This year’s SEA Internship crew is composed of MC Canañes, Sherelyn Campo, Pepito Acebedo, Mayel Sanico and Jairus Tumamak.
The main objective on this month’s Philippines trip was to facilitate an orientation for the 2019-2020 South East Asia Internship program. This is the second year of our internship program and we are happy to welcome back all three of the participants from last year in addition to adding 2 new interns. The internship is an opportunity for young adults who volunteer at Tahanan Community Center to take another step forward in actualizing the calling they’ve felt from the Lord. This happens in three main ways: ministry opportunities, Biblical education, and skill enhancement.
During the orientation Shaun Galford, Tim Sherrod, and I spent about 20 focused hours with the interns covering a variety of topics including everything from time tracking and communication to the specific ministry paradigm and history of G.O.D. International. We also spent time building upon the biblical interpretation tools we have been empowering them with over the last couple years by doing Inductive Bible Study Method workshops. Finally, we spent a lot of time and effort communicating the biblical foundation of their internship and our ministry.
Biblical education is the primary component to the SEA Internship as participants meet weekly for study of scripture, homework, and feedback from course facilitators.
A theme of our teachings revolved around the discipleship model of Jesus. We emphasized that being a disciple (or student) of Jesus is a process and not a one-time decision or title. In Luke 9 and 10 we get an interesting picture of where students of Jesus seem to fall into varying points of this process: outside observer, casual participant or recipient, devoted student, or vested participant are all observed. We helped the interns understand that their participation in the internship with our organization means they are not only taking a step into further cooperation with our ministry efforts, they are following Jesus in a similar journey as the disciples did in the gospels.
As Jesus was ministering to the needy in the gospel he said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest” (Mat 9:37-38). There is a lot of work that needs to be done for those who want to show compassion for the needy, following the example of Jesus. That work requires laborers who are ready to be sent into the harvest. This passage emphasizes the development of laborers who will do the work of the gospel. We pray to the Lord of the harvest to develop laborers into skilled contributors to the mission of God. Our trip’s mission was to ensure the internship program is a venue for the development of laborers to do the work of God. I am confident we were able to accomplish that purpose. Join us in prayer to the Lord of the harvest that our interns would bear the fruit of the discipleship process.
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