CBM Intern – Why I Do What I Do

CBM National intern, Timmy Martens – 

This is what my typical day looks like as a CBM National Intern on rotation at Ponderosa Bible Camp:

I usually wake up pretty early, and me being a night owl does not make this easy! Regardless, I force myself to my feet sometime before6:50am and try to beat the TEAM (Teens Excited About Ministry) members to the dining hall. If you don’t know, TEAM members play a huge part in Ponderosa Bible Camp’s Ministry.

They do all the grunt work, like kitchen cleaning, dishwashing, and maintaining the grounds. This summer, I’m one of their leaders, so in the mornings, I need to make sure  they’re present for “God and I Time,” which is a fancy way of saying “devotions.”

Then there are some mornings when I’m at the dining hall even earlier to help prepare breakfast for the campers. If that’s the case, I usually get up at around 5:50am and arrive at the kitchen around 6:00, ready to put strips of bacon onto the flat pans.

After breakfast, I usually have my own “God and I time” time before I work on consolidating media and figuring out what I need to take videos and pictures of today. I also check social media, noting how many people we have reached and engaged. It’s really fun when there are comments or messages to respond to.

Mr. Chris, one of the full-time missionaries here, has been helping me a whole lot. He takes video for me with his snazzy Lumix camera. We will usually strategize and figure out where we need to be that morning; for instance, last week I got videos of the Creation Classroom camp, while he shot the zipline and the obstacle course. Before lunch, I’ll take the footage off his camera and upload onto my computer.

Lunch comes sooner than I’d like. Because I’m a TEAM Leader, I get in 30 minutes ahead of time to make sure that the meal is set up and ready to go. I always have a good group of workers to help me out, so as long as everyone stays on task, lunch goes on without a hitch.

The afternoon can be a monster. There are a lot of activities to film, so I usually ask the Program Director, Justin for a ride on his 4-wheeler. It’s quite bumpy going down to the river, but I manage. After getting the shots I need, I head back up to my office and make a countdown video to play before chapel, so that the kids can watch videos of the activities they did that day. I have to finish that before 5:00pm, because at that time I have to go back to the dining hall and make sure that dinner runs smoothly.

After dinner, things start to slow down for most people, but this is the most hectic time of the day for me. I have to cut out from dinner clean-up early (I am so thankful for the other TEAM leader, Josh, who does such a good job with clean-up!) so that I can make sure the slides are ready for music, the countdown is queued, and I’m ready to lead worship on the piano. Then at 7:30pm, the kids come in, we countdown to the start of chapel, and then I play piano with the worship band.

I then try to livestream chapel (depending on how well our internet is doing that night) before heading back down to my office whilst listening to the livestream. I do a lot of media work at night, which includes organizing pictures, preparing social media clips for the day after, and making the end-of-the-week video. That night of productivity is interrupted by a great Bible Study time with the TEAM members between8:30-9:30pm. Depending on how much work I still have to do with media afterward, I usually leave the office between 10:00pm-1:00am, only to wake up early the next morning to start all over again.

By Thursday, I’m exhausted, yet that is my busiest day. All the videos have to be complete, and the flash drives containing the week’s media have to be ready for parents to purchase in the store. There’s no such thing as “I’ll do that tomorrow.” And being human, sometimes I when I get to Thursday, I want to throw my hands up in the air and yell, “I quit!” But then Thursday also means that it’s campfire night. If I step outside, I can hear the counselors and the campers all whooping and hollering for joy as children come up and confess that they accepted Jesus that week at camp.

I can’t help but smile.

It’s all worth it in the end.

A NOTE FROM THE INTERN COORDINATOR

Missions isn’t often what people think. God will use US in all our failings with all different skills and abilities for HIS Kingdom work! It is a blessing to hear those who stand up and say that they have trusted Him as their Lord and Savior! #whywedowhatwedo

If you want to Follow Timmy on his Summer Journey at Ponderosa Bible Camp:

Catch them on Facebook @ponderosastudentministries 

or on Instagram @ponderosabible 

And for all information on All CBM National Interns 

Follow us on Facebook @cbmintern and instagram @cbminternlife

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