A Summer of Service

This summer I had the blessing of serving as the Evangelical Friends Church Mid-America Yearly Meeting Summer Intern. In short, my internship included everything from preparing for large ministry events to running errands to collecting supplies to being right there serving at an event; my internship was learning and serving in the capacity of the behind scenes work of ministry leadership. I was able to catch a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes in ministry and event planning through helping plan and/or carrying out our summer camps at Camp Quaker Haven, VBS at Northridge Friends Church,  Kaleo Academy: A Friends Youth Leadership Training, Ministry Conference in Haviland, KS, our annual college gathering for Friends University students, Friends Friends Friends Retreat, and more!

I helped prepare for and served as an assistant administrative assistant at our regional gathering, Ministry Conference.

I was a counselor for a cabin of Junior High girls at Camp Quaker Haven for a week.  

I served as a Peer Leader at the first ever Kaleo Theology Camp. 

I have gained a deeper connection to the Friends church and have found great joy in becoming better acquainted to those in my yearly meeting–both younger and older than me. Throughout this summer I have seen the value in intergenerational living. The older generation has such wisdom and life experience to share and pour into me; the younger generation has such different views on varying topics and provides me with wisdom and creative thinking I would not have thought of on my own. Going forward, I would like to continue to foster relationships with both those older and younger than me, because I think that they both have things that I can learn from them and both provide outlets and opportunities to serve those within my local church body.

I look forward to continuing to serve in my local church and the local yearly meeting for the sake of the Good News. I'm thankful to the Clarence and Lilly Pickett Endowment Grant for helping make my summer of service possible. I am excited to continue to use the leadership skills I acquired this summer for the sake of His Kingdom!

Christa Follette
EFC-MAYM Summer Intern