Jumping In

It has been a whirlwind week and a half in Lancaster--moving into the Millersville International House, where I and eight other interns will be living for the summer; finding out more about HOPE's mission and programs through a two-day orientation; learning the ropes in the first week on the job; and through it all getting to know other interns and staff--and I want to thank you all for your prayers. I tend to go into initial getting-to-know-you situations (that time of being on your best behavior to make the best first impression) viewing them as a kind of necessary evil, first step to having deeper relationships. And so I started orientation with a fair bit of dread mixed in with the excitement, but I've been realizing that I have so much more fun when I stop focusing on my own worries about meeting people. I feel like I learn these lessons over and over again. So thank you again for your prayers...I've needed them!

On the subject of prayer, several of us girls went out to the Prince Street Cafe in Lancaster the other night for a change of pace and to get some reading done. But of course, no reading actually got done, as we just talked for several hours. At one point, someone asked another intern how she had come to study in the U.S. from Uganda. She replied that there's a long version and a short version (which is, it was a miracle), and we were fortunate to hear the long version, which involves story after story of prayers working and God using people to come through just when she had begun to lose hope. It was a wonderful reminder to me that God really does answer prayers, which is timely since I've been stressing out about apartment arrangements back in Pittsburgh for the fall.

Let me write just a little about my internship before I sign off; I'm a marketing intern for HOPE International, and I'm working with the main writer on HOPE's staff, so I get to do a wide variety of writing and editing...press releases, prayer updates, curriculum, profiles...I feel like I'm still working slowly through what I need to do, but I'm already learning a lot and love the people I'm working with. HOPE, by the way, is a Christ-centered microfinance nonprofit. We had a whole two days of orientation on what that means, but for now, I'll just leave you with their website in case you're curious: www.hopeinternational.org. But hey, since I'm marketing intern, I'll probably start talking them up in my blog pretty soon:)