University Internship

So I thought when I graduated from college I would be done with all things related to internships. It did not bother me to find out I was wrong. One of the goals we have as a team of missionaries is to capacitate others to be spiritual leaders. We want to train others to train other to train others, thus actively participated in the idea of multiplying Christian leaders, churches, servants. One of the ways that we are working toward this goal is by hosting week-long missionary internships for university students. Twice a year, these students will have the opportunity to spend a week with our team in Tarma getting a realistic idea of what missionary life is really like, as well as learn the method to our madness :). These students are coming from the ADIEL churches in Lima and are recommended to us by the senior pastor of each church. This past week was our first internship, and we were delighted to host two students from two different churches. Diego is an 18 year old from La Viña, (Elsa’s home church) who is currently studying to be a lawyer. Diego helps with the youth and plays guitar on the worship team. He has had quite a bit of short-term missions experience and has shown an interest in long-term missions. Sayuri is a 19-year old from El Redentor (Julio’s home church) who is currently studying “pastelería” – to become a dessert chef – yum! Of course we welcomed her with open arms! Sayuri has also had quite a bit of missions experience and has expressed a desire to do full-time missions both here in Peru, and overseas working with the Muslim community. The week, though packed full, went extremely fast and Diego and Sayuri participated in everything and went everywhere we did. The week consisted of mission-based workshops, devotionals and testimonies, leading Bible studies in the community, getting to know the community and eating a lot of local food. By the end of the week Diego and Sayuri both lead a team devotional, and shared their testimonies. Sayuri helped with a children’s lesson at one of our Bible studies and Diego led some worship. They also worked on a presentation about all that they learned while here – to go back and present to their churches. This first internship week went really well and Diego and Sayuri were the perfect guinea pigs. Both are mature believers and we were more than happy to spend the week teaching them.
Our second internship week will be in August of this year. We hope to have 4-6 students come then, and Diego and Sayuri may return to help us lead the event. I was really encouraged by this week because it was one of the first times that I was able to do capacitating. This is something that I really enjoy doing, and prefer to do over other ministry things. Most of our ministry right now is focused on evangelism since we are having so many Bible studies with non-believers. This is wonderful, except that my strengths lie in the teaching/discipling areas. So I was very happy to be able to exercise my gifts this week. Please be praying for Diego and Sayuri as they go back and present to their churches this coming Sunday. Pray for other students to be inspired with the desire to learn more about missions and participating in short and long-term teams.