a bit hesitant. A&F is the one store I actually avoid at the mall because the shop never seemed to be “my scene.” I didn’t own any A&F clothing and thought the store was repulsively perfumed. Plus, I personally did not like how they have half-naked men in the front greeting customers and asking them if they’d like a picture with them. The shop is very image-based and I just applied out of a whim, not really taking it seriously. Well, as God always does, He surprised me with this job opportunity. I joked with my sister that half-naked men need Jesus too, but is actuality A&F might be a place that does really need Jesus and it’ll be interested to develop relationships with my coworkers.

            As for Tilly’s, I actually love this store and thought the whole interview process was extremely fun and reaffirmed for me that this is a place I want to work. During our interview, people kept on cracking jokes and the hiring manager, Nicole, kept emphasizing building relationships with each other and the customers. Perfect! That’s exactly what I want to do and unlike at A&F, I wouldn’t be stuck in the back room (at A&F I’m an Impact Team Member, which means I work in the back and don’t really get to talk to customers. Only Models get to do that). When Tilly’s called to hire me, I was excited because I could see how at this job relationships would easily and quickly form. My only hesitation with working at Tilly’s is that I would be balancing two jobs, but both are part time.

            After working for a week, I have to say I enjoy working at both shops. A&F has longer shifts and less opportunities for employees to talk to each other, but they are pretty organized and I like how I’m constantly on my feet doing something. As for Tilly’s, I fely like they didn’t really train me (despite the fact that I spent four hours reading their manuals and watching sexual harassment videos). I was kind of was placed in the middle of everything and had to learn as I went. However, I get to talk to customers and coworkers all the time and everyone is friendly. We even have walkie-talkies and are constantly updating each other on what’s going on the in the store. I love helping customers, remembering their names (“Thanks for shopping here Andrew!” “Whoa! You remembered my name?!”), and just getting a chance to find out why they are in Santa Monica. I didn’t realize how many foreigners come to Santa Monica! I even got to use my Mandarin (which I admit isn’t very good) and helped a mom buy four pairs of jeans for her son.

            As for an update on everything else that’s going on on Summer Project, the staff is going to leave by the end of this week. Time really does fly by here and I am sad to see them all go, especially my discipler Jenny. She is an amazing woman and she’s helped me so much with knowing who I am and how to find my identity in Christ. No other person has ever affirmed me as much as she has. One particular memory that stands out to me when thinking about her was our first discipleship. Growing up, I never really felt beautiful for who I was and struggled with finding my worth as a result. I tried to find my identity and worth in accomplishments and found affirmation through those means. As I was sharing this with Jenny, she started tearing up and said, “I don’t understand how anyone could ever not think you’re beautiful. You are so beautiful.” And then I cried. Here is someone who I just met, but who saw me as a beautiful child of God, something I couldn't fully realize until coming on Project. It will be interesting to see how students will run the rest of Summer Project and I just pray that we will be able to love each other and speak truth and grace so that we may grow as a body. Some of us have already been given leadership roles, but we’re not announcing anything until tonight (so that means I won’t even been blogging about which roles I have until my next entry!).

            This past week I only went out sharing once. Chris and I met this man named Gary who was raised Catholic and fascinated with history. He believes in the Gospel, but is more apathetic towards whether or not the Gospel needs to be shared or that other people need saving. Rather, he thinks everyone has his or her own truth. I think he lacks a personal relationship with Jesus and I pray that he will seek that relationship and that the Holy Spirit will convict his heart to believe in the one Truth. I also, in a sense, went out sharing this past Sunday but used phones and letters as a medium rather than physically going out. We focused on our spheres of influence—people who are involved in our lives, who we have personal relationships with. For me, this is one of the most difficult groups of people to share my faith with because there seems to be more on the line. There’s a relationship you built that could possible be changed for the worse, broken even. Funnily enough, I kind of ranked the people I was going to call based upon who would be the most open to hear what I have to say and every person, except for the last one, was unavailable to talk. God was really challenging me and I ended up having a great conversation with that person. I didn’t get to share the Gospel, but did share what I was doing this summer and got to pray for her. I hope that God will continue to foster this relationship and I’m excited about that.

My prayer requests for this week are:

-       That I will develop close relationships with my coworkers and be able to eventually share the Gospel with them

-       That we, the students, will work well together and build each other up seeing as the staff is about to leave

-       Pray for boldness with sharing my faith, especially with those close to my heart

-       Pray that we will be able to raise $36,000 before the staff leaves. Many other students haven’t finished raising support and we need as much help as possible. You can give online—just go to the website provided and choose to “give a gift” (the money will be under my name, but go to the other students)  You can give here: https://give.cru.org/give/View/5630184?pp=

-       Oh! And I’m recovering from a cold right now. Actually many of us are sick. Pray for our health!

            As usual, I’m writing a super long entry. There’s just too much to say! Along with working and evangelizing, we’ve also been able to have lots of fun and build community. With that being said, I’ll leave you with these pictures...

 Love love love,

Cindy

*AH! I forgot to mention that some USC kids came and visited me! Oh my goodness, I was so happy they came and love them all so so much. I am so blessed to have such an awesome family at USC Cru.

**I realized I have too much I want to share... this entry is long, but not LONG ENOUGH! Oy... if you have the chance to meet up with me after Summer Project, I'd love to go through the 1000+ pictures I've taken and share with you every last detail. =)

***If you do feel led by God to support the other students financially, please give me your name so I can thank you!