Plans

So I had one week since I've been home to get my act together before I started school at Pacific Bible College. I am doing their one year program Certificate in Christian Ministry. I am also working part time at Anna Maria Retirement Home as a waitress. As some of you know I worked there before I left for my internship. It is going to be an exciting year, with lot's of new opportunities. For next fall I'm planning to go to Portland to study American Sign Language Interpreting. Like I said there's more opportunities then I know what to do with at the moment. I'm excited to see what the Lord has planned and I will keep you all updated about what's going on.

I'm Home!

Well, this post is a little belated as I have been home for 5 weeks now. But I hit the ground running so to speak. And so have my fellow interns. It's really weird to think that I have been home 4 weeks shy of the amount of time I was gone. Yet I feel like the internship was so much of my life. I learned so much and met so many people, all of which and whom I am grateful for. I am especially grateful for the 7 ladies that went on this amazing journey with me. We laughed, we cried, we learned together, and we experienced God's love through this amazing journey together. Not only have I gained amazing hands on experience and learned from godly, humble leaders in the field of disability ministry, but I have gained 7 life-long friends that are irreplaceable. In such a short amount of time, we developed tons of inside jokes (which has been a hard part of transitioning back home, because nobody gets the jokes here), as well as relationships that will be for life and I know that they will always be there for me and I will be there for them.

We got to work with McLean Bible Church in Virginia. They have an amazing disability ministry called Access. It is named Access because they want people to remember that everyone should have access to God no matter what their ability is. We also got to work with Jill's House which is an organization that provides respite for families affected by Intellectual/Developmental disabilities. I highly encourage you to watch the videos that they have on their website, My fellow interns and I could not watch them without crying. I think part of our problem was we know the kids in the videos, but I truly think that you will be touched as well. We also went to the Dominican Republic (DR) for 10 days. There were so many parts of the internship that were my favorite, (I think the better question would have to be, "What part was not your favorite?") but getting to go to the DR is high on the list of favorites.

Even though the internship was only 2.5 months of my life, I get terribly homesick for Virginia, for the other interns, for life how it was during that 2.5 months. Due to this experience I am even more motivated to minister to families and individuals affected by disability, but not to just minister to them, but minister with them. My desire is to be a friend first, and care provider second. And I always hope and pray that I will remember my own inability first, before I notice an other's inability.