Thursday, we did another video shoot. However, this time we were accompanied by the kids and the middle school kids as well. The shoot went very well and got done much sooner than planned. Although it was awfully hot, I believe the kids all had a great time helping us with the video! I for one cannot wait to see how it turned out. When it was time to say good-bye, none of the kids wanted to go home. They all wished they could stay and hang out in the lodge for a while. Saying good-bye is not easy but I promised the kids I will go and hang out with them when I can find the time! I hope to be joined by other interns when I do this! The hugs that you receive from those children is priceless because you can feel the love that they have for you because you have spent so much time investing in them and actually caring about them.

We had one more nursery/twos church/preschool to finish up planning for on Friday morning but at 10, all the rooms were empty and we were ready to celebrate the wonderful summer God has given each one of us. At 10:00, we went outside and tie-dyed t-shirts. They looked great when we were working on them and I can’t wait to see how everyone’s turned out! For our next activity, we ventured off to Grand King Buffett for some Chinese food for lunch. We had a wonderful time just getting to talk to each other for the last time as and “official” intern group.

________________________________________

LEXI – And Jesus said to the woman, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace,” Luke 8:48. This verse has been on my heart lately, and God hasn’t let it float far from me yet. In the midst of the final planning, and ultimately the great celebration, I guess we hope that we can find peace in telling our “kids” this. After a rather tiresome week in Briarwood, our team found themselves trying to scoop up energy from anywhere. Of course the only place to find that energy is in God, and that’s what we did. Despite the frustrations and the exhaustion, each one of our teammates can walk away saying to these children, we’ve taught you what you need to know. Jesus loves you, and you should celebrate that. You are saved by Him, and in him you should live in peace. Now telling this to someone so young, doesn’t exactally make sense but, there is a more simplistic story that does. RAYAN’S STORY: Returning to the kids after a week at Saddle Ridge Ranch was part of the exhaustion but also part of the pure joy. Seeing their faces light up again is the best gift God can give us. Anyway two of the leaders were at the swings, myself included, and I began singing one of the VBS songs to Rayan, a reserved four year old. He smiled of course, but told me basically that I had it all wrong, and that he had a different song that was his favorite. He looked at me, and told me “I am who He says I am.” My heart smiled, I faced smiled, and Jesus smiled. He may not understand that His faith has saved Him, and in Jesus he may find peace, but He knows that He is loved, and was made to be nothing but himself. The frustration and the exhaustion can not even compare to the pure joy that is instilled in each one of those kids hearts. We don’t always see that our efforts and planning are working, but we know our love is. And we know too, that love never fails. So as we plunge into an emotional week of hopefull farewell, we hold each one of them in our hearts and in our prayers although we won’t be holding them in our hands in longer. They will be held forever by the graceful, peaceful, and loving hands of God!

Even though VBS went well, I must say I miss my kids very much and I cannot wait until next Tuesday to see them again. Many of them came throughout the week and I got to see them when they registered in. I was greeted with hugs and smiles every day. Just seeing their faces light up when they see a familiar face, really warms the heart. I am so thankful that I have had this opportunity of the internship to build bonds with the neighborhood kids. It has been such an amazing experience and I do not want it to ever end. Hopefully the last two weeks of the internship go by very slowly because I do not want to say goodbye. On the other side of things (not trying to become sad) it was Jeffrey’s birthday this week. Happy Birthday Jeffrey! The interns and the kids will definitely be celebrating his birthday, along with some others next week when we meet for Kids Club. I can’t wait!

____________________________

DEREK-  The volunteers were prepared, the weather was great, and the kids were many. This year’s Vacation Bible School went very smoothly and Calvary was able to impact 700 some kids. At first I felt uncertain about the Saddle Ridge theme of this year, that the kids may not enjoy it as much. But it turned out that the theme was a huge hook for the kids. I feel it was mostly because of the attention and affection that the puppet had towards the ranch. The songs this year were incredible as well, jam packed with spiritual truths, the love of God, and lots of fun.

The middle school grades is what all of the interns worked with and got to know all week. Our connection with them grew so fast, I guess that is what happens when you meet every morning. Just being able to see their smiling faces while we worship together and hear them sing at the top of their lungs and jump around brought such a joy to our hearts. On top of it all to hear them all grow in their knowledge and love of Jesus from everything that is VBS is like a beautiful melody. These are only my observations as the Game-Dude for the week, I can only imagine how much love the group leaders have developed for their kids in this one week. Makes me wish VBS would not be limited to one week of the summer.

