The Internship Continues...End of Week 2

Well guys, this is the end of my week 2. Unfortunately, this week turned out to be a little more frustrating than last week. If you didn't read my post last week, I mentioned about being stressed out because I have nothing to do - or at least very limited things to do. This week, the same thing happened but a little worse. I did try to find something to do for myself though, and my worship pastor's assistant gave work for me to do so that was good.

To recap though, I attended my first staff meeting on Tuesday, which was pretty cool! It was 45 minutes of quick updates from each ministry within the church and it was cool to hear about the stories through the work God is doing in our church! We also start renovations this week in our new facility, which is so exciting! It looks different already...JUST from the carpet removal from the wall. Then, another intern and I met with our worship pastor to brainstorm some ideas as we move to our new facility. Lots of "big plans" coming up and we're hoping they'll actually happen! :)

Wednesday, I didn't do much, mostly because my worship pastor ended in the ER that morning! He did something to his back the night before and doing much better now. So that morning, I just did more research on orchestra music, contacted several people, and trying to find things to do. We had our service planning meeting that afternoon (although delayed for an hour) and got some ideas going for the next few Sundays. That night, I recruited some young students for the orchestra ministry I'm reviving and attended the youth group. Unfortunately, only 1 extra person signed up - but I'm still praying for more!

Thursday, I had a meeting with the worship pastor from Westgate Chapel to get some ideas for the orchestra ministry. Although I'm glad that some people have graciously volunteered, I wish more would sign up! I'm just praying and hoping more people would be involved in the coming weeks. Lots of ideas (and music) were given to me at that meeting though and I'm excited that this is actually happening at Calvary! I did a lot of research for the rest of the day at work, for other kinds of music that is appropriate for the level of the musicians, and thinking through little details for the ministry. I stayed that night for worship rehearsal so I can learn about the sound system - I was so overwhelmed to sit in the sound booth and just literally starred at the different buttons to figure what it does. So complicated! This is definitely one thing I want to learn before I leave my internship.

On Friday, I didn't really do much around the office...I wish I did though. I cleaned the communion bread and cup holders with Windex - who knew that thing gets so dirty?! Then, my Friday routine of printing out the order of service and distributing them to respective pastors and places around the sanctuary. Then, I spent an hour stuffing bulletins with paper for sermon notes and list of graduates (graduation Sunday this Sunday!)...that took a long time! The bulletins came in the late afternoon, so I waited a while for that thing to arrive...but it's finished. I was also assigned to do some research for music ideas for the upcoming Christmas services - since we'll be in the new building this Christmas. I didn't get too far on that, because it's not as easy as I had expected! Oops.

Well, there goes my week. This week, I've been struggling a lot with the idea of "what am I doing as my internship?"To be honest, my first answer would be: “Umm…I’m not too sure.” That’s exactly how I feel about this internship. I feel like there is a lot to do as a worship pastor and there isn’t one specific thing that working on or anything...besides the orchestra ministry, I guess. Because of a few special services this summer and my pastor being on vacation 2 weeks in June, I haven’t been able to play in the worship team or lead worship – which somewhat upsets me, because the vision I had for this internship, is to learn how to lead worship and become a worship pastor.

Well, I really shouldn't complain - I'm definitely getting acquainted with the duties of a worship pastor - which is quite different than what I had imagined. My pastor has definitely allowed me to be involved on most of these "administrative" side of things so I really appreciated that. Lots of planning for services, music, production teams, bulletins, graphics, video, and the list goes on and on. So yeah, I'm learning a lot - but not what I had envisioned. So I think I just need to change my mindset and attitude and work through it because I really am learning, just not in the way I had wanted. I know it will take a while to get used to – I just hope in the bigger realm of things, I can walk away from this internship learning a great deal. Right now, I just have to think outside the box, and it has served to be quite challenging for me, but I continue to pray for God to give me the patience and ability to learn when I am out of my comfort zone.

I'm definitely being reminded to be thankful in the midst of different challenges this week. Gotta push through. I would appreciate your prayers in this process. Thank you for your constant support for me!

In Christ's love,
Andrea