Until They All Have Heard: New Beginnings

Pre-Field Orientation is in full swing!!!

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of logistics, lectures, hikes, team building exercises, tarantula sightings, and a whole bunch of other crazy stuff! I already feel like I'm learning so much, and I'm barely 2 days into training! God has already been speaking to my heart through my fellow interns and the incredible examples they are of selfless surrender to God's calling in their lives. Most of us aren't sure exactly where 'life after graduation' will take us, whether we'll end up with PBT long term or not, but I genuinely believe that God is going to use this summer to provide us with a deeper understanding of who He is, and that everything outside of that is just icing on the cake. :)

My transition into this internship hasn't been without a few bumps in the road, but overall I can honestly say that I have high hopes that God will use this training season to really establish a solid foundation for me and all of the internship teams PBT is sending (I'm training alongside multiple teams going to different sites all over the globe!), to really maximize our effectiveness on the field during our time abroad. I have a strong expectation that we will all look back on PFO (this week) and Discovery Week (next week's training/development track) as some of the most intense/beneficial periods of missional training we've experienced!

Yesterday was a very full day even though we didn't have any training-specific classes. Early in the morning, we all loaded up into a couple of vans and went to church together, took group photos afterwards to add to the newsletters we'll be writing later on in our internship, had lunch at the home of a PBT Training Coach and his awesome family (it's not easy getting a delicious meal put together for 30+ people!), returned to campus for our first orientation meeting, went on a gorgeous hike, got a chance to encourage one another through sharing some of the victories God has given us on our journey towards getting to this internship as well as discussing the various personal sacrifices that were made, and went out to dinner together at the end of the evening!

Today has been full of its own challenges and learning opportunities, including seminars by the president of PBT, and several other brilliant teachers/coaches, who were really able to take complicated and intense subject matter and break it down into tangible concepts and activities for us.

I'm beginning to get to know several of the interns a little better, and I'm so excited for this journey as we continue to learn more about each other and find encouragement in the fascinating ways God brought this eclectic group of college students together into one program! (I've also met quite a few InterVarsity students/alumni and even a former staff worker! It's so exciting to connect with fellow IV people and to see how God is using these two ministries in partnership in various ways!)

I'm also incredibly excited about the people God has brought into my team in particular; we have barely known each other for more than a couple of days, and yet the level of cooperation and honesty I've already seen within the group dynamics has been so encouraging! Our coaches are also phenomenal- we are so blessed to have this opportunity to learn from these two Jesus-loving people who radiate God's love and wisdom in such beautiful ways.

And now, I'll need to stop rambling and get onto the paperwork/assigned writings/personality test questionnaire that are all due in the morning! I want to thank you again SO much for your prayers and support and love; a couple of you have been texting me and encouraging me and I just want to make sure you're reminded how much that means to me, and how much God is using you to speak truth and life into my heart!

Prayer needs:

- That I would lay down my prideful expectations, and allow God to take this internship in the directions He desires.

- For diligence in assignments and attentiveness in each session/lecture/language lesson.

- That the teams would continue to build and develop unity.

- For healing of the PFO coordinator's son who has a bad stomach bug.

- For encouragement in moments when we begin to focus on the difficulties/failures, and for the strength to fix our eyes on Christ regardless of how tough stuff gets.

Love you all SO much!

-K