What an amazing opportunity we had to serve our internship at Cherry Street Baptist Church.
I grew up at this church, and Chelsea has served here for over 12 years. The Lord taught us so much during our time at Cherry Street. We led in the bus ministry, taught in children’s, youth, and adult Sunday school classes. We also participated in our GROW visitation and were able to win people to the Lord and see them get baptized. We’ve had an amazing time serving at CSBC !

Typically a missions internship is one year at a church in the states or in a forigien country. Ours was a little different. We spent six months at our home church and six months in Africa, which included time in both Kenya and South Sudan. During that year a lot of things changed, but God used our internship to affirm three changeless truths.

First, we learned that God is always at work.

During our time in Africa, we worked with missionaries Jim and Sybil Eberhard. We were able to see Kenyan churches giving to missions and nationals planting new churches. I had the opportunity to speak at a soccer ministry and one young man got saved! God was already at work in the hearts of the Kenyans, and He allowed us to be a part of that work during our time there!

Second, we learned that God is always with us.

We were in Africa during Covid-19, and this brought about some unique situations. During one of our trips to South Sudan, we had 48 hours to evacuate before the Kenyan border closed. God was with us and guided us to the right people who could get us safely back to Kenya in time.

Finally, we learned that God is always in control.

Our internship wasn’t what we expected, but it was the exact internship God had for us. Because of the Coronavirus pandemic, we learned how to do ministry when churches were closed. We began to hold services at our residence with some of our neighbors. A Kenyan college student taught Sunday School, our compound gardener led the music, Jim Eberhard gave announcements and took prayer requests, and I preached every Sunday. We also sought out our own ministry opportunities by passing out masks and tracts. In spite of the unexpected, God continued to show us that He was in control, and He gave us opportunities for ministry that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.

 

We learned so much during our internship, and we will never forget how God showed us that He is always at work, He is always with us, and He is always in control.