Adventures of an Intern!

Hannah filed this as her final blog for the summer. We loved having Hannah with us and will miss her. The clients bonded with her easily and will miss her, too! Note that we still have one opening for the fall and 3 for the spring!

Here's what she wrote to share at the end of her internship:

HOLY COW! Where has this summer gone? I cannot believe that its already August and I will be going back home to Missouri in 2 DAYS! WHAT?! That means I have to go back to doing homework in roughly two weeks! Yikes! No way is that possible!...Right?

Many people have asked me, including the street kids, “What have you gotten out of this summer?” “What did you gain from us, and what have you done?” When this was asked of me a couple weeks ago by one of our clients, it really took me back. What have I gotten out of this summer? What have the street youth of Austin Texas taught me? So then that forced some much needed processing and evaluating for myself.

If I had to describe my experience this summer with one word it would be, AMAZING. I’m going to be cheesy for a second: Dictionary.com defines the word amazing as,

“To overwhelm with surprise or sudden wonder; astonish greatly. To cause a amazement, a new art show that delights and amazes. Astound, dumfound, stun, flabbergast or to see surprise”. Yep! This defines my summer 2011 with Street Youth Ministry. I was overwhelmed with surprise when I saw the bond that our clients have with one another and how quickly that was extended to me. I was in sudden wonder many times in thinking and dreaming with clients about the future. I continued to astonish greatly at how much our clients respect Terry and are so receptive of what God brings to them through him. Everyday was like it could have been an “art show that delights and amazes”, no day was the same as the day before. God also continued to “astound, dumbfound, flabbergast and surprise” me with His overwhelming, mighty LOVE for the poor.

One of my main prayers for this summer was that I would see these kids as Jesus sees them and to love them the way that He loves them. Jesus sees them and loves them where they are, not where they could be or who they could be. He created them, and they are beautiful, funny, real, tell you how it is, creative, inventive, down to earth creations of the Creator.

I have learned a tremendous amount from Terry, the street youth, all the volunteers, and so many others within this great city. Terry told me today right before departing that, “There will never be a summer like this one” and that, “This was a season, a great season in our lives but its over, and another one is about to come”. Both of these statements really stuck with me. No, there will never be another summer like this one at all! I do not regret one thing either. And this has been a fantastic season! I am sad to see it come to an end, I don’t want to leave these kids and go back to mounds of homework! That is my next season however and I cannot wait to see how God acts in it!

MISSOURI.....BE PREPARED, HERE I COME....AMAZED!

Hannah

"To know, love and serve street dependent youth."
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