It is officially official! Beginning in June, I will be involved in an internship with Camp Ao-Wa-Kiya under the leadership of Pastor Bill!

This is to be a 15 month internship. It starts at the beginning of this summer’s camping program, and continues on until the end of camp in 2007. The purpose for this internship is for me to get hands on experience in the Christian Camping feild, and really get to know about what happens at a camp year-round. I will be working directly under Pastor Bill, along with Robert and Kristie Ymker who will also be interning.

Pastor Bill sent me a rough draft of the basics of the internship. So here they are:

• Relationships and Responsibility
  • Camp Leadership
    • The Internship program shall be placed under the direction of the Camp Director for oversight of the program
    • All fulltime camp staff will have opportunities to work with and give input to the Internship program with a wide variety of activities involved in running a Christian camping ministry.
  • Interns
    • Interns will commit to a period of 15 months for the program
    • Interns will be exposed to many areas of the camping ministry and will work under the direction of the Camp Director with many leaders in our camp organization.
    • The Intern will be encouraged to become actively involved with one of the supporting camp churches in some way in an effort to increase practical learning experiences in the local church
• Missionary Support Status
  • Interns will agree work with a missionary support fund which will be established and operated for the duration of the 15 month program
  • A monthly missionary support level shall be established by the Camp Director and the Intern and approved by The Executive Committee
  • Recognition and information letters will be generated by the camp director for the Intern to distribute as part of a missionary deputation process
  • The Camp Treasurer shall receive and disperse all missionary support funds for the Intern. As an approved program of Camp Ao-Wa-Kiya, those contributing to the support of the Intern shall receive contribution receipts from the Bookkeeper.
• Housing Arraignments
  • The Intern will stay in housing provided on camp property June through September.
  • Optional housing arraignments for fall, winter and spring may be considered by the Intern if a location closer to a church ministry would be advantageous.
• Curriculum
  • “The Guide to Christian camping”
  • “The Cairn Series”- Professional Training courses in 5 volumes on CDs created by Christian Camping/Conferences Association

Well, that’s the story. But I’d like to add more on a personal note.

I can’t do this alone. Anyone who read my last few posts knows that I am far less than perfect and am lacking in a great many things, including discipline and self-motivation. This is a huge opportunity to learn how to let God make the calls in my life. And with God’s help, I can learn to be more disciplined and motivated.

That’s where you guys come in. I ask you all to pray for me. Both leading up to, and during the internship. Pray that I will be open to God’s leading, and that He will change my heart and my life through this opportunity. Also pray for the campers that will be there, that God will use me as another tool to impact their lives in a way that is pleasing to Him.

As mentioned in the outline, I will be on missionary support. This is basically going to be a full-time commitment, and won’t leave me with enough time to get a side-job. That means that food, housing, and materials will all have to be provided for me. During the Summer months, Ao-Wa-Kiya will provide all of that. But for the rest of the year I will need to raise support. Pastor Bill and I estimated that 6,000 dollars would need to be raised to support me (a single, young, male adult) for a year under the conditions I’ll be in.

Please don’t feel pressured to give me any money. I am more than happy with all of your prayers, and I trust that God will provide for all my needs. He has already offered me a great deal of comfort in this: The 6,000 dollars is not “do or die.” That means if I only raise $4,000, or $2,000, I will still be able to be a part of the internship, as long as I can cut some personal costs! What a sigh of relief! I know that if God wants this internship to go forward, He will provide the money I need to make it. And I’m excited to watch him do it.

If you would like to support me by prayer, please E-mail me to let me know that you’ll be praying. If you want to support me financially, you can ask for a letter with instructions on how to get the money to Ao-Wa-Kiya in my name. That way you will get a receipt and that gift will be tax-exempt. Or, if you don’t care about tax exeptions, you can support me through my PayPal account by clicking on the “Support Me” Button in the sidebar. The transfer is 100% secure and will take only a few minutes. Remember, no donation is too small. I will happily accept a 10 cent donation! Every little bit helps.

Again, thank you to all who have prayed on my behalf up to this point. I’m eager to see how God uses each one of you in this internship, and the rest of my life.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 11th, 2006 at 12:22 am and is filed under Ao-Wa-Kiya Internship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.