interns

Last Wednesday evening, the summer interns for UPH arrived in Copan Ruinas. With all the planning and preparing that has been done, it never fully sunk into me the task that was before me as it pertains to these interns.

Wednesday night, we all met for dinner and ate baleadas while we exchanged pleasantries and tried to start getting to know the people who would be with us for the next 6 weeks. As far as my conversations went, no really deep topics were hit and I didn't learn great amounts of information about anyone. I just tried to learn their names as best I could.

As I walked home from dinner, as I went to bed, and as I walked into work the next morning, Rick and Tammie Romano continually came to mind. Seeing the interns, their wide, expectant eyes, unknowing what experiences lay before them this summer, I was reminded of my intern experience in Mexico. As I thought more and more about how Rick and Tammie poured into us as interns, challenged and corrected us, I realized that God was now handing me an opportunity to be used as they were. I recognize that God gets the glory for all change and growth in me in my time as an intern, but I also recognize that God used two very useful tools in the form of the Romanos. My heart is humbled and elated at the same time, knowing that God has awesome blessings, growth, challenges and joys in store for these interns, and realizing that I get to be a part of that process!

For all intents and purposes, I am the interns' "boss" in so far as their experience pertains to camp. As I looked at them, I realized that God was not giving me an opportunity to have authority over people, but to walk along with them and be used by him as he stretches and molds them more into his image this summer.

The word stewardship keeps coming to mind as I think about what lies ahead. Stewardship of blessings, stewardship of skills, stewardship of gifts, stewardship of what has been entrusted to me. My prayer is to be a good, wise steward of this task that God has entrusted to me. I don't take this lightly--there are people's lives and God's plans involved.

Please be praying for me as I step into this new role (really starting tomorrow). Pray that I would lead with the heart and mind of Christ and that I would be willing to be molded and stretched along with the team of interns assigned to me.