Internation

I am now in week four of my journey at Twin Rocks. They have been very busy, stretching and life-giving weeks. The four of us interns, me Megan Harding, Matt Dayton and Scott Bay, went through a pretty intense orientation together before settling into a "routine." I put quotation marks around routine because while we have our assigned projects in the office and regular housekeeping work no week is the same as the one before. I love the job even more for this.

My assigned projects are: co-coordinating Junior High Jamboree with Scott, and putting together the summer camp brochure. I am very excited about both of these projects! Junior High Jamboree is a passion of mine in large part because of the high school planning committee I get to work with. Nothing gives me more joy and life than working with youth in leadership roles. It's so rewarding to support them as they run the weekend for their peers, and it is so important for the middle school youth to see some solid high schoolers leading their weekend.

The brochure is coming along really well. I am so excited to learn as much as I can about publication in ministry. Joe has a lot of faith in me, which I feel I have been able to flourish under, and it has been fun taking creative ideas from the other interns as well. I am eager to pick the brains of every experienced person I work with on this project. It is so nice to feel a life-flow through my writing again. I haven't been truly energized by writing like this since college.

Housekeeping is another important part of this internship. Though some of the tasks have seemed tedious and difficult, I have yet to feel that I am "working." Every day, no matter what I am doing, I feel like I am serving the Kingdom of God by serving Twin Rocks. I enjoy all of it, especially thanks to the amazing people I get to work with! There are awesome stories hidden in the lives of everyone who works alongside me and I can't wait to learn them.

Today was awesome. Megan and Scott were busy with TRACKS (Twin Rocks' after school program for kids) all day, and Matt and I were supposed to be working in the office all day. After working all morning I went into the staff room for lunch where two of the maintenance guys were sitting and talking. They gave each other suspicious looks then Jeff said, "Hey Emily, you feel like laying cement today?" Of course I burst out laughing, "Sure Jeff, good one." I had never done anything close to laying cement in my life. "No seriously, we really need help today," Jeff looked pretty serious. "Well, if you really want my help you'll have to talk to Joe."

So he ran downstairs and in a few minutes came back up followed by Joe and Matt. "Are you serious?" I was shocked at the nod from Joe. "Flexibility, Emily," he said. After finishing up lunch and changing I found myself beside Matt with a rake in hand waiting for cement to pour out of the truck.

Matt and I had so much fun laying cement for the rest of the afternoon! It was sunny and about eighty degrees, a perfect day to be working outside. I learned some new skills and at one point had to use my whole body weight to hold a large tree branch out of the way for about ten minutes. We worked really hard and felt good about the job we had done. It was really fun for me to work alongside the maintenance guys who I rarely get to interact with. Joe, Stephanie and Hope came by to see our progress and Jeff told them that I now wanted to be a maintenance intern. . . I don't know about that, but I would enjoy working with them on other projects from time to time.

This evening I feel relaxed and exhausted after a day of hard manual labor, and looking forward to a day off tomorrow! This weekend we have the opportunity to go to a leadership retreat put on by the Murdock Foundation that funds our internships. We don't know quite what to expect, but hoping for a great time to learn more and grow together.

I feel so blessed to be in this beautiful place with these wonderful people where I feel I can really shine.