Church Internship Summer 2011

Church Internship....Week One flies by!!!

It is hard to believe that a whole week has already gone by since I first got here to Michigan for my Church Internship. The Lord has been so good to me this week, and I praise Him for the strength and guidance He has given me this week. Here is a small synopsis of my week:

Last Saturday, I had a seven hour CPR certification class in order to get ready to teach on Monday. It went very well and it was a great refresher of all the First Aid knowledge one should know. I have to say that it brought back great memories of being in Boy Scouts a few years back. Oh, how I miss those scouting years!

Sunday was my first time attending the First Baptist Church in Laingsburg, Michigan. I was very blessed by the kind words of welcome and smiles I was given by the members. I was introduced as the 'church intern' and had the privilege of playing the piano for the offertory. There was also a church fellowship meal after the morning service. The food was great and I was able to meet more of the church members. Later that day, I got a complete tour of the school and had time to get my classroom ready for Day Camp on Monday.

Monday was the first day of Summer Day Camp! It was wonderful to get to meet the children for the first time that I will be working with all summer long. When we got to our classroom, they all introduced themselves and we played some 'get to know you' games. I had them all make name tags to help me out as I began to memorize their names. The day went very smoothly and I was very thankful to the Lord for helping me have a great start to the summer!

So, Monday to Friday went by very fast. As I looked back through the week, I am very pleased with the things we accomplished. The theme for the summer is "Warriors for Christ" from the passage in Ephesians 6:10-17. The children have already memorized Ephesians 6:10-11 this week! As for songs, this week we learned the "Balloon Song" (this song has to do with not being prideful, but humble) and will continue to learn several other songs throughout the summer. Our character quality for the week was humility. The children were able to color pages, make shields, and learn about swords. Also, we were able to begin our study of the Life of Christ beginning at His birth till his visit to Jerusalem at the age of 12. Every morning, we also have garden time when we take care of the school garden. The children water the plants and take the weeds out. We are growing a number of vegetables including tomatoes, peppers, green beans, and cabbage. In music time, we learned basic things such as rhythm, tone, melody, the music scale, and music pitches. They got to play songs together using hand bells and sing along as I played the flute and piano. In Spanish time, they all learned six colors and how to count from 1 to 10. This week was soccer week in our summer sports competitions , so we had several soccer competitions. It was so much fun to see them play soccer with huge over-sized balls! We also read the wonderful missionary story of "Tifam" that clearly shares the Gospel message. Each day we had a special activity as well: Monday - Scavenger Hunt, Tuesday - Olympic Day, Wednesday - Water Day, Thursday - Bike Day, and Friday - Ice Cream Day. From games to crafts, we were busy all week long!

The group of children that I am working with for the most part are children that are not familiar with the Gospel or the Bible. Thus, throughout the week, I was able to teach many Bible truths for the first time to them. Basic Bible things such as the details behind the birth of Christ were new things to some of these children. I was very touched by their eagerness to learn about the Bible and memory verses, and I made a huge effort to be complete and thorough in my lectures and Bible stories. I have a great opportunity to be a shining light to all these children, and possibly lead some of them to Christ this summer. I pray that I will stay close to the Lord and be a willing and useful vessel for Him.

Besides working at the Summer Day Camp, I also participated in some church activities that were a blessing as well. These included a church baseball game outing, Wednesday night Youth group meeting, and a high school graduation open house. I have been able to get to know some of the members better this week, and I look forward to getting to know more of them this summer.

Well, that is a small report of my week here in Michigan. Following are some pictures of the week. I appreciate all of your prayers and encouragement! I will continue to post updates about my "missionary training" here in Laingsburg, Michigan!