It has been really great so far, other than leaving home to be back in Knoxville for the summer.
Today was one of my favorite days so far.
Well first I better tell you what we've done so far. The program that I'm involved in is the Leadership Training Program. We do a pretty intense bible study called Revol and I work with middle school students. The internship is to help us learn how to minister to the community better in our every day life.
On Mondays, a person from the community comes and tells us about their job and how they live out their faith in their jobs. They talk about the topic that we have for the week, and the first one that we had was really interesting.
Tuesdays is mostly a ministry day. I am working with middle school students this summer so that will be a main day that I spend time with them. Tuesdays we also have practical learning, which is so fun and really just a bonding time between us 7 interns. Yesterday we learned how to play the drums (so practical).
On our list we also have learn to:
- change tires, change the oil, and drive stick shift
- smock (like the little girl dresses)
- wakeboard and salsa dance
- woodwork (make a desk or something like that)
- make a Thanksgiving dinner from scratch
- and some other ones that I can't remember off the top of my head
Wednesdays we have a paper due on the topic that we are studying that week. This week was Unity. Then we go and do community service. Today was incredible! I'll get back to that later.
Thursdays we have class for 2 hours. We have a discussion about the topic for the week. Then we have office hours and are done.
That is just the scheduled stuff, and we hang out with students at the other times, building relationships.
So, back to today! We went on a tour of Knoxville ministries. We started out pulling into the Dollar General parking lot. Mrs. Kathy told us about how many poor people have to decide if they want to get something they need, like socks, or if they want to eat. She told us that we could spend our lunch money on something for the poor people or we could get lunch later. But we couldn't do both; we had to choose as they chose. I (embarassing, but reluctantly) bought the poor people some things along with all of the other interns. I knew it was the right thing to do but my stomach was growling at 11 and we wouldn't be done till 5. I wish I could have done that happily.
Anyways, we took the things that we bought to a place called Water Angels where a lot of homeless people hang out and go to church and have bible studies each day. I got to sit next to a man who was from Florida and didn't seem to really be with it, but he surprised me by carrying on a conversation after a few minutes. I really liked him! We served them Chik-fil-A (still not happy that I wasn't getting any and my stomach was growling), but Mrs. Kathy surprised us and told us to get some Chik-fil-A! It was some of the best lunch I've ever had after thinking I was going to starve to death from 6 hours of hunger. So we ate and then heard a few of the homeless men and women's testimonies which were AWESOME. That was probably my favorite part of the day, seeing these people completely changed by the gospel who rely on the Father for their EVERY need.
Apparently Knoxville is the place to go if you're homeless because we have so many places for them to eat and go and live. A few people said that, and the people I met were all from other cities but came here for the shelters. I think that's really cool that we have so many awesome organizations.
I really hope I'll get the chance to go back to these places even after the summer is over. I know I'll be back this summer because it's part of my internship, so I'm really looking forward to that!
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