Well this week was a little different than "normal" (is there such thing in ministry?) I have Monday's off, so I just worked on my online class and did some reading and running. Then Tuesday I went to a board of directors meeting at a camp about an hour and a half away, that was TONS of fun...if you like listening to a bunch of people repeat themselves for hours on end. Wednesday we worked of the weekly newsletter for the kids and decided on curriculum for for the next 15 weeks, that was a really good learning experience. The student ministries generally gets their stuff through youth specialties, then just modifies the curriculum to better fit their students. So I discovered that I will be teaching on the life of Paul all three times I teach at the church, which should be good! I also discovered on Wednesday that I will be teaching a lesson on holiness at JR High camp in July, so I spent any spare time I had this week brainstorming ideas on how to keep 150 JR high students engaged for 30 minutes. I also was asked to speak at a couple of camp fires at 2 & 3 grade camp, so I have a lot of teaching coming up in July :) I am trying to work ahead now because I will be at camp three out of four weeks in July. Thursday we were in the office most of the day, and I also had my weekly meeting with the youth minister to talk about the book "Your first two years in youth ministry" that went really well! I am learning a ton from Nick. Yesterday morning I worked on the computer program for the students service this weekend which was a lot of fun, I am falling in love with SongShow...Then we had a lunch meeting with one of the youth sponsors that helps out to brain storm for an upcoming parents Sunday, and also an upcoming lock-in. It's amazing how many ideas can come through one lunch meeting! It was a very productive meeting. Then we made two hospital visits, which was tough, we visited a lady who had a stroke two days ago and talked to her husband for a while. Then we went to the Children's Hospital and visited a little boy named Sam, he has cancer and has already had to lose one leg and is currently getting chemo treatments. It was tough, but a good experience. After the visits we came back to the church and I finished the computer program while Nick went over his lesson, then we put together the cue-sheet for Sunday. With the hospital visits and meetings at the camp it was a very different week, but I learned a lot about working with unexpected responsibilities. Today is the beginning of graduation party season, so I am going to a few parties with Nick and his wife, and we also have to set up the chairs for the service on Sunday. I hope and pray that everyone else is having a great experience, or at least a useful one!

-Bondo

Internship has been good in more than one way so far!

So far I have picked up my reading habits AND jogging again...I'm thinking this internship may be good for me in more than just ministry development. I am also relearning that my spiritual development needs to go BEFORE my development as a minister. This is a lesson that "your first two years in youth ministry" as well as the staff I am working with brought back to my attention, and now I am making it a priority. The summer is about to kick off, so I am going to need some accountability in staying true to this even through the chaos of a camp/trip/event packed summer.

-Bondo

Ministry is real...

Well two days ago I was listening to the news on the way home from the church and heard a story about a young man who was upset with his girl friend, the young man's sister was friends with his girl friend and she was in the car with her as she pulled away after an argument. The young man was extremely angry, and he shot at the car as it pulled away trying to shoot his girl friend. A bullet made its way into the car and struck his sister and killed her. After hearing this story I thought to myself “wow, how does that happen? What does a person do when something like this happens?” I went on with my evening without giving it another thought…
Yesterday I went into the church as usual at around 8:30; Friday is an odd day at the church because it’s one that most of the ministers choose to take off. The youth minister had to take the day off for one reason or another, the sports and outreach minister never works on Friday, and neither does the discipleship minister, the executive minister, children’s minister or the preschool minister. So it was myself, the worship minister, and the senior minister in the office. We received a call that afternoon from the father of the girl who had been killed, he needed some money for the funeral and so the secretary had him come in to do some paperwork, and talk with a minister. Well the worship minister left to go give some guitar lessons, the senior minister went to visit a man that was in jail, so it was just me at the church. I was given a crash course in how they normally handled these situations, and then started freaking out. Then about fifteen minutes before the man was suppose to arrive, the discipleship minister showed up! I was saved, well I was supposed to go meet the executive minister for dinner, but they wanted me to stay for the meeting. So I did, it was me, the discipleship minister, the father, the girls step mom, and her little sister. It was heartbreaking! I sat there as we talked to them about the situation, but I was relieved to see how the church handles situations like this, we sat and talked, prayed, counseled, talked, and prayed some more. The minister stressed how, though this was a tough situation, and we would love to help them with the money, we had a process we had to go through, and we were more worried about the families long term needs (spiritual) than their immediate needs. So we arranged some counseling and prayed before they left.
Now this may not sound like that big of a deal, but it was an incredible learning experience for me personally! It was my first experience in real, tough ministry. Now over dinner I discussed it with the executive minister, and we will be helping the family out with the funeral costs…but it was important for me to see the church take care of the primary need, the spiritual wellbeing of the people that came in prior to the material need. This was an amazing experience, in which I learned a ton! Counseling in real life is a whole lot different than with classmates in intro to YM! But I am so glad that I had some training previous to dealing with this situation, the look in the little sisters eyes was heartbreaking…she was broken, but we were able to at least give her, and her family a little bit of hope that will hopefully last longer than a funeral service…

First day in the office

Well yesterday was my first day in the office, and for some reason I randomly woke up at 4 AM and could not fall back asleep. So I went to work and got my sweet cubical set up, then I had about a two hour meeting with the Youth Minister, then he had me work on my schedule for the summer for a while. Then we had lunch, after lunch was exciting! It was my first staff meeting which actually went really well. Following the meeting I just finished up some scheduling stuff, stuffed about a 175 envelopes with the Youth Minister, and then called it a day. After work I went to a small group, which went pretty well! I enjoyed it. I just went home and read for a while after that, which is something I have been doing a lot of lately. I few days ago I began a 90 reading plan to read the entire Bible which has been crazy, but good! I also bought "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller before I left and it has also been some great reading. The other book I am reading, and talking to Nick (the youth minister) about is "Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry" by Doug Fields (aka The Man) which has been awesome! I definitely suggest that you all pick it up and read it. This summer is going to be crazy, but good! I will be at camp three out of four weeks in July, and will be at Summer in the Son one of the last weeks of June. So I'm going to be all over the place, but I'm excited about it!

Dayyyy 1

well yesterday was my first day, it went really well! I was introduced to the church, almost broke a massive TV, got an offer for dinner at a church members house AND gas money...ahhh food and gasoline, what more can you ask for???

Game Time!!!!

Well I leave tomorrow to start the summer that will hopefully be filled with tons of learning, stretching, and educational failure (by this I mean mistakes I can learn from.)! I can hardly wait to see what God does with this summer