What to Expect From the Internship

Written by Rashidi Hines

Hey everyone! My name is Rashidi Hines and I am from Winter Haven, Florida. I am one of the current interns on Team 13 with Children’s Bible Ministries (CBM), where the ministry gives us an open door opportunity for missions or any ministry work you would like to get into. The CBM Internship Program is a great opportunity for you, as a Christ follower, to get good experience with ministry work and see what you can expect full-time ministry to be like. When you do the Internship, you are at CBM Headquarters for 4 months of training. Here’s what you can expect from training:

First, you have to expect that God will provide meals and financial support for you. Each day you are raising support for your overseas mission trip that is part of the program. You might start off slowly, but remember to stay in constant prayer with God to provide for you every day. Raising up support for your trip can be tricky and difficult because you don’t know how and what can come in for your support. But you will get training in support raising. Remember to always pray that the Lord provides you with support each day at a time. Always be prepared to post your support on social media every month, because it helps you spread the word more easily and helps you get more out of your comfort zone, posting a lot about your life as an intern. There will be points where you may not have money but you also have the opportunity to raise monthly support, above your monthly stipend, to help pay for car insurance, phone bills, and any other things that you need to pay for. No matter what, God is the ultimate provider for you throughout the internship.

Another thing to expect is to prepare to stretch your prayer muscles and grow more with Christ. Each day as an intern you will dive deep into scripture from the Bible and apply what you learn to your daily life. Every morning you will have a prayer meeting with Jacquelyn and Zach, National Intern Coordinators, who will talk to you about your goals and how you can achieve them for the week. Jacquelyn and Zach may schedule some mornings for you to pray for longer, to stretch out your prayer for a long time. There might be times where Zach and Jacquelyn may read an article and have a discussion on what stood out to you about it and why did that stand out to you. Every day your faith will be tested in different areas where you might not like it, and you get a chance to grow into those difficult areas and get used to being out of your comfort zone. As you get here for the internship, you will start doing your devotions on the book of Colossians. Once you complete all of Colossians, you start doing your own devotions on the book of the Bible of your choosing.

Throughout the internship you can learn about the different core values of the internship and how you can apply them. The first core value is humility and, in the Internship handbook, humility is defined as “a posture before the Lord where we recognize who He is and who we are. We continually fix our eyes on Christ and focus on His sacrifice for us.” Every day you want to have your heart for the Lord, no matter what. Micah 6:8 New Living Translation (NLT) states “No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” God always wants you to humble yourself through every opportunity you get. A big one of the core values that you might have to struggle with sometimes is flexibility. The handbook definition is “flexibility comes from an attitude of selfless love for the Lord and is exhibited by having a willing heart to do anything asked of you at any time because we live on God’s timetable and not our own.” Ruth 1:6 states “But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.’”(NLT) Always be prepared for whatever changes God has for you. Another core value in the handbook is excellence, which means “doing everything with a goal of bringing glory to God whether large or seemingly mundane. We achieve this by striving to have a quality of work that is pleasing the Lord.” In Colossians 3:23 it states, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” (NLT) During the internship you are working for the Lord at all times and honoring Him in the process. The next core value is unity and you will have to show this all the time around your teammates and fellow co-workers. “Unity is an attitude of love, patience and forgiveness towards others as Christ has shown us. Unity is something that must be strived for according to Ephesians 4:3”  which says to “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, building yourselves together in peace.” (NLT) As you’re doing the internship, you build a relationship more with your teammates as you all get to know more about ministry. The last core value is very important while you’re doing the internship, it is servant leadership. You can’t go out to different camp rotations without being a leader to the next generation. From the handbook, servant leadership is defined as “interns are expected to show selflessness by exhibiting a concern for the feelings and sensitivities of others. Interns are expected to serve in whatever ways the Area assigned to most needs help.” 1 Corinthians 10:24-25 (NLT) says “Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others. So you may eat any meat that is sold in the marketplace without raising questions of conscience.” As you are becoming a leader during the internship, you care more about others than yourself and grow into a leadership role with the team. Every month you will have a meeting on how well you do with the core values through that month.

During your 4 months of training at Tuckaleechee Retreat Center (CBM Headquarters) you also get to learn about how to clean the cabins with your teammates and you can build excellence and unity together. While you are here you can help with maintenance around TRC to make sure everything stays neat for guests who stay at the cabins, and help with installing new things like ceiling fans, beds, and other projects you will be assigned to that need help. As you are here for the training, you also get classes on the Bible and that will give you a whole different perspective on how you view things. After you finish up your 4 month training, you will enter into camp rotations. That’s where you get an experience with different camps and help with events or Released Time Classes. Overall, you will love to be part of this organization and get more interested in where God leads you to next.

Rashidi is a part of the CBM Internship program, which exists to encourage young people to experience missions! To learn more about the CBM Internship program click HERE www.childrensbibleministries.net/internships.

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