This was the eighth week in our internship and VBS was obviously a good break of routine. The challenge we face now is, that we only have two weeks left. No one likes the idea of not working together anymore. I’m sure we will make the most of the rest of our time together and will probably continue to hang out once this is all done. The relationships we have built are eternal in Christ Jesus and I’m sure that seeing the face of another intern when its all said and done will bring inexpressible joy to my heart. Thanks Jesus

This morning, Daniel challenged us all to think about all the noise we have in our lives, and we reflected on 1 Kings 19:10-12. This talks about when God showed himself to Elijah not in a wind, earthquake, or fire, but in a still, small voice. One thing that really hit me was how we talk with others and worry so much when we are faced with a difficult situation, when we should use the time to talk to God about it. At the very end of our discussion, Daniel challenged our group to try a new way to reach out to the kids and teach them more about the Creator. Team Awesome took this very seriously, and went into the prayer room to listen to an idea that Derek had. He talked about the many healings he has witnessed, the power of prayer, and how we should make a point of praying more often for the kids, even one-on-one. We discussed how we should try to intentionally take the children aside and see if they have any struggles they would like to talk about/receive prayer for.

During Freestyle, we took the kids to Bouw’s Pool, but were only there for about 10 minutes when it began to thunder. We returned to church and played games. It was really cool to see the way the students all interacted with each other, and I can tell that new relationships are being built through this program. After Freestyle, we discussed bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth, and how we can do this within our ministry. We are going to continue to wrestle with this question as we enter VBS week.

Hello, I’m Dan Johnson and I’m a 2010 intern. Today it was raining so we moved into Ross’ basement and had fun down there for 2 hours. Being in the basement is tough because those kids go crazy in such a closed in space. Right now were averaging around 18 kids every Tuesday and Thursday. Most are from the briarwood neighborhood but a couple kids are from elsewhere like 80 east apartments and James street. Normally we are in the backyard which is nice because there is plenty of room for the kids to romp around and there is a play set with swings and monkey bars and a sandbox for them to play in. Today our lesson was David and Goliath and to help them remember the story we gave each of them rocks and wrote their name on it to remind them that God can help you win your battles in life just like he helped David win his. Normally we try and do an interactive lesson with the kids because it helps them if they have something to take home after kids club is done. Tuesday we did the story of Jericho and we had each kid color a brick and put it on the castle that we made and then we read them the story of Joshua and Jericho and had them walk around it just like in the story. Overall that strategy seems to work pretty well because the kids really seem to understand that were teaching them that God loves them and the lessons are simple enough that they know what were talking about.

On Thursday we wrapped up our fasting we had started the last week and dove into a new spiritual discipline of accountability. We took what we had learned Tuesday to the next level by rating each member of our teams on how they fit in each category in order to recalibrate our group. It was difficult to be so critical toward others, but we all knew we were doing it out of honesty and love. The rest of the mornings my group planned for Kids Club, making things and fetching supplies. When it came time for Kids Club we decided to walk and pick up as many kids as we could in order to connect with the kids and their parents if possible. On Tuesday we learned about when Pharaoh’s daughter found baby Moses. The kids got their own paper baby that they could color and could put it in a basket cup in a pool.

On Thursday we learned about the ten plagues and had a scavenger hunt to find all the plagues. I think the kids really enjoy the stories and the hands on experience makes it that much more fun. We also had fun with a water day Thursday afternoon. We had water balloons, sprinklers, buckets, and a pool. It was a ton of fun for the kids and the interns. I think this summer is going really well and all the kids and interns have just been such blessings to me as our relationships continue to grow. We are all excited for the upcoming Vacation Bible School which a lot of the kids will be attending. I just can’t wait to see what God has in store for us the rest of the summer.

MATT – As I have come to the half way point of the internship, I continue to have fun, and I continue to grow spiritually as I was hoping originally. Week five, like the others, has held its fair share of surprises, as well as predictable turnouts. We continue to work in our ministry teams, the Elementary team and the Middle School team. I have been blessed enough to find a great amount of fulfillment from working with the middle schoolers. Freestyle, the ministry has run fairly successfully numbers wise thus far. The attendance is pretty consistence, but for me personally, I evaluate the success on how the kids absorb what we say; what’s taken away. It’s a real blessing for me to have the ability to talk to these kids about all aspects of the faith. Whether it be from discussing the role of the church, or actually talking to these kids about the truth of salvation, I have been blessed to such a great extent. With the spiritual aspect of the ministry, I enjoy just hanging out with the guys. Small group discussions with the guys, along with Austin and Derek are great; usually pretty engaging with some prompting, but I also love just the simplicity of playing football or basketball with them.

As far as the interns go, I have enjoyed every ounce of time I have had with them thus far. I love being around all of them, and I have really learned a lot from every one. It’s sweet to see the individuality in everyone, and just watching how our respect for one another has become so mutual, that everyone genuinely appreciates one another. It’s a real indirect learning experience, just being around the others, as I watch myself slowly observe and in some cases adapt the small little tendencies of the others. Simply put, I just love how God has molded each one of us into a group of Christ followers, yet very different individuals, with real souls and real personalities.

