It's been two weeks since I started my internship and it seems like I've learned more than at a month of school and met more people than in the first semester of coming to Taylor. Needless to say, after two weeks, it's clear: I'm loving my internship and I'm loving the people.
Grace is huge. A whopping 6000 attenders huge. Danny, a fellow intern, has decided that he feels like he works in an airport. It might not be an airport, but it is large and it's awesome hearing about what God has done at Grace and what he is still doing. I work in Student Ministries, which includes middle school, high school, and 18-25 yr olds.
I don't even know where to start to describe what I'm learning and what I'm doing. As the Access (college and graduate age) intern, I am doing an incredible amount: co-leading the freshmen small group, teaching at multiple Worship Gatherings, helping plan the Toronto and Haiti mission trips, planning socials, meeting one-on-one with people, getting things ready for the meetings, working on databases. I'm so excited about the breath and depth to all of it. I'm loving working in the SM office. The people are 1. awesome 2. super cool (I mean, what do you expect from people who work with students?) and 3. hilarious. I feel completely at home with them and love that I can dish out as much as they throw at me. There are some great people here.
There are 4 other interns too. 2 of them work with Grace Kids Company, 1 with Fuse (middle school) and 1 with Worship Arts. Each Thursday, we have Round Table together where we discuss and dig into hard topics with a purpose of falling more in love with Jesus and being apart of his Kingdom. When the first questions are "What are the way, the truth, and the life and how are they related," you know that Thursday mornings are going to be a highlight even if your brain is full for a whole day by 10:30 am. I'll probably end up blogging a lot about the discussions happening over Round Table.
As interns, we also get the opportunity to shadow the other ministries within the church. This will be a neat and valuable experience to observe the whole of the church and how each small branch of the church works for the overall purpose. Just like it should be in the body of Christ. With Danny, I shadowed GKC, which is more of the main reasons families come to Grace and after being with the team for a day, it's no wonder. That thing is a huge well oiled machine with it's 15 team members, 900 volunteers, and 300 kids 0-2 yrs old alone on a given weekend. Grace has one of the most unique and strong childrens' ministry that I have seen or heard of. It takes awhile to explain but pretty much kids (starting at infants) are learning how to do church, having a main large group worship time and then a small group time. It's incredible and something that I wish more churches were able to do. This Sunday, I will actually get to see it in action. Sunday will also my first Access Worship Gathering- bring it on.
What I really wish is that I could journal throughout my day about things before moving on to another. This is turning out to be one of my favorite summers. God is really doing something in my heart and I don't know if that's just healing it and making it stronger in order to be given out to other or what. Whatever he's doing, it is so good.
