So the internship is over. We all have moved on to our futures - such as they are. I won't share any story but my own so here's go.
I was the last one to leave and let me tell you the house that seemed so small with thin walls became so large and empty. As I found myself walking through each room before I left I was filled with this emotion. It's hard to put a name around it. The feeling you get when you go back to playground you played on as a child and you feel like you've grown up. It was lonely too being in that big house all by myself.
I'm going from living in a house next to the church to moving into a room inside the church. Maybe next year....well who knows. This year I'm going to be the Parish Coordinator for St. Andrew's. My responsibilities include Youth Ministry, 20s & 30s Ministry and Newcomer Incorporation. I'm only scheduled to work 19 hours a week. That should be interesting because as an Intern I was supposed to be giving 20 hours a week. And P.S. It was always more than that. By choice. I really have connected with the people at St. Andrew's and it's kinda like having a new family in Nebraska.
It's made me so grateful for the Intern program. If I had moved to Omaha and just started going to church here - I don't think this would've happen. I think I would've been trying to make a connection and feeling awkward and weird and would have ended up not going to church. The Intern program really does dip you down into a new life. It gives you a support system and helps you adjust to a new place. I wish every diocese had a program like it. I know there are a lot of ESC programs but I wonder how many of them really help someone put down new roots in an unknown place.
It's been a blessing. A gracious gift. I don't even know if I could put into words this life for myself. And yet the Lord has gifted it to me. Undeserving I assure you which makes the gift that much more precious.
I also have gained a part time job working that Rose Theater in the Box Office. It's just to make a little cheddar on the side. I'm hoping to save up some money and travel home to see my friends and family. I don't know when that will be but I need to get a little bit more money in the bank before I start traveling all over the place.
I'd like to give a special thank you to everyone who supported me this year. Whether it's been in prayer, or listening to me struggle, welcoming me into a new home, or letting me leave my old one - so many people made this year AMAZING.
