Mid-Year Retreat

I'm at the halfway point, or at least according to the college internship I am. I actually am a little over halfway done with my internship since I had such an early start. Halfway done comes with mixed emotions. For Concordia St. Paul's Director of Christian Education (DCE) and Director of Christian Outreach (DCO) programs all the interns are called back from their respective places mid-year of their internship for a retreat in Minnesota.*

As interns we are scattered literally across the country and then some. The gathering began with a Friday evening meal at the home of former Concordia St. Paul Chaplin, Steve Arnold. We enjoyed un-structured story time of various internship experiences. With bad weather in the Chicago area, we learned that one of our interns, Katie, flight was canceled. She opted to drive and was still on the road.

Map of where all the interns are*

We began to eat yummy chili and soon enough Katie arrived. It was nice to have us all together*. We are like one big family in that sense. After the meal we enjoyed ice cream and more conversations filled with laughter and reminiscence of freshmen year and classes thus far in our college experience.

Group Photo at Chipotle (Courtesy Alyssa Burdett)

The following day we awoke early to meet with several leaders on campus. They spoke to us about post-internship matters and how the college has changed while we were gone including a new college President, admission office, and as Emmalee joked "They moved the spoons in the dinning hall!".

We then left campus and headed to Mount Olivet Conference and Retreat Center located in Lakeville, MN. Once there we enjoyed time of de-briefing with the ever famous BIG PAPER and used a Kevin Hall favorite format of "What?" "So What?" "Now What". 

Emmalee & Bailey with the BIG PAPER (Courtesy Alyssa Burdett)

We listed some of our top learnings thus far on internship and as I recall here were some of the most common/popular ones

1. Have someone outside of the Parish to talk to--for good and bad days find your person to rant, reflect, and recharge with.
2. Learn to say "No"--it's vital to ones sanity
3. Take your day's off-do not re-enter the church or work from home
4. Ask for Help
5. It's not about the number of people at events, but the quality of relationships with the people at the events. (aka numbers are not everything)
6. Do activities outside of church and have friends outside of church.
7. It's okay to fail.
8. Let congregation members take ownership--ie: If they have an idea go with it. People are more passionate about their ideas then others.
9. Have personal devotion time.--Preparing for church Bible study does not count.
10. Life isn't by the books--The "textbook" perfect youth group, congregation, and scenarios do not exist.

After reflection we enjoyed a time of intimate worship with no flashy powerpoints, screens, or music. A single guitar with just the 10 of us gathered informally on couches. It was one of the best worship's I've had all year mostly because I was actually worshiping rather than leading, or worrying about what my next task in the service or after service Bible study was.

After worship the supervisors seemed to disappear to bed or do whatever supervisors do. Meanwhile us interns enjoyed time in the swimming pool, sauna, several rounds of Uno, and YouTube entertainment by Jeffery Dallas.

Uno! (Courtesy Alyssa Burdett)

The following morning we went back to campus and got to speak with the Leadership class which included several students who will be entering internship this upcoming year and we finally got to meet Concordia St. Paul's New President Tom Ries.

The retreat was good and necessary for contemplation and re-grouping the second half of internship game plan. The best way to put it is

Kevin: "You have just reached half-time"
Alyssa: "What's the half-time show?"
Kevin & Phil: "We are!"

Okay so our supervisors are not the halftime show but certainly the ones who make us intentionally think and reflect upon what we've done, and what's to come.

"What's the halftime show?" "WE ARE!" (Courtesy Alyssa Burdett)

*I should mention that one of the DCO interns is in Botswana Africa, but she did not fly home for the retreat.