{"id":1635,"date":"2020-10-20T23:12:24","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T23:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/?p=1635"},"modified":"2020-11-05T22:08:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T22:08:02","slug":"god-still-made-a-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/reflections\/god-still-made-a-way\/","title":{"rendered":"God still made a way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two interns who took part in Ministry Summer Service (MSS) this year share their reflections on the experience\u2014certainly one of the most unusual since the start of the program.<\/em><\/p>\n

MSS is a leadership development program for college students in the Church of the Brethren, sponsored by the Youth and Young Adult Ministry and the Office of Ministry, with those offices and four of the church-related colleges and universities providing scholarships. Usually, interns would spend 10 weeks working alongside a mentor in a congregation, district office, camp, or denominational program, following an in-person orientation. The pandemic forced the program to shift how interns were placed, how they served, and even how orientation happened.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

I was looking forward to being in a different area and location for church, but God still made a way for this program to happen, so I am very thankful.<\/p>\n

When I got the call that things were shifted to online, I wasn\u2019t sure how to react at first. As I learned what the online format would be like, I could sense God telling me, \u201cSierra, do it! This is an opportunity that you NEED to take.\u201d So that\u2019s exactly what I did. Between the Zoom calls, devotions, and guest speakers, I can definitely say that I have learned so much about ministry. Our orientation speakers talked about spiritual practices, worship and preaching, theology, Brethren heritage, working styles, and ethics.<\/p>\n

I volunteered at my home church, Harrisburg First Church of the Brethren [in Pennsylvania]. I helped out with the food distribution on Friday mornings, and I helped with the church\u2019s social media pages. Through the pandemic my church has still been able to help the community as much as it can, and I am thankful that I am able to help out as much as I can.<\/p>\n

On Fridays, before the truck of food gets there, volunteers from all over are putting cardboard boxes together and stacking them. When the food gets there, we are able to pack the boxes for the people receiving their packages. The packages have dry foods, canned goods, produce, meat, dairy, etc.<\/p>\n

Once all the pallets are set, all of the volunteers assemble in a line ready for directions. The woman or man in charge for the day tells each volunteer what to put into the boxes\u2014 for example, the quantity of each product on the pallets, such as two bags of carrots and one egg carton. There are two different lines, one for dry foods and one for cold foods.<\/p>\n

Once the packages are filled they are placed on pallets and ready to pick up. The first couple dozen packages typically go to individuals who are delivering to other families, so for the first half hour we pack people\u2019s cars with packages so that they can get out of the way for the rest of the packages we need to make. \u2014Sierra Dixon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

In the early spring, I was\ndebating what to do for the\nsummer before my junior year\nof college. The head of the chemistry\ndepartment had encouraged me\nto apply to an amazing research\nopportunity in France. I also had been\nfeeling a tug toward ministry, but I\nwas so unsure of what that would\nmean for me, a pre-med student. My\npastor encouraged me to consider\nMinistry Summer Service, but I was\nunsure if that was something I should\ndo. It would be hard to pass up doing\nresearch abroad if it came time to\nchoose, but I decided to apply anyway\nand see where God would lead me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The day before I heard back about\nthe research opportunity, a feeling of\npeace washed over me as I thought\nabout doing MSS and resolved to turn\ndown the research offer if I was\naccepted. Turns out I didn\u2019t get the\nresearch position, and I wouldn\u2019t have\nbeen able to go abroad anyway due to\nthe pandemic, so it was just as well\u2014\nfunny how the Spirit works sometimes.\nMSS shifted to a virtual format,\nwhich in many ways was a blessing in\ndisguise. Our weekly Zoom calls were\nfascinating sessions, including subjects\nlike theology, work styles, and\nworship\/preaching, with some additional\nsessions by people we would\nnot ordinarily have heard from if we\nwere in-person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our diverse group of interns made\nfor especially engaging conversations,\nand when we collectively decided we\nneeded to have an additional conversation\nset aside for race and the\nchurch, we did so. It was perhaps the\nmost memorable of the calls for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That conversation emphasized the\nimportance of engaging in conversations\nwith our siblings in Christ, even\nwhen the subject is uncomfortable or\nchallenging. Additionally, we discussed\nthe church as a whole and the\nneed to empower members of marginalized\ngroups through the unconditional\nlove and compassion we\u2019re\ncalled to share. It\u2019s that conversation\nand ongoing reflection that brings up\nnew thoughts and actions that continue\nto encourage personal and collective\ngrowth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I missed getting an in-person\nplacement, but I\u2019m grateful\nthat I got to be involved in my home\ncongregation, Peace Covenant Church\nof the Brethren [in Durham, N.C.]. I\nworked with pastor Dana Cassell on\noutreach ideas, preached during\nonline worship one Sunday, and\nworked on a project to create a digital\ncollection of devotionals and online\nresources for the congregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with MSS, my summer\nincluded taking an online class, working\nwith my campus ministry to plan\nfor the fall semester, and working\nwith patients in nursing homes and\nhospice facilities as a home care provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was this combined experience\nthat made me realize that part-time\nministry\u2014a reality for so many\u2014\nis possible for me too. And ministry\ncan look like so many things, including\npreaching a sermon, leading a\nBible study, and providing care for\npatients in their last days. I don\u2019t necessarily\nhave to choose between a call\nto medicine or to ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m grateful for the opportunity to participate in MSS and that the denomination provides such an experience to young adults for this kind of discernment. After this summer, irrespective of its unexpected twists and turns due to the pandemic, I realize that ministry will be a part of the life I live, no matter what, and I look forward to seeing where God continues to lead me. \u2014Kaylee Deardorff<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This is an opportunity that you NEED to take\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[37,215,216,207,217,218,214,219,220],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections","tag-church-of-the-brethren","tag-harrisburg-church-of-the-brethren","tag-kaylee-deardorff","tag-messenger","tag-ministry-summer-service","tag-mss","tag-sierra-dixon","tag-youth-and-young-adult-ministries","tag-yya"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1713,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions\/1713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}