One word to sum up the past few days: Overwhelmed
I feel overwhelmed in so many ways. I am overwhelmed by the information I have learned and the ways that I have been challenged, but also by the love and grace of God, and the huge blessing it is to be here with so many other Godly people. I am doing so well, there’s just so much to learn! The other interns and the LT staff are amazing to a mind-blowing degree. Let me tell you about the past few days.
Friday June 1st
I arrived at the LT office in the early afternoon. Interns were trickling in so we got to know each other and played cards. There are 15 of us from all over the country. Most of us go to Christian colleges, and yes I am the youngest. The other interns are so much fun! We are all friendly people who genuinely care about each other and want to get to know one another. In the evening we went to a LT staff member’s house for a cookout and to continue getting to know each other. I also met my partner Larissa, and trip leader Shane for the first time! Both are quite different from the way I pictured them in my head. Lol! The three of us are getting along really well so far. I went to bed early to prepare for my first full day.
Saturday June 2nd
LT has a very specific program for helping students develop into leaders. One component of this is devotions. Every morning on every LT trip there is a 45min quite time to do Bible study and pray, so that’s how we began Saturday! They gave us the trip book that our students will be doing all summer so we worked on the first day of that. The trip book is a study on the life of John the Baptist. Maybe I will write a post about that later on.
After devos and breakfast we had our first training session. This session was basically an overview of LT and the primary mission of the company. In the afternoon we loaded our stuff into vans and drove up to a retreat center in Wisconsin. Before we all got in the vans we were challenged to ask each other 100 questions. Dan (the executive director of our program) wanted us to use the time to intentionally get to know one another and not just waste away the time. It was definitely a unique experience! In my van we all talked about our families and answered a few random questions such as ‘if you could combine two animals to create a new animal, what would you create?’ We laughed a lot.
Once we arrived at our destination, a camp called ‘Expeditions Unlimited,’ we moved into cabins and then spent the rest of the afternoon learning more about LT and what will be expected of us.
Sunday June 3rd - Monday June 4th
Throughout the weekend we got a ton of information and grew together a lot. We laughed, a few of us cried, but mostly we grew together as brothers and sisters in Christ. I have never been a part of a Christian community quite like this one. We began being open and intentional with each really early on, and it hasn’t stopped! A lot of us have really hard stories. Some of us come from broken homes. Some of us are good at being open, and some of us are not. Some of us and goofy and silly, others are quiet. But all of us care so much about God and about each other. These brothers and sisters have been such a blessing in my life. I do not have the words to describe the impact these days have had on me but I thank the Lord that He has brought me here.
Another big part of the weekend was team initiatives. Ever done a team building game? We did at least 10. I had a blast! One of the games involved a blind person walking through a ‘mine field.’ The goal of another was to get the team through a huge cube without touching the sides. The biggest challenge came on Monday when we were given strange supplies and an hour to design and build a raft to carry seven of us, plus all of our sleeping bags. We had to swim the raft out into a lake, collect two different buoys, and make it back within the time limit and without getting any of our sleeping bags wet. We completed the challenge in an hour and two minutes. :D That was one of the most physically challenging things I did all weekend, because coming up to the shore we were running as fast as we could through the water pulling a raft with seven people on it! My thighs are still sore.
One of the best parts of the initiatives was the debrief. We would talk about what went well (who did the best job encouraging etc.) and what didn’t go so well. We made action steps about things like electing a leader for each challenge and listening to them. We challenged one another to keep our mouths shut when saying something that wasn’t helpful. We decided that at the beginning of each initiative that we should throw out some ideas and the quickly pick one and go for it. I was astounded at how productive we became! It was an honor to be a part of that team.
Tuesday the 5th
On Tuesday we packed up and headed back to the LT office. The drive home was honestly a little sad, but it was also a new beginning. As soon as we got back to the office we gathered for one last team building initiative. I won’t explain the particulars of the game but basically we all got on all fours (and the adults were involved in this one) and crawled each other’s backs. So I had almost twenty people crawl across my back three different times. FUN! I still have a lump near my spine. It was a ton of fun though. Everyone was so encouraging and we were all coaching each other on where the best place to step was on each back we crossed over. After that we ate lunch and then split into our ministry groups and began a whole new batch of training.
Shane and Larissa and I have had so many good conversations. We have laughed together, been vulnerable, and talked a lot about how the three of us will function best as members of a team. Shane, our fearless leader, is great with people. He came to the meeting genuinely wanting to get to know me and Larissa and he has said multiple times “part of my job this summer is to set you two up to succeed.” Larissa and I are growing to be great friends. She is awesome, she knows who she is, and she is so passionate about serving students and being a missionary in KY. I am so blessed to be able to serve with these two this summer! Tuesday evening we played ultimate frisbee to unwind a little, and got some sleep.
Wednesday the 6th
The whole day was spent praying, preparing, and talking. Three of us went over self assessments and talked through more LT stuff. We did devotions together and in the afternoon we began gathering things. Larissa and I raided a shed behind the LT office to come up with enough stuff to run a kitchen for 20+ people this summer. Then we began sorting nalgene bottles, cups, and spoons which will be used on a wilderness trip we will run in August. After a long full day, all of the interns gathered together one last time. We took turns encouraging every member of our group. It was so touching and bittersweet. Because our summers end at different times most of us won’t see each other again. We made vows to keep in touch and collected phone numbers and facebook names.
Tonight I will fall asleep encouraged, happy and excited for the events of tomorrow.
Some observations and thoughts:
God can make the smallest things meaningful
God has His own plan - and doesn’t always care about my plan
God puts people together for a reason
I can only follow where God leads because of God
I jump into things before I know where I am going, but God knows and He’s smiling at me while I jump
I have a lot less strength and a lot more strength than I thought I had - both in different ways.
God has a sense of humor
God provides friends when I need them
The past is a huge part of who I am
Prayer Requests:
I honestly do not know how I will have the strength to make it through a week of pouring into students. During training we were talking about the concept of finishing strong. The leader was talking about finishing the summer strong but in my mind I was thinking ‘Forget the summer, I have to get through a whole week straight!’ I believe that God will get me through but pray that I will remember that when I am 3/4 of the way through the first week.
A huge part of my role as an intern is to be developed as well as develop. This means that Shane will be evaluating me every week. Pray that I would accept the areas I need to grow and Shane’s words of wisdom with grace and take them to heart in a constructive way.
Pray that God would prepare me in any and every way I need to be prepared for this summer. I cannot see around corners and part of me feels prepared, but part of me has no clue.
LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!! :D
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