In the Beginning...

It's official! I am now an Intern for the NEXT Teen ministry. Our Internship started on June 1st, and what a crazy, exciting two weeks it has been! This blog will be my place to keep you all updated about my ministry experience and what God has been teaching me and how He has been growing me during this internship. If you're taking the time to read this, then Thank You for being a part of my team! I appreciate any thoughts and prayer that come my way. 

We kicked off our Internship with an ALL DAY Saturday Intern/Youth Worker retreat to prepare us for the upcoming Summer. It was so great! We got the layout of how the summer would work, we started planning for events, and discussed values and strategies to keep in mind when ministering to the teens. That day was the beginning of my brain on overload, and it hasn't stopped yet. Every day I'm not sure if I can learn more, yet I always do. We ended our Retreat with an awesome dinner together. It was also Raquel's birthday! Needless to say, I have had more cake than I ever want to in my life.

Intern Retreat dinner, Interns/Youth Workers (Photo credit: Raquel's selfie-stick!)

The following day, we had the NEXT Banquet! That was so much fun! Some of the other Interns and I stayed at the Church most of the day to help cook/prepare food and decorate. I have definitely learned how much effort goes into putting on an event. It was so fun to get to meet some of the teens and hear from the graduating Seniors the impact that this ministry has had on them. It got me so excited just to know that I'm going to be a small piece of this ministry. Having never been in a Youth ministry myself, I can't explain how blessed I am to have this opportunity.

Last week, we also started our Intern classes! We have class every Monday and Wednesday with Ronnie Worsham (mondays) and John Von Runnen (wednesdays), the Senior Pastors of our Garland and Wylie churches, respectively. I've never experienced anything like this time with them and the other Interns. They are teaching us to expand our minds and search scripture not for answers, but for the heart of God. To know Him. Honestly, I have found it slightly challenging, because I'm the type of person who wants definitive answers to all my questions. But this has been so so good for me. Because I'm quickly realizing that my faith isn't based on me having all the answers, Thank God, it's about the character of Christ. These classes are so wonderful and challenging and I can't wait to tell you more of what I've learned. Some of our first assignments in Ronnie's class include: memorizing the books of the New Testament, as well as memorizing the Beattitudes (Matthew 5:3-11). I am looking forward to knowing more scripture by heart. 

In John's class, we are reading through a book together called Simplify: Ten practices to unclutter your Soul by Bill Hybels. We're only a chapter in, but let me tell you, this is gonna be great. I can't wait to tell you more about it! We are doing some super cool things in John's class, including a 6-by-6 goal setting plan. We set 6 goals for ourselves that we will set about accomplishing in the next 6 weeks. I'm super pumped about this, I think it's going to be a fantastic growing opportunity. 

This past Sunday was our first Summer Teen group! I hope you're as excited as we all are! During the Summer, all of the teens come together for a combined group from the Garland, Wylie, and Denton churches. Everyone was so pumped and excited to be there. I can't wait to see what awesome relationships are fostered this summer! The energy was at an awesome starting place to keep building on until Teen Camp in July! We had some awesome worship and game time, as well as a super meaningful message given by Kale, our Senior Youth Pastor. We had some time to reflect on quiet times with God and talked about building relationship with Him personally. It was so awesome. Also, I've noticed how many times I've said "awesome" and I almost changed a few, but I'm not going to... because guys, Isn't our God just awesome? In every sense of the word.

Some amazing worship led by Austin Freeman.

A fun game with the High Schoolers to get to know each other.

This past Tuesday night we had our first Summer Teen event! It was so much fun! Each pair of Interns is in charge of planning 3 events during the summer. For this event, we had a Park Day that Matt and I were heads in planning. First of all, let me just say that I have learned so much about what it takes to plan an event. The who, what, when, and where is so overwhelming. Then there's smaller things, like we need to have bug spray, and sun lotion, and who's going to get ice. And does our location need to be RESERVED? Needless to say, Matt and I had a SUPER SUPER last minute change of parks because the first park was being reserved for something else. Defnitely a lesson for the books, it was very chaotic. BUT, After we had our plans in order and found a nearby perfect park, The Lord was SO faithful. The event went off so well and we all had so much fun. We played Nuke em (if you are unfamiliar, think Volleyball) and fellowshipped and had some great worship time. It was so fun. 

Thank you for taking the time out to read my lengthy first blog post! I would apologize for the length, but there has been so much happening these first two weeks! I think I'll update weekly from here on out, keep an eye out! 
As always, please keep praying for these teens and our ministry. 

Love, 

Mercedes