It’s been a wonderful blessing, as well, to be around Daniel on a daily basis. Personally, I have more than a ton of respect for him, and I have a lot of admiration for him. Our devotions in the morning and leadership training are the most direct learning moments with him. For me, it’s a great thing to be apart of when I go up to the top of the lodge at 9, and Daniel engages with us in discussions and spiritual disciplines; simply the passion he invests in what God is saying through him is a real sight. It’s God at work through him, helping us, and I can’t begin to express how much it has influenced me. It’s been a great experience, I love the people, I love the kids, and I love getting up every day and seeing that God always has something to teach me. It’s my prayer he continues to speak to me, and that the Spirit will take control every day in my life and the internship’s tasks.

LEXI – Another great week of fellowship. The general rhythm is beginning to kick in, however our schedule never gets old. Smiling faces, hands on experience, games, bible stories, and love consume our days; and what a privilege such consumption is. There is no greater work, than that which God is currently allowing our teams to do. With the return of now familiar kids, and also new faces coming to greet us each day of “work” we cant help but smile. The chance to teach these kids that God is there in storms and sunshine, as well as we are there in storms and sunshine. It’s so great to know that what we have asked for in prayer, blessing on the children, the physical and mental ability to greet them each day, the planning, and the return of each individual child each day has been answered. When each children returns we know that something, just something is pulling them back to us each Tuesday and Thursday. No matter what that something is, we know that with the help of our loving hearts and skillful hands, and of course God, it’s happening, and it’s good. Each day, we take away just as much learning as each adventurous, longing, and hopeful child at Kids Club. And on that note, the formation inside of us, is just as immense as the formation inside of each of those young children. We have been given this opportunity by God, to learn, love, teach, and be taught by Him, and one another. There is no greater thing than love, and as the Bible says, love never fails. It’s really just neat to know that obligation and pay don’t pull us to our work each day, but love, excitement, fellowship and thirst of Jesus Christ do instead.

Where to begin?! This week was our first week with the ministries of kids club for the elementary kids and freestyle for the middle school students. We started Tuesday morning with an eLeadership lesson with Daniel. We talked about different leadership styles and we had the opportunity to take some self-evaluations to let us know what type of leader we are. With that, we now have a better understanding of the leadership style each person in our group possesses. After eLeadership, we headed outside for staff prayer. We joined with the other members of the church staff that were working and spent some time with the Lord together.

Next, we were off to planning. However, we pretty much knew what we weregoing to do. Our first lesson was on creation. Collectively as a team we decided to start with the Old Testament stories and work our way into the New Testament. The kids took it well and the game that obtained to creation also went over as well as it could have. Tuesday was a lot of getting to know the kids and to begin learning their names so we can get rid of the nametags! Also, it was a fairly mellow day because it was the first day and we as well as the kids need to get a hold of the “daily” routine. We were interested in figuring out the kids different personalities and interests. Today, we started our day off again with Daniel. Instead of doing an eLeadership, we did an eDiscipline today. First of all, we wrapped up our discipline from last week, which was journaling. Then we moved on to divine reading Deuteronomy 10:12-22. After that, we shared what we wrote down based on these three questions, What word/phrase/image comes to mind?, what does it have to do with me?, and what does God want me to do with this insight? After we shared our questions with our partner, we prayed over each other. Daniel introduced our new spiritual discipline that we will be practicing this week, simplicity. We will be keeping track of our daily schedule and then at some point during the week we need to write down all the gadgets around our houses. On Wednesday we will be answering the question; how has my schedule and gadgets complicated my life with God and others? . We encourage you to explore this discipline with us during the course of the week. Once we were done with that meeting, we went into our rooms for planning and getting snacks. Then, off to Briarwood we went! The children were excited to see us there again! Story went over very well and the kids paid lots of attention to the story, which was really neat to see! Once again, we got to know names a little better and are starting to build relationships with these children that God has put in this summer program that we as interns are blessed to be a part of! We are really looking forward to the rest of the summer and we had a great first week to kick off the summer!!! Please continue to pray that God touches the hearts of these young children and that we may be a blessing unto them as we have been blessed by our Father!

Today, Thursday, we started the day with eDISCIPLINE. We really dug deeper into the concepts of spirituality, discipline, and spiritual discipline. We looked at the discipline of a couple musicians and saw what a difference it made. We applied that to our own lives, and our spiritual discipline. The definition for spiritual discipline is this: Interacting with God throughout the day so that you may increasingly be formed into the likeness of Jesus. We were also reminded that we can not do this on our own, but that we need it to be covered in grace. We were left with this thought; you can’t dream if you don’t practice, and you won’t practice if you don’t have fun. Our experiment for this week is to journal daily. We are going to “learn to become alert to life through writing and reflecting on God’s presence and activity in, around, and through us” After our devotions we split into our teams to plan. My team planned for our big kick-off party, canvassed around Briarwood, and made quite a few phone calls. After some hard thinking and working, we took a break and headed out to the train tracks to shoot our introduction video, and some photos. It was a good time =) That’s a summary of the first two days. It has been great so far, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store! -KATELYN

So much has happened between Tuesday and Thursday! We have established our teams. I was put on the Elementary team that consists of me, Rachael, Kylie, Justin, Lexi, and Dan. Tuesday started off with everyone listening to Don Cousins and his lesson on the foundation of leadership.  It really put things into perspective because if we become good leaders in the kids life then we can have a lasting impact on them. After Don was done talking we split into our groups and started preparing for our kids club that starts next week tuesday and for sunday school.

