Blessed

By: Misha Ursula, Summer Intern at Willowtree

“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”
Ephesians 4:1-6

This summer is going to be blessed.

It’s only been 10 days, and I can already feel it.

The on-site preparations for camp have begun! Although I dearly miss the staff and 18 interns from the different sites, spending time with just the Willowtree team (and giving the new interns a tour of our site) has been such an enriching and fun experience.

On the first day of planning, while a few of us were getting a lot of headway on lesson planning and scheduling (God bless those who are strong in administrative skills!) a few of us ended up spending four hours in conversation about, well- almost EVERYTHING! God, church, the Bible, doctrine, equity, diversity, idolatry, ministry… and the dialogue was so open, free-flowing, and respectful and (most importantly) the atmosphere of humility was extremely strong.

I am happy to say that I really see an Ephesians 4 dynamic going on at our site, that is, a unity of the Spirit. Despite our (VERY) different backgrounds, personalities, and giftings, there seems to be great accord among us. 

Admittedly, I have been struggling with the notions of friendship and trust recently. But thank God that He is faithful to provide a team full of supporting, caring and friendly people that I feel I can be vulnerable with, and be edified by.

However, beyond these signs of hope for my internal healing and growth, there are extremely encouraging signs of zeal for God and for the serving of the children all through this team. We have been praying hard and working hard to make camp as awesome as possible for these kids. Here’s to praying and hoping that God will take our finite efforts and do “exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all that we can ask or imagine” with these kids this summer!

Misha is a returning Summer Mission Intern for TCM. Going into her 4th year of Child and Youth Care studies in the Fall, she looks forward to ministering to the kids at the Willowtree site this summer and especially looks forward to doing a few song and dance numbers with them.