Youth Ministry Intern, Trista’s update
During my first few weeks as an Youth Ministry Intern at East Toronto Chinese Baptist Church has been fruitful to begin with, consisting of a week of volunteering for Homeless Connect’s Home-ness Week program, engaging in a meeting for Sonshine camp, preparing for KidsCamp, attending fellowship and their softball practice on Friday, and their first softball game on Sunday.
For the first week and a half, my most memorable moments were working at Homeless Connect alongside Woodgreens and others, where we helped clean and repaint walls for those who requested our help. Within this experience, I firstly got to know the people I was working for this summer, and I got to talk and understand the struggles of those who lived there. Not only that, but being able to help without asking for anything in return felt rewarding in more ways than one, and seeing the smiles on those we helped and chatting with was an award all in itself.
For the first two days of the week, we were tasked to clean different units, on Monday, I, alongside with others, were tasked to clean a bathroom and a kitchen, though I didn’t work on the bathroom, I helped wipe down the kitchen, where grease clung to the walls and different assortment of food fell between the gaps. As for the second day, we were tasked to help clean and organize another unit, it was pretty hectic all things considered due to unforeseen circumstances. And for the next two days, we were tasked with repainting two different tenant’s walls.
Other than that, we started planning for the KidsCamp, though I wasn’t too involved since I’m still learning the ropes, we’ve been able to pick a theme for the camp, start brainstorming craft ideas, and pick out songs for the camp. Otherwise, I’ve mostly tried helping with the more artistic side of things and anywhere else I could lend my assistance to while learning about both the people who attend the church, and how camp ran in the previous years.
Same for the planning of the first Sunday Program, as I wasn’t too involved within the planning but tried my best to read up on the teachings itself to help assist in any ways I could and to formally meet the kids for the first time. Though I wouldn’t say last Sunday went as swimmingly as it could, it was a start when we talked about the big picture, “God is love, and His love is powerful”, and often went off track as soon as it could possibly do so, with get effort to shift the topic back to the lesson being taught.
As for the Youth Fellowship, formally, this is my first one I’ve gone to in about over a year or so, so I just sat and listened to what they had to say. For last Friday, their scripture was Romans 8:18-30, analyzing the present suffering and what it means to have faith in God for the future He has foretold in Revelations. Truthfully, I personally had no words but to understand what they had to say going scripture by scripture to piece together, and shed light within different perspectives on what is said and understood by each other.
