09 Jun Summer Comes to Greenville
A month ago as college classes in Greeville County adjourned for the summer, we dispersed along the East Coast, heading home for a few weeks of authentic food, academic detox, and average productivity. Last weekend we all traveled back into town excited for a summer of serving our local churches. We’re thrilled to be back at the churches that have become home for us as we attend school. Monday evening, all the Summer LINK interns, directors, and cooperating pastors in Greenville celebrated the beginning of summer activities at a luau hosted by wonderful members at The Church at Cherrydale (TCC). We mounded our plates, received our assignments, and evaluated the design of our new SummerLINK t-shirts. We had a wonderful time sharing stories, planning for the summer, and talking about what God will do.
On Monday morning, we began Mission Greenville, our week-long youth retreat at TCC. All week long, we have led seventh through twelfth graders in serving the community. Together we have cleaned our church building, passed donuts out at community businesses, done garden work for widows, and prayer-walked through an impoverished community. God is clearly at work in our community and in the lives of our students. He continues to use those who are willing to serve him to display his love and compassion to the lost.
Next Monday, our Vacation Bible School will begin. We anticipate teaching many children from our church and our community. We have solicited the help of almost every Summer LINK intern and many church members to teach Bible lessons, lead “tribes,” play music, watch toddlers, and clean the building. It will be wonderful to watch the entire church body work together to share the love of Jesus with the youth of our community.
We are thrilled to see what the rest of summer will bring. Hopefully we interns will begin to settle into a routine, balancing our ministry at church with other part-time work. We anticipate many other wonderful opportunities to serve our churches and our community. We have planned a variety of events from camping trips and paint wars to short term mission trips and weekend retreats. We expect God to work powerfully this summer and can’t wait to share what he does!