It didn’t take long for God to put me in my place once we got here. To be perfectly honest, I was a little disappointed when we first came to a camp where we can’t flush our toilet paper for fear of flooding the showers. While I was griping in my head about my bed and where I had to sleep, God had other plans for me. We were the second of three groups to get to the camp. When the third group got here a little late, they needed half of the room that our group had originally taken. I ended up on the floor, imagining all the scorpions and cockroaches that would crawl out of the floor and join me in my bed. When I had a chance to think about it and gain some perspective, I realized that God was humbling me in a very physically real way. He was putting me on the floor because I, for some reason, felt that I should have gotten a bed over someone else who deserved and wanted it just as much as I did. When I was put on the spot like that, I realized that God even shows up in the form of a group of middle school girls to teach me something. However, it still saddens me that I have to travel all the way to Mexico to feel God’s presence, hear His voice, and see His face. I feel like I don’t hear God until He screams in my ear or, in this case, puts me on the floor. The incredible beauty of our surroundings though, is proof to me that God is most certainly everywhere.
The ride to our sites this morning was an adventure in itself. The mountains are beautiful, but they certainly aren’t ideal for driving, especially in a school bus loaded with 50 people. There were times when I had to catch my breath as we struggled up some pretty steep hills and drove on the edge of cliffs. As I looked out at the houses just a few miles over the border from the U.S., a place where I’ve never known any real need, I experienced some pretty intense culture shock. The people of Tecate would think our houses in Holland and Zeeland are mansions. The lady that I have the privilege of working for has a pretty shocking story. Just two weeks ago, Estelle’s husband came home under the influence of a combination of substances and burned their house down. Their ten year old son was killed in the fire. Their younger son still can’t completely comprehend that his brother is gone. We were warned beforehand that Estelle might pull back from us because she was still trying to come to terms with the loss. Once we got there though, we were pleased to find that she seemed happy to see us and we even saw a few smiles from her throughout the day. Since none of the families speak English, all of our groups were blessed to have an individual who understood Spanish and could translate and connect with the families.
The evening service tonight was very convicting. Our speaker, Brandon, is very enthusiastic and several of us have felt a slap in the face by some of the tough stuff that he brings up. Building on our surroundings, he has talked both nights about wealth and what it does to us as privileged, “rich” Americans. A verse that I found in our quiet time this morning was Hebrews 13:5, which says “Keep your lives free of the love of money and be content with what you have.” In our culture, with the newest technologies and the most in style clothes always at our fingertips, it’s a tough concept to grasp. Another verse that I found pretty moving was one mentioned by Brandon, Luke 6:24: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.” This one is rough. Many of the people here don’t have many material possessions, but they find their happiness in each other and God. I, on the other hand, have never directly had to trust God to provide for me. I have my dad’s job for that. I have already received so much more comfort and economic security than billions of other people on earth. God shows Himself in the most real ways through the poor who have no money to hide behind. With them, what you see is what you get. I have to admit though, that that idea belongs to Brandon, but as I heard him say that, I realized that it is so true. So many things have happened to me and been shown to me that I could only have hoped for, and it’s only Monday.
Today is the beginning of our third week together. Kyle was with us for the first time, but we are not a full group yet, as Dustin is on vacation with his family this week. We greatly enjoyed our time together as we worked on our lesson for Kid Zone this morning and were able to put on the Kids Club in Briarwood for the first time this afternoon. The sheer amount of preparation for both of these programs took up the majority of our time today. But with such a great group of people to work with, time flies.
Hi, this is Dustin Attema, I hope you will find this little memoir enjoyable but also that you could see my humanness through my struggles. Wow, it’s so hard to describe any given day in my life because God’s always at work. But a day being an intern, well, I guess you’ll just have to fasten your set belt. Okay, so you got that seat belt on, now just imagine driving in your Corvette and having a sprint car blow you by going twice as fast as you can. You punch on the gas but can’t keep up. Think again, suppose the sprint car driver some how attaches your car to his and with his help you can go just as fast as him. Well, this is how I feel. God’s always ahead of me and no matter how fast or hard I try he’s always waiting for me at the next turn. When I ask him to pull me through at his pace, things start to happen.
Wow… that basically describes a lot of what’s been going on. Today was the interns fourth day. Basically, I would like to look back and admire how much we have been able to accomplish as a group, as individuals, and finally, as developing friends and family in Christ. I personally have become much closer with every member in our group of interns, its flat out awesome! Growth for me seems to be inevitable and desired! I have noticed growth already and have witnessed what I can one day become. In doing this internship I have changed a little and expanded my horizons greatly!
Today could probably be called the first “official” day for the interns. After a day of getting to know each other at Grace Adventure Camp, we dove right in today with some fellowship as a group. A new experience for most of us was a Bible reading technique that Daniel introduced. Divine reading is a slow, contemplative reading of Scripture which enables us to further our understanding of it and to see that God is always reaching out to us through His Word and through Christ. We read Hebrews 12:1-3 and looked at it from some different perspectives. Picking a certain phrase out of the reading that we as individuals felt was meaningful to us, we reflected on how they touched our lives and how we have to express that.
We have set very high standards for ourselves. It is our hope that you will be able to watch us live up to these statements to the best of our abilities. While I can’t explain for anyone else, I would like to share a little about my own. As I have said, I wasn’t sure I was ready to make such a bold statement. However, I was looking over the list of core values we had been given and I stopped at the word excellence. At first I thought it was a pretty inapplicable word compared to some of the others on the list. But when I thought about it, I changed my mind. I thought that if we can use it to praise the newest CD by our favorite band or a favorite restaurant, shouldn’t it take an even more extreme meaning when applied to our God and the way we live our lives for Him? I think that this summer will be a good starting point for me on the way to a life of excellence.
I really enjoyed the first day with the interns. We had a lot of fun. I was really excited to start this year. I really enjoyed being an intern last year. I had some high expectations fo the group this year because if how well it went last year. Going by what happened today, I think my expectations will be reached.
STUDENTS OF CALVARY 