In less than two months, this will be my backyard:
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| Colorado Springs! |
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| Garden of the Gods |
I’ll be interning here:
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| Focus on the Family! |
I have been hired for the summer as Focus on the Family’s guest relations intern. I’ll be working with the Human Resources department to greet nearly 100,000 summer visitors, give tours of the headquarters, host individual guests, and plan events. Basically, I just get to make all the people who come to Focus on the Family feel welcome and share the love of Jesus with them. Could this job be any more perfect?!
I am unbelievably excited about working at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs this summer! I’ll be starting June 6th. Amid the craziness of the last three weeks of the semester, that day seems a long way away. But time flies, and I’ll be headed westward before I know it.
In addition to the excitement I feel every time I think about this summer, there is an overwhelming sense of gratitude to the Lord for the way he has displayed his faithfulness to me through the process of getting this internship. Through every step in the process, he has remained by my side as my Friend and Father. I want to give you just a little glimpse into my journey to this incredible opportunity. God is the main character of this story. Read it and worship him alongside me!
In December, a close friend mentioned that Focus on the Family has a lot of really fantastic summer internship opportunities and that I should look into applying there. I brushed off the suggestion. I was already planning on coming back to Springfield. Aside from the fact that I’m not the “outdoorsiest” of girls, putting me in the minority in Colorado, there was no way I'd ever get an internship like that. With so many qualified applicants vying for a Focus on the Family internship position, the chances of getting one was slim. So the whole idea received a swift veto, and I forgot about it.
But as the Lord began to work on my heart, convicting me of my tiny goals that kept him from showing his power and ability in my life (you can read more about that realization in my first post), I realized that I needed to go for the impossible, because my God is in the business of impossible. Prayerfully, I began applying for internships that I could only dream of getting. With an “I-might-as-well-just-apply” philosophy, I submitted résumés and cover letters to a variety of organizations in locations all over the country.
In the process of applying, I remembered the conversation I had with my friend about Focus on the Family. I decided to just go for it and leave it in God's hands. After all, it couldn't hurt to just apply, right? It was a lengthy application that asked not only the typical job application questions that I had answered what felt like hundreds of times in the past month, but also really challenging questions about my faith and relationship with the Lord. I remember telling the Lord, “You know, this is an awful lot of effort for an internship I won’t even get.” He probably laughed. I say the weirdest things to him sometimes.
As I filled out the application, I realized that I really really wanted this internship. And not just as a résumé builder. I wanted it because the job was perfect for me. And I was powerless to make it happen. I was in over my head. It was beyond my ability. I had set a goal that was God-sized, and I had no choice but to depend fully on him.
A few weeks later, I received an email from Focus on the Family. When I saw it in my inbox, my first thought was that it was the “rejection email.” Oh, me of little faith… I opened it to find a request for an interview via Skype (so cool!). The interview was the most fun, thought-provoking one I’ve ever had. It felt more like a laid-back conversation than an interview. After the interview portion, we talked about Kirksville (one of my interviewers has family here—what are the odds!), and they patiently tried, to no avail, to explain the concept of dry heat (I just can’t fathom walking outside in the summer without feeling like you’re swimming through the air). At the end of the interview, they asked if they could pray for me. Okay—now I really really really wanted this internship.
After a few weeks passed, I was offered the internship. I took the weekend to pray about it. I was still waiting to hear back from several other really great opportunities that were in the works, so a “yes” to Focus on the Family meant a “no” to everything else. The prayers of my friends and my family on my behalf during that time of decision were invaluable. God brought so many opportunities my way. I received offers and interviews from places that I never would have dared to apply to only a few months before. Even though there were other internships still up in the air, I felt peace about going to Colorado to intern at Focus on the Family. I called that Monday to give a confident, excited, grateful, humbled “YES.”
God is going to use this summer to stretch me, bless me, challenge me, and make me more like Jesus. He has done the impossible by placing me in this position at Focus on the Family, and he will continue to amaze me as my faith in him grows. The Lord is trustworthy and he is faithful, and I’m going to cling that and worship him, just for who he is.
There are still a lot of details to work out before June, but I’m confident that God has got it under control. Listed are some things I’ve been in prayer about regarding my summer in Colorado. God has been teaching me the power of connecting with him through prayer, and if you feel so inclined, would you please be praying for me?
- Focus on the Family requires that I received course credit for this internship from Truman. I turned in my paperwork to the credit committee in my major, so now I just have to wait. Be praying for favorable results.
- The internship is unpaid, so I’m going to need to get a part-time job. I don’t even know where to start, but be praying that I’ll find one that has flexible hours since I’ll be holding down two jobs.
- Because the internship is unpaid, Focus on the Family arranges for us to have host families while we’re there. Be praying for them—they have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into. ;)
- Pray that God will equip me to love the people that I come in contact with at Focus on the Family. I don't know what their needs are, but he does!
- Pray for my spiritual growth. I’m excited to be working in an environment that strives to cultivate that, but ultimately it is the Lord who sanctifies and refines. Pray that I’ll be moldable.
It can be hard to stay positive during finals week. The joy of the last day of classes gives way to the realization that mountains of information that you have forgotten are separating you from summertime. There are plenty of reasons to hate finals week, but I am kind of a fan. I know that this is weird. But here are my favorite things about finals:
