2022-2023 Interns

"14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14 

I find it wild that this internship journey is only a few short weeks away from being finished. 

March has been a fun month. The Young Adults group I co-lead on Tuesday Nights finished a series from 'The Porch' on Esther a couple of weeks ago (hence the verse I began this post with). On night 3 (of the 4 week series) a few of us went out to eat following our group, the next week a larger group of us went to the same restaurant right in Perrysburg and had the same waitress. We all got to talking and she asked us what we were doing on Tuesday nights - so we had an opportunity to tell her about our Bible Study group. She asked us what we were studying, we told her Esther and she asked what that was about, so I had the opportunity to give the spark notes version of the book of Esther. The waitress said we can come in weekly and give her a short lesson of what we learned that week! A new tradition has begun. 

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Another fun event happened in March when Bob Goff and his friends came to CedarCreek to speak! I was able to join the volunteer team for that event and attend the the message - it was awesome!  

A few lessons from that night: 

"If the phone rings, answer it" - This is something I must work on, admittedly I'm one to let the phone go to voicemail if I'm in the middle of a conversation or meeting. Bob was in the middle of talking with a group of 'VIPs' and answered his phone (he puts his phone number in his books) and just politely asked if he can call them back in a few hours. Then he turned it off so it didn't interrupt the event. 

He says when he writes a greeting card he wants to communicate 3 things: you matter, you're worth it and you count. 

A question to ask people: What's it like to be you?  (sincerely) 

It was a fun month and I'm excited to see what April brings! 

February was a fast month! 

We went on an internship trip to Nashville to visit a church called CrossPoint. It was a blast and I learned a ton! 

One of the coolest thing that happened there was I ran into an old friend from high school who had actually moved to Nashville and just joined a serving team at the church! It's amazing; we both were not following Jesus in High School but ended up running into each other at church hours away from home, and she told me she was considering getting baptized! Praise God! 

Learning about Cross Point's Groups Ministry was really neat and I'm excited to bring ideas to our Groups Ministries Team. 

Being able to grow in relationship with my fellow interns was great. We had a ball when we were off the clock, we encouraged fellow karaoke singers on Broadway and had a ton of fun playing cards at the hotel! (Euchre anyone?)

Back in Toledo, things have been going well! I had the privilege of speaking to Whitehouse Students during student night about reputation, gossip and lying. It was fun hanging with those students for the night!

Appreciate yall for the support and looking forward to what March brings!

January has been a fun month.

Stepping into my new role at West Toledo as the Groups Intern has been incredible.

Learning this new area of ministry and serving adults vs serving students has been like drinking from a fire hose.

I've loved getting to know the people of West Toledo, it's great to see their heart for the Lord in the way they serve.

I've enjoyed continuing to lead a group of 11th-12th grade guys over at the Perrysburg campus where I began the internship on Wednesday nights. It was especially cool to grab coffee with them on MLKJr. Day since they were off school.

One of the coolest things that happened this month was I had a chance to speak with a young man named Victor who called West Toledo during a Saturday service. He asked what happens after we die and what would happen if he believed in a different religion. I was able to share the Gospel with him and explain what I believe is true and what The Bible says would happen. We prayed together over the phone and he actually gave me his address so I could drive over and drop off a Bible to him and recommended he read the Gospels starting with John. We're going to meet for lunch one of these days and I'm excited to see what's been happening with his faith. 

I accepted a position as Fusion Camp Group Coordinator, I'm eager to see what comes with that role and experience Fusion Camp from a different level of leadership as I have in the past.  

It seems there are chapters in life. We walk into those chapters pretty easily when we start out, like grade school, middle school, and high school. Then we grow up and we don't just walk into those chapters anymore, we get to choose them, or should I say, write them. Do I go to college or find a career? Do I take this position in that state, or do I stay put? Do I take the risk, or play it safe? These types of questions are at the beginning of the chapters. 

This internship is going to be a chapter of my life and I'm excited to be holding the pen. 

The past few months of being a student intern have been a blast. If you would have told me 3 years ago that I'd be teaching students God's Word, I'd have laughed in your face. But that's exactly what has happened. I've had the privilege to serve the students of the Perrysburg campus for the past few months and spending time with them has been a joy. Stepping into the Middle School Weekend Coordinator position in September has been life-giving; encouraging our students to bring their Bible, scheduling speakers (and speaking myself), coordinating our amazing team of volunteers, and with the help of those volunteers pulling off the first 'At The Movies' Student Edition, has been a blast! The most fun of it all is getting to know the students and watching the look on their faces when light bulbs start to go off as they learn more about our God. 

But on a Thursday in November, I received a phone call asking if I would be interested in stepping into a role as a 'Next Steps: Groups' intern at our West Toledo campus. I didn't see that coming. Sometimes chapters in life have a few parts. After prayerfully considering and seeking wise counsel from my pastor, mentor, and leadership I accepted the move to West Toledo. I'm stoked to see what the next few months bring, as the internship continues on! It feels like a whole new experience stepping into a new campus and ministry team. I had my first meeting with the Groups team this morning and it was like drinking water from a firehose, but I'm excited to step into the next opportunity that God has for me.

My last weekend with the PB Middle Schoolers was so fun! I was able to have a wonderful speaker come in and teach to our students about finding friendships that help our faith grow, her name is Macy Gerig and she wrote a book called, 'Dear Teen: We're In This Together! My supervisor Daniel, surprised me with a card that each of the students had signed that attended my last weekend at Perrysburg. I'm going to miss those students but I'll see them around I'm sure at camps in the future and in eternity which is pretty cool to think about. 

I'll be hanging out with our older Perrysburg students on Wednesday Nights and having opportunities to teach which is always a fun responsibility. 

I had just go my prototypical introduction of "Hello, I'm Jake, I'm a student ministry intern at the Perrysburg Campus" down pat. 

October has historically been a month of changes; the leaves start to fall to the ground, the weather gets a little nippier, and the seasons change. My life this past month has been similar. 

This month, I began to substitute teach at Wagar Middle school up in Carleton, MI - it is also the school that I attended growing up. After just one day of subbing, I was asked to be the building sub; so on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays (any day I'm not working at CedarCreek) I go to school! It's given me a breath of fresh air to have a steady income once again. 

On October 17th, I turned 26 years young. Birthdays for me, are a time to reflect on the past year and how God is working in my life and look forward to the year ahead and what could happen. 

On October 23rd, my grandma passed away at the age of 93 years old. She had battled Alzheimer's for the past 9 years and lived with my parents and me for that time. Growing up she would take care of me and my siblings while my parents worked and I'll cherish the memories that I have of her for the rest of my days. I remember times when my grandma, grandpa and I would go to the little church in my hometown on Saturday afternoons and afterward play Yahtzee at home. It's funny how just the little things end up meaning so much. If you're interested in reading a bit of her story, I included a link to the obituary here.  

This month at the church we have been getting after it! The Student Ministry staff switched campuses for Student Night on Oct 19. I and the Perrysburg Student Team took off for West Toledo. It was great to see the difference between our campus and the West Toledo campus. I learned a lot from their group leaders about how to have a conversation that goes from silly trivial things to spiritual conversations during small group time with their High School boys.

Furthermore, our Internship Class traveled to the Oregon, West Toledo, and Whitehouse Campuses during our Campus Pastor weekend. It was great to experience what a weekend service was like at those campuses and learn from the different campus pastors. 

During the Men's Event, I was able to meet a young man who was actually looking to get involved in a group and I invited him to join my Young Adults group I lead on Tuesday Nights at the Perrysburg Campus! 

Pouring into students has been a goal of mine since I began working here at CedarCreek just over 90 days ago. I've been able to hang out with some of the guys in my student small group and go to their work to visit them. It's great to hear how God is working in their life, and how they are starting to make some life-changing decisions of shedding some bad habits and creating new ones.

Looking forward to November, our Perrysburg Student Ministry is going to put on a Middle School Weekend - At The Movies "Student Edition". 

Whether it's prayer, discussions, or financial support I greatly appreciate everything y'all have done to support me in this internship. 

