Week Nine Was a Friend of Mine

Well, I just finished my second to last week of my internship and am beginning my last week. It has been a great experience here and I wish I could be here longer.

This past week was a little crazy for me. Monday through Wednesday I had Across the Street VBS in the morning. We expanded it a little and also went to another low income apartment complex to minister to some kids, and it was great to see them hang with us and learn about Jesus. On Tuesday, we actually did a VBS at two places at once. We split our forces and taught lessons at both places. It was really cool to see the number of high school students who volunteered their time.

However, since the VBS was in the morning, I only had the afternoons to get some other work done. I have been working on organizing a van of volunteers for a fundraising day at Park Springs Christian Camp, and I needed to reserve the van, get announcements out and prepare an insert for the bulletin. Also, preparing a lesson for Wednesday and Sunday and having something going on in the evening for the first three nights of the week. It was a very crazy busy start to the week, but I was able to get a lot of things done.

Monday evening was the cookout at Pete Ramsey’s house for the graduating 6th graders. It is a chance to not only hang out with the students, but also build a relationship with the parents and try to get them involved. I ended up having a couple of great conversations with some parents about some pretty big issues. It was a great night.

Tuesday night, the high school students put on a spaghetti dinner with dodgeball and swimming after for the Across the Street Ministry kids and families. It is our chance to bless some of the families over there by providing a meal for them and keeping their kids from being somewhere they shouldn’t be at that time of the day. Everyone had fun and the food was really good. The students did a great job!

Wednesday I taught a lesson on relationships and the importance of surrounding yourself with good Christian friends. I pointed out that it is important to have non-Christian friends because that is one of the main ways that we minister to them, but if we surround ourselves with bed influences, we will be influenced by them. I also talked about how if we are being influenced in a way that is pulling us away from Christ, that the only way to remove that influence is to remove yourself from the situation and get new friends who will help you grow closer to God. There were some hard words there, but I felt God telling me that many of the students there needed to hear it.

After my day off, I was busy getting the insert for Sunday’s bulletin ready and preparing a lesson for the adult class I was teaching. We had a great discussion about truth, what it means, what the opposite of it is, how the world reacts to it, and how we are to react to it. We had a hard time keeping it with in the time frame we had. It was a good time.

During the week, I had a discussion with one of the members of the church about my experience here and what I felt about the church. I gave several of my thoughts about the church and how I feel it is exactly what the church is supposed to be like. During the course of that discussion, I was told that I have a lot of passion when I talk about the things I think and what I believe is true. It was an eye opening discussion for me, because I have never really considered my self a passionate person. I have always felt even keeled. But after that conversation I have realized that I have developed a passion for the truth. This is one of the reasons that I taught about truth for the adult class. So when I talk about things that are true, I do not back down and I say it like it is. Now that I know this, I hope God will help me utilize this aspect of me to bring Him more glory. For all truth comes from God, because God is truth.