Reflections on our Summer Internship 2014

My reflections on our summer internship. 

First of all, I'm not going to write a comparison between this summer and last summer. It's pretty hard to do that anyway as it would be like trying to compare apples and oranges. Second I'm not going to give a huge detailed list of everything we did as I've done that already in my photo posts over the summer. Here are then some short reflections on our summer. 

• Privileged - As summer interns we are so privileged to be able to involved in peoples lives and see how God works in their lives. It is humbling experience and very encouraging!
• Large Church - Wellandport URC is a large church about 600 people including a huge number of children. Last year they had 19 baptisms! We really enjoyed this aspect with plenty of children for the girls to play with. Adults our age to play games with and hang out. 
• Farming Country - Very interesting to say the least! We city dwellers enjoyed a taste of the country from seeing a goat farm, cows being milked, chicken farm to realizing how important the weather is to farmers. Something I have never thought about! The crops got in ground late this year because of the VERY wet spring.
• Heritage Christian School - I might have drooled over the Christian School. Enough said! (We got a tour of the school and most of the children in the area attend this Christian School. I like the fee structure also, with a per family fee as supposed to a per child fee like in the USA.)
• Session/Consistory/Elders/Council - I keep getting the terms confused and gave up on what meeting Albert went to :). Albert was VERY impressed with the way meeting were run and the way matters were dealt with. The Elders were very diligent in their work and protected their Pastor as the Pastor's main job was to preach twice each week. So this would have been almost on the top of the list of our learning experiences as a church this size is not something that NZ has (yet!). 
• My Experience - While I thoroughly LOVED the summer and the opportunity, I have realized that I'm not a country bumpkin. I quite like the conveniences close by and having fast internet helps too :).
• Goodbyes - While we are getting pretty experienced at this now, but this continues to be hard! It is still worth the investment in relationships even for a short while despite the fact that you might never see them again this side of heaven!

There are a few more photo blogs to come from the summer. 

LOVE the girls in this photo!

Photos are taken by J&J Dykstra! Thanks heaps :)