It has been quite awhile since I updated my progress with the internship, so we have quite a bit of catching up to do! I will highlight the major events from the third week:
Monday June 21st, 2010
First day of the Youth camp. The instructors introduced themselves to the kids, and there were great reviews overall. I ended up arriving right after this, since I accidentally took the wrong bus to the other side of campus. That was quite an adventure...
Anyways, I met a lot of the staff, ate dinner at the cafeteria with everyone (the food was pretty good), and then attended the evening worship service. I met Walnes, a haitian dancer/painter/musician, and I'm sure there's something I am leaving out. He's a talented guy, with a great sense of humor. We hit it off, and he showed me some of his watercolor paintings. They were so beautiful, and now I've been inspired to go play around with the paintbrush a bit more. ;)
The evening worship service follows form that is pretty consistent. Worship (hymns, Old & New Testament Readings, formal prayer), Sermon, Communion Ceremony, Closing worship, Benediction. This is the way the Methodists do it. I really do appreciate the liturgy. It's beautiful. I feel like we've lost something in modern "contemporary" Christianity, but approaching God in such an informal way. To have the formality is to also realize that we are sinners, petitioning a holy God who is completely "other" than ourselves. Though we may try to define Him, we simply cannot begin - we do not even know where to begin.
Tuesday June 22nd, 2010
On Tuesday, I worked on some brochures and other assignments during the morning. That afternoon, I went on campus in the early afternoon. I got lost (parking issues again), and had to walk a mile in the middle of the day. It took a long time, and I was still about 20 minutes late to her class. She had offered to show me the parking garage I could park in the night before, but I thought I could google it and find it. That turned out to be a bad idea, because google sent me to some little side road next to the campus police department (why!?) When I finally arrived, I had the opportunity to observe Ronya's sacred dance class with the youth. It is really interesting how you can format a class to give "non-dancers" the opportunity to enjoy worshipping God through movement. I attended the evening service again, and enjoyed the music especially.
Wednesday June 23rd, 2010
On Wednesday, I took a class at a local dance studio. I really enjoyed it. It was so fun! It was a contemporary/lyrical class, which was really cool because it's something I've been wanting to take for awhile. Contemporary is really close to modern/lyrical, but the goal is to extend your body to it's farthest reach, which I think gives it a more emotional feel & look. Throughout the dance, the teacher had a "hand motif" where the right hand clapped over your mouth. At first, I thought it was cool. But now I think she was a little bit obsessed with the hand over the mouth pose...maybe just a different gesture every now and then (in the choreography) would have been better visually. After dance, I grabbed a bite to eat on campus. When I was going to catch the bus back to my car, I realized (after waiting for half an hour) that the bus stopped running at 9pm. So I called Ronya & luckily, she was already in her car & gave me a ride to my car, so it all worked out!
Thursday June 24th, 2010
Thursday morning was the same- I worked on projects that I have been given, and headed out a little bit after lunch to observe Ronya's class (dance). I had planned to park in a garage that was close to her classroom, but it ended up being completely full. So I parked where I had parked on Tuesday and walked a mile to the class. When I finally got there, all of the exterior doors were locked...I wanted to cry! I had walked all that way in the scorching heat, and been trying to maintain a cheerful attitude, but this was just too much. I'm pretty sure I muttered "Are you kidding me??" when I found that the exterior doors were locked.
On the bright side, after the second set of doors proved to be locked as well, I saw people entering the first door I had tried and I got in. I was still about five minutes late to the class, but at least it was better than Tuesday (it was still super disappointing though...)
Thursday night was a hospitality dinner, so I got some dinner on my own. Then I came back for the worship service.
Friday June 25th, 2010
Friday I came early in the morning to a "Plenary Session", which is basically a teaching session, where the kids at the camp are also encouraged to ask questions, etc. It was very interesting-this particular session was focused on the suffering of Christ on our behalf, and what it means for us. Around lunchtime, I worked on some more projects off campus, and that night I came back on campus for the worship session. It was focused on Christ's death. One thing that I thought was pretty cool was that they turned the altar around from saying Alleluia, to the other side. On the alternate side, it says "I Thirst." That's it! It is the side that they turn it to every year during Lent to commemorate the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior.
Saturday June 26th, 2010
Today I went home for Isaac's GMA ceremony. I left at 5:45AM from my host family's home, arrived at the campus by 6:20, and took Ronya to the airport by 7AM. I was on the road home pretty early, and arrived at about 9AM. It was so awesome to see everyone. It ended up being a super busy day, getting ready for the ceremony, etc. It was a beautiful awards ceremony, and the food turned out deeliciously! My mom went all out with amazing Bolivian cookies and pastries. I helped keep the punch bowl fully stocked, and shopped at Wal-Mart (eww). My Aunt Lucy & fam attended, as well as my cousin Amyleigh, & grandparents. Also, Jeff & his mom came, so that was awesome, since they helped us videotape & prep/clean up the food for the reception. Gotta love awesome friends!
Sunday June 27th, 2010
Today I was finally able to rest up. I had been so drained from the week at the internship, with all of the parking ordeals (they really had started stacking up!). I went to my home church, and it was a refreshing, timely word from Craig Groeschel. It was about having Unstoppable Courage in the face of fear and anxiety. The thing that he said that impacted me the most was this: "the pathway to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear." Powerful and so challenging. Prior to this, God had really been speaking to me about how many times I rush to say "...but I can't!" It's draining. It kills faith and creativity. It is unbelief. And He has definitely been challenging me to champion past this mentality, to new levels of unshakeable belief in Him and the truth of His word.
Monday June 28th, 2010
This was the day I utilized to back into the groove of everything. I primarily worked the first half of the day at home, then headed on campus for the night session. It was a great transition day for the final leg of my month long journey. This was the first day of the final week of the internship, so I started making lists of items that needed attention and prioritizing them, which really helped me plan for the rest of the week as well. Yay for planning days! :)
More soon,
Lysandra
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