After the breakfast, I obvio took a nap and then we had a swimming party for all the new 7th graders at our children's minister's house. It was kind of their launch from the children's ministry to the youth ministry. Not only am I blessed to work with the 3 most amazing youth ministers (side note: literally can't say how much I love them. They work so well together, are so totally sold for Jesus, and oh are totally genuine and hilarious. What a blessing to not only be able to have had them as my youth leaders and mentors in all of my teenage years, but to get to work with them and be mentored by them as ministers! Talk about learning from the pros), but also Michelle was such a great children's minister and it's literally crazy how much energy she puts into the church!
After the swimming party all the youth ministers and interns went up to the building to decorate and set up for kickoff Sunday which was this morning. After that, I got to meet up with Luke from Pepperdine and his friend Phil because they were driving through Memphis on their way to Malibu! That was so great!!!! Go waves!! We had a limited amount of time together obviously, but I took them to Jerry's and Corky's sooo I'd say it was a pretty good visit. They loved it!
Todayyy was kickoff Sunday and we passed out pillowcases, stuffed with the summer calendar and lots of coupons that Chet has been calling businesses all around town to get (bless his heart and my awk phone skills!!) Our semi-sacreligious summer theme is "That's what Jesus said" (we're talking about the words of Jesus)! Ha! what a joke.
Sometimes I still can't believe it's me that's the intern, but other times I feel so natural. It's definitely different being on this side of it, beginning to understand how and why we do things the way we do them. Why we have so many games, giveaways, cool videos, and technology. Also we have this amazing/ridiculous! new building. I can't handle how cool it is! Definitely still adjusting, but more and more being able to accept it as an enormous blessing and ministry tool, rather than just extravagant. Also Highland is just pretty progressive overall. It's always been fun to watch other interns who grew up in pretty old school c of c's, and their reactions to Highland and HYG. This morning, someone else was baptized! The new building has been open for 5 weeks, and someone has gotten baptized every week so far. Also, side note, if someone gets baptized every week, I will cry every week. Ha, who am I. I have spent a lot a lot of time thinking about the idea of baptism over the past few years, and regardless of my (or anyone else's) theology, I know and believe that it is one of the most special things in the world. The church has def been taking advantage of our resources, and have been making these amazing videos that they show right before someone gets baptized!
I absolutely love it, even though the whole video thing is a little out of the box for traditional c of c (I just never noticed it growing up because that just was the way it was and I loved it) but it is really cool to hear people talk about why they want to get baptized. Good stuff!
Anyway, I knew going into this job that teaching was going to be one of the hardest things that I was going to be doing! Let's be real about my public speaking skills! It doesn't even make me nervous, at all, it's just that either I can't take myself seriously enough to speak, or I take myself too seriously... I don't even know which one. I tell myself that I'm bad at it, too, which I'm realizing makes it ten times worse, and if I were more confident, everyone listening would take me ten times more seriously. That's just a skill/goal that I'm working on this summer. I'm going to be teaching one of the grades on Sunday mornings, but I'm not sure which one yet. By myself! yikes! Of course I know I can do it, but I hope I have enough confidence to feel like I can do a good job! The past two Wednesday nights, Chet and I have kind of tag teamed. The first week we talked about service, and I talked about my experience doing Katrina relief in New Orleans and Romans 12:1. Last week we talked about community (such a Pepperdine buzzword!!!!! omg definitely feel like an expert!) and I talked about how having Jesus in common with someone is the biggest possible thing you can have in common, and how and why I love church, and Ephesians 4. I thought it went pretty well, and people said I did a good job but I'm not quite ready to believe them haha.
This whole thing is a fun new setting to figure out what I'm good at. I know I'm good at being responsible and gentle/approachable. I know I could get better at being creative, confrontational, and fun/energetic. I love love love it when I think of something we need to do or should do that no one else had remembered. I also love little tasks and crossing them off to do lists. Something that I'm ready to jump into is real relationships with teenagers. I have met so many of them but hopefully soon I will be able to start to build some deeper relationships. Something I am really trying to remember (besides focus on God, focus on God, focus on God) is to be real through all of our events and activities this summer, because no amount of games or sleepovers or youtube videos alone will change someone's life. I definitely won't change anyone's life either. It's pretty cool, though, that I will get to (and already am) see God working in teenagers. It is so important to remember that the times we pray together and talk about the Bible together are worth so so so much. Praying so so much for lots of opportunities to talk about what matters.
Tuesday through Thursday we are going to Pensacola, FL with the 7-9th graders. Long car ride and short trip! I am so excited though because it feels like the summer is really really starting instead of just office work (which don't get me wrong, I could do that forever too! haha) but I'm ready to be around the kids. Like every day. Which is good, because I am about to be! Ha. Pray for us!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment