King's Church Durham

King’s Church Durham

Building Community - Living for God

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This week

The End is only the Beginning...

Posted by Sarah Tripp on Friday 23rd July 2010

Sarah Tripp

Dear Readers, a fond hello!

This Internlog marks the end of an era for all nine of us, and I have the great privilege of keeping you updated! We are now at the end of “Debrief Week”. The last few days have involved a mixture of teaching sessions, reflections, outings and farewells; I shall now let you in on a few of these experiences…

Friday morning saw us interns make our final appearance in the streets of Durham for First Contact; we hope that over the year we have blessed passers-by with our dulcet tones and this Friday saw us go into competition with a very loud drill! Unperturbed by the noise, we offered prayer and a number of people allowed us to pray with them on the streets for various situations, whilst others wrote prayers down. We have really seen God at work this year as we’ve stepped out in faith with creative evangelism and we’ve definitely all seen each other grow in boldness as we approach and talk with people.

On Sunday we celebrated the baptisms of Jon, Gus and Dean. It was wonderful to hear how God had brought them each to this stage. Following various lunches and afternoon activities, a few of the intern team headed out to Hadrian’s Wall for the evening, where shelter in a pub was sought as a result of torrential rain!

Monday began with a teaching session on “Ending Well” with Ruth, where we were able to reflect individually on the past year. We also thought about things that we would miss following the end of the internship, such as belonging to a team, each other, King’s Church, placements, good coffee, being Ruth’s priority, the support, and the expertise and teaching that we have encountered, to name but a few! We thought about the things that we were looking forward to, such as having weekends free, no more targets, being able to support ourselves financially, and freedom from set-up and pack-down teams. We valued the opportunity to think about how we would each continue to grow in our discipleship following the end of our time as interns and were reminded that although the internship may have finished, our journey with Jesus continues!

In the evening we enjoyed the excuse to dress up and were treated to a lovely meal out with the leadership team at Oldfields (and cocktails after, where Pimms o’clock was called!). We have been so grateful for their support in prayer over the year and the way in which they faithfully serve King’s Church.

Our adventure to Lindisfarne on Tuesday with Ruth, Chris, Phil, Tim and Melody began with lunch which was then followed with a time of worship in St Cuthbert’s Centre. Each intern had prepared a presentation which told the story of “Our Journey” during the year and we shared this with one another. It was so encouraging to see how God had been working in each of our lives – through different means and in different ways to shape and mould us both for now and the future. A couple of us took advantage of the sea and enjoyed a quick dip in the water, with a seal not too far away; others scrambled over rocks, explored rock pools, paddled and investigated the local Mead shop. Due to the heavy rain, we headed back to Durham to have an indoor BBQ at Ruth’s, where we also finished praying for individual members of the team. As we drove back from The Holy Island, we were in awe of the dramatic and beautiful skyline – I love how Creation points us to our awesome Creator God!

On Thursday we concluded our teaching time with Melody. We’ve all really benefited from her in-depth teaching on passage analysis and John’s gospel. In the afternoon, we had our final ever teaching session with Ruth (sob, sob!) and discussed things to watch out for in our next steps and the challenges which we might face, how to think about choosing a new church, managing our finances with integrity, and how to live out Christian lives in the workplace. Still remaining - “Exit Interviews”, a feedback lunch, and final King’s Church Service!

This year has been a real privilege for all of us. While we recognise that there have been some challenging times, we also know that we have been massively blessed. We are so thankful to God for the opportunity that we have had to serve Him this year and for the ways in which He has deepened our knowledge and understanding of Him, for how He has taught us to learn to rely more fully on Him, how we have grown in His love, and for the ways in which He has shaped and moulded each of us over the year. We’ve had lots of fun, have worked hard, have cried and laughed, but, above all, have definitely grown and seen God’s powerful hand at work both in our own lives and in the lives of others! We’re excited about where God will take each of us next!

Please be praying for each of us as we come to the end of a special year.

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