Our Student Ministry began our Student Nights for the 2022-23 year at the end of August, so September has been really fun! It's been great to get into the rhythm of weekly gatherings with our 7-12th grade students on Wednesday Nights. I'm grateful for the opportunity to pour into my guy's group of 11-12th grade boys. It's been fun to get to know them on a personal level week-in and week-out. Some of the guys I've led with during Fusion Camp this past summer and our deep in their faith and others are still figuring out what they believe. I ask that you pray for these students and that my group co-leader & I (and our entire Student Ministry) can continue to meet students where they're at and point them to Jesus. 

This month I also stepped into my new role (inside the internship) as Middle School Weekend Coordinator, planning the weekend services for our 5-6th grade students. My responsibilities include scheduling speakers to give the weekend message to our students, and scheduling volunteers (or DreamTeam members) to lead student small groups. Leading small groups of 5-6th graders can be a ton of fun, watching them grow even in just a few short weeks has been a blast. We've been giving personal student study Bibles to those who don't have their own personal Bible at home, seeing the look on some of their faces has been great! 

Our Student Director took a well-deserved vacation for the last week of September with his wife and family. Giving Reuben (my co-intern) and me the opportunity to take over the reins of the ministry. We planned a "Dad's Gone Party" for our Middle School Weekend, just to have fun with the middle schoolers. We put on Season 1 Episode 3 of 'The Chosen' titled, "Jesus Loves the Little Children". We had popcorn and chatted about major takeaways from the episode. It was neat to see lightbulbs go off in the students as they watched Jesus interact with students around their same age and teach them prayers, songs, etc. 

Thank you all again for the support, I greatly appreciate it!

I'm looking forward to a great month in October; planning some fun events for our Student Ministry, and continuing to introduce students to Jesus! 

    The past month of working at CedarCreek in Student Ministry has been a great opportunity to grow. It is pretty cool to think that no matter what comes of this internship; if that’s a career in vocational ministry or a return to the private sector, perhaps working for a non-profit, this past month will be remembered (by me) as my first month in vocational ministry – and it flew by.

First things first, I have an incredible mentor whom I’ve been able to meet with on a weekly-ish basis – we’ve discussed relationships, ministry, budgeting, and life in general. It’s been great to learn from someone who is a few life stages ahead of me.

As for the student-ministry, I was given the opportunity to teach the 5th & 6th graders during our Middle School Weekend (picture attached), it was so fun to grow out of my comfort zone and teach them how to respond when someone or something challenges the faith during our ‘Under the Microscope’ series that was on the relationship between science and faith. In that lesson, we focused on the healing of the man born blind in John 9 and how he responded to the Pharisees when they challenged his healing. I’m glad to have a great supervisor and student team that I was able to turn to and ask for critical feedback on my message and delivery. Overall, I think there is a lot of room for improvement and I’m excited to see that development over the next 9 months (crazy there is already just 9 months left of this chapter of my life). Sitting with the students in the small groups has been interesting, kids say some funny stuff! I’m enjoying getting to know the students and learning what is important to them and helping them grow in the faith and continue on their spiritual journey.

Spanning out from the Student Ministry, I was able to help with August’s baptism weekend as a ‘Baptism Buddy’. I was able to hang out with one of the students I led at Fusion Camp in 2021 and 2022 leading up to his baptism. It was pretty special to see him take that next step in his faith after watching him get poured into the past two Fusion Camps by our volunteers.

In other news, I signed up to co-lead a Young Adult group that will meet on Tuesday Nights, we will be streaming ‘The Porch’, a ministry out of Dallas, TX that was instrumental in my faith journey. I’m excited to be taking the weekend to attend their ‘Awaken’ conference this weekend in Dallas, TX. The group is going to focus on growing in our faith, Biblical Literacy, and how to live a life that honors Christ in our twenties and thirties.

The Intern classes have been a lot of fun and full of learning, In the past two weeks, we’ve discussed wellness and how there are 5 elements to our well-being. Spiritual is the core of our well-being, and God is the common denominator in every area of our well-being. Then there is Purpose (career), Social, Physical, Financial, and Community. I’m excited to be taking the next steps to grow in all of these areas, slowly but surely. Beginning with the physical and financial areas, going to make the effort to begin meal-prepping (or making a ton of food for dinner one day and eating the leftovers the rest of the week), will help the pocketbook and will help my physical health. I’m also going to be taking Financial Peace U in the months to come, which is exciting!

Thank you again for all of your support, I’m excited to report what the next month will bring!