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Summer 2013
June 1 - 8, 2013 June 1 - 8, 2013 Nathaniel Bankhead (Signal Mountain, TN)
Why be an intern?      One of the greatest strengths of the internship is the community that you are a part of while serving at Sacred Road. The intern team and Sacred Road staff live and serve each other like family. We eat, cook, clean, work, serve, play, worship, cry, and laugh together. The main job of an intern is to help Sacred Road host the one week mission teams on the Yakama Reservation in Washington and the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. These jobs include roofing, painting, hauling trash on the work sites, preparing food for meals, and helping run backyard Bible clubs. Opportunities to Serve and Grow: The Following is a blogpost from Molly Dawkins who interned in summer 2011 and 2012. The Post is a reflection of what is is like to return for a second summer. "I could tell you the things I did this summer, but I don’t think that would be as significant as telling you what I learned. I’ve been asked, ‘Was this summer better/worse, and easier/harder than last summer?’ My response? Better, harder. The best and worst thing about this summer was being able to go back to the rez. That doesn’t make much sense on the surface, but let me try and explain.
Each time I go back, God continues to reveal the brokenness of this world and the brokenness of the people in it. We’re all hurting; it doesn’t matter if you live in a 4th world country or a 1st world country. And we’re all looking for some way to dull the pain. This awareness makes it much harder especially as my relationships with the people on the reservation deepen each time.
But each time I go back, God also continues to reveal His greatness, how merciful He is and how dependent I am on His infinite grace. In seeing the darkness, it’s easier for me to see how His Light trumps the darkness-every time.
The scars I saw on a teenager’s arm from her cutting herself, the bruises on a four-year-old girl’s face, or hearing a teenager say he wasn’t important enough to have his writings put in a book are the things I don’t quite know what to do with. But I do know that God sent his Son to overcome the things of this world. And so after spending some time with the apostle Paul I’ve decided to “cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9).
At the beginning of the summer on my birthday, I saw a girl named Alexsia at a pow wow; she was my little friend from last year. She told me she had moved which meant I wouldn’t get to play with her at kids club this summer. Getting to see her again was one of my birthday presents. She showed up at kids club randomly twice throughout this summer, but I don’t actually think it was random. I remember those two days clearly because those were the days I was close to having complete breakdowns. God gave me those gifts as a way to politely nudge me and say, “Listen, I’m the one in charge. I love you and I love these kids. Trust me.”
It was the last day of kids club, the last five minutes really. We were at the monkey bars. I’d help her get started and then I’d try the old “dad lets go and the kid can ride the bike on their own” trick. She could do it, but then she’d panic. Kicking her legs as she dangled, she asked, “Why do you keep letting go?”
I’ve been carrying that little question around with me for the past few weeks trying to figure out why I remember it so clearly. I think it’s because I feel like that six-year-old on the monkey bars. Yes, I let go, but that doesn’t mean I walked away. I was there to catch her if she fell. My heavenly Father is there in that way for all of us too. He doesn’t leave us even in those moments when we feel like we’re alone.
I've left part of my heart at a government housing project on an Indian Reservation. It sounds a bit strange, but that's a fact."
    “I have chosen the internship because God is moving on the rez, and I want to be there to see what happens, and how. There is nothing like seeing lives changed for good, and seeing hard hearts made soft.” "It's impossible to put into words what is the impact of being an intern. If you want to learn about a different people group and have your ideas of what the world is like stretched and changed, it's a     The Lord is on the move and we are looking for helpers! We need interns to come for 12 weeks in the summer, and full time team members. Details: • Please contact Veronica Vasquez to request an intern application.      |