week 9

My hours this week were:
Thursday 9am-3pm
Friday 9am-1pm
Total for the week is 10 hours
Total hours is 128.5 hours.

WOW- took me a week to get back in the office and I was pretty tired after our Cedar Point trip and then our Bike for Africa trip with JCB. Bike for Africa was awesome, the kids raise money to purchase bicycles for Mozambique pastors by getting sponsors for their 48 mile bike ride and 3 day retreat at the Shunem missionary house. It was a really cool experience for me because I have been submerged in this missionary culture at WGM and have gained a new appreciation for missionaries through the work I am doing there. Before this internships missionaries just existed- now I understand a lot more about what they have to do and go through and how hard it is for them to raise support and how much they care about the field. This summer has shaped the way I view missions and that’s mostly thanks to WGM. I have even started to sponsor the Bowlins, a missionary family with Global Partners who were in New Zealand but are now headed to Papua New Guinea.

This week I worked Thursday and Friday. Just did a lot of writing. I have 2 stories and 4 ministry updates in approval process and editing right now. I am working on another story and still have another ministry update I am waiting on information for. By now everthing is routine and I am just go go go. Hopefully there will be enough work to keep me busy for the next few weeks. I have a full week next week, then have a week off, and then another full week the 2nd week of August, then I will be done. I want to make sure I am not just killing time there, but at the same time it is hard to start projects this close to the end because you might never hear back from the people you need to hear from!

Still learning a lot about the culture at WGM and how important it is to like the people you work with. It is interesting though, because the people at WGM are really nice, but sometimes the conversation is still a little forced, whereas when I am with JCB staff its just like hanging out with friends. It is just interesting, but really cool to get to talk with the people at WGM, because while they are teaching me about missions, I get to tell them about youth ministry and how it is all really similar :D and the cool things that students are capable of- like Bike for Africa!