Thursday started off great with eDISCIPLINES lead by Daniel. We talked about spirituality. It took everyone a while to come up with of definition for spirituality. We were asked good questions about our own spirituality which we all had to think about. As the lesson progressed we talked about Spiritual Discipline. As we ended Daniel gave us an assignment which is to journal until next week Thursday. We are encouraged to journal these three questions:
*What was the best part of our day and why?
*What was the worst part and why?
*Where did I see God?

For the rest of the day we continued to plan for kids club and then planning for sunday. The last two hours we had a group photo shoot by Steve Kammeraad. All in all these past two full days of work have been great and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer looks like! -KELSEY

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” –Brian Tracy

Wow! What an excellent first day to the internship. The day started off bright and early at seven as we as a group of students headed out to Grace Adventures. Things were quiet for a while but once we challenged ourselves to the bonding activities, we found ourselves becoming a team. A team instead of just a group of students. Together, we were tested. Our limits were tested on the high ropes course, as we faced our fears while encouraging each other along the way. We were pushed to stretch ourselves out of our comfort zones. We were challenged to become one instead of nine (sadly we were missing three of our interns, but we are all so excited for them to join us soon).

One thing I will be taking from the day is what Grace made aware to us before the high ropes course. We became aware of these three words: Challenge, Effort, and Support. All three words dealt with the course at hand but also can be applied to this summer. After all, we are challenging ourselves by being vulnerable to what God has planned. We are longing to put all of our effort into showing the love of Jesus Christ to the kids in the community, and lastly we are supporting of one another every step of the way throughout every up and down. Overall, I cannot contain my excitement for this summer! I cannot wait to see how God works within each intern and to see how they grow.

-Rachael Van Oss
___________________________________
Calvary’s Leadership Training at Grace Adventure

The day out at Grace Adventure with Calvary was, put simply, amazing. It was an incredible experience unlike I’ve ever had. I was consistently surprised by the level effectiveness, creativity, and joy that Grace was showing through their staff and their program. Beyond having a wonderful Grace intern to lead us, Calvary’s intern group felt like a perfect candidate and compliment to the program.

The beginning of our training experience began with a couple of casual familiarizing activities in which we learned about each other while having fun. Laughing while bridging the easy gaps we had between us because of our previous lack of time together. Then after getting to know one another a little more as individuals and as a group we all set goals for the entire group. Everyone knowing a little bit about what they applied for knew that there needed to be some sort of stepping out of our comfort zones to allow growth. The group also agreed on other goals such as finding each others leadership styles, encouraging  and supporting one another, and understanding everyone’s limits.

Now we moved onto the challenges, which were tactfully picked to bring out elements that are easy to overlook when planning or setting goals. Right away we were confronted with difficult challenges and frustration that was felt throughout the whole group. After the first challenge we each discussed how this element of frustration impacted us as a group and individuals. Leading us to add the goal of not being destructive in our frustration but rather more determined. The next two challenges pushed our team even further into elements of patience, perseverance, endurance, coordination, trust, and consistently going above and beyond. While we did all of these challenges different people were elected leaders and we all got a glimpse into their leadership styles. Even under the main leader of the group we learned leadership styles of other group members as they stepped forth with ideas, help, support, and direction, and insightful questions to create a clear vision for the group.

After lunch we all took on the high ropes course. Assigned a teammate or two we all ascended twenty feet in the air to do tight rope walking, tire swing hopping, balance beams, a rock wall, and various other contraptions to traverse. This is where we were all pushed beyond our physical confidence and ability comfort zones. Admist this encouragement became key. When unsure if you can actually accomplish the task ahead of you the supporting words of your group mates became huge confidence builders.

At the end of it all everyone, especially the Grace interns, were excitably surprised at how well we all did. We did not do everything perfectly but we all had a determination and commitment to our goals and values that exceeded our imperfect nature. And working together as one whole body, with all of our varying strengths, we were able to compensate.  Then seeing how we need each other as a body we also recognize that we need a head to the body, a leader to direct. And it is my hope that everyone now has a better understanding of exactly how much we really need Christ as the head of our body while we do ministry.

-Derek Ermatinger