Summer Internship
I am not sure why, but even though I have not taught in 4 years, I still follow a school calendar. And to be honest, summer has become one of my favorite seasons. The main reason for this has been the opportunity to have a summer internship program.
Last year , we received a very generous donation. When asked what one of our hopes and dreams was, I replied to have someone come on board with me. So this generous donor gave us a gift to start thinking and dreaming about that.
What resulted was a paid summer internship. One of the missions of Psalm 89:1 Ministries is to fill in the gap from a faith perspective with the people we meet with. Many of the girls that felt like they wanted to work in ministry post college were talking about how summer opportunities were generally at Christian camps as counselors. What was happening was at some point many of their parents wanted them to have a job that paid more in order to help with college, which meant no camp job. (yes they do pay their counselors but they do not get paid the amount another paying job would)
So one of the Board members and I were discussing how to fill in this gap: that is allow someone to be paid a more normal working rate in order to allow them to disciple during the summer. And the result of that brainstorming, prayer, and financial gift was a paid summer internship.
What does that look like? Well it still follows our blue print of meeting people where they are in their faith journey: so the girls that are interning and I talk about:
Where they are they in their own faith journey? (struggles, doubts, questions?)
What gaps have they seen in their understanding as they have discipled?
Are there certain current cultural topics that they would like to talk about how to respond to scripturally and gracefully?
Whatever their answers are dictates what we dive into studying
Then we want them to put into practice what they have been learning. So they continue to disciple girls they have been discipling, or they get to go work at a Christian Summer camp, all the while being paid for their time.
This summer might have been one of my favorite groups for several reasons: One I just think the world of the girls interning (I think the Lord is going to use them in very powerful ways for the kingdom.) But two, I loved it because they were all one life stage ahead of the other:
Maddi Krieg will be s sophomore in college
Sarah Walker will be a freshman in college
Sam Goldwasser will be a senior in high school
What a joy to watch them each pour into the others with the wisdom they each have from being one step in front of the other.
Please pray for Sam, Sarah and Maddi, that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened with wisdom and revelation so they may know Him better
Please pray that the girls they disciple would have soft hearts and that their relationship with the Lord would become real and their own
Please pray that in their serving and discipling they would come to know God in ways that only serving and discipling can