First Week

Hey, I’m back! I hope you’ve had a great new years and there was something else as well…Oh, yeah, Christmas. Hopefully it was everything you desired. If it wasn’t I hear that Santa has a complaints department these days.
I had a great time over the last month or so. Last week I got back from our church camp, ImpaKCt, and it was so good. God really worked on camp and it was so encouraging to see 17 people give their lives to him for the first time. I was junior site-directing and it was the first time that I haven’t led kids directly on a camp. It was a little weird and then turned out to be totally great. When you’re leading kids you’re focused on them, which is how it should be, but stepping back allowed me to see how everyone works so hard, and how God speaks through so many people. It was a massive encouragement for me.

So on the 27 of January I had my official first day at church as a youth intern. We started the day with a devotion, and I was like, “what an awesome job!” Gotta love a job where you get to read the Bible. Then we spent the rest of the day hearing about the church’s vision, and there was a welcome BBQ for us. Which was pretty good. Props to Mike and Carey who prepared it. We also went out to Glenhaven, a smaller church attached to St. Paul’s, and the minister there took us through what they’re doing. It sounded like God was really working through him and doing some really cool stuff out there. Their eight thirty congregation has actually shown fairly large growth over the last few years which is absolutely amazing.

The next day was more orientation, and I’m starting to get a feel for what a church actually does. I also got to help plan out the talk series for Crossfire this term which was totally awesome. I love teaching and reading and talking about the Word. The series is going to be on people who encounter Jesus, so we’ll be doing the centurion at the cross, Jairus, Saul and others like them. It’s called “Blown away by Jesus” and looks like it’ll work really well.
I also learnt a major lesson this week and it is that I’m going to really have to submit to authority. In case you’re worried it’s not because I did something wrong and got smacked down. It’s just that as I sat there I realised that there were things that I could do as member that I won’t be able to do as an intern. But it’s a good lesson, especially since I’ve never been very humble.

God’s also been very generous and I’ve pretty much got commitments to cover me for the next two years. It has been encouraging, and has really moved me, about how many people are supporting me, and how generous they are being.
Anyway that’s it from me today. See you in two weeks. Go with God. Oh, yeah, as always email’s, and questions can go to timlearningtoserve@gmail.com or just post below.