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| The interns. |
The past few weeks at Motown Mission have been tough for everyone, and it’s been nothing short of fascinating to see how each of the interns function under stress.
I think that at some points, we have been putting the intentional community of interns ahead of our actual purpose here. We’re here to create transformative service experiences for young people through urban mission work. Sometimes, we’ve gotten caught up in the things that are going on amongst ourselves rather than focusing on our work. I won’t pretend to have some secret to staying focused on the right things, but it’s something that I try to keep in mind.
Being fully present at the worksites has sometimes been a challenge for me as well. It’s been hot this week, and I have work to do back at the church, and for the newspaper. Those factors make it easy for me to be distracted, but I’ve been trying to notice when I am distraced and refocus myself.
I find that the things I’m most proud of at Motown are the ones that have nothing to do with my specific position as an intern. I shared great photos on social media, I grew our follower count, but the thing that feels like the biggest accomplishment is making dinner.
One Sunday night, our hospitality intern/cook had to go take part in an orientation for the adult leaders, and I was working on dinner prep. He started every dish, but relied on me to prepare salad and get the buffet line set up, and make sure that everything was ready to go when volunteers were downstairs for dinner. I did it all. At the beginning of the summer, I wouldn’t have thought that I could do that.
I’m moving out of Metropolitan United Methodist Church tomorrow morning, and I already know that I’m going to miss this place.