Cambodia 2011

You may have noticed.. if you were to look at my blog regularly.. that there is a new "Donate" button to the right of this text.

I have a chance to Change the World!!

July 2011, there will be a team of 12 young adults traveling to Cambodia to participate in a rally for youth from all over Cambodia. We’ll spend 10 days preaching, leading workshops and bible studies at the Youth Rally, building a playground for the rural children, and leading VBS alongside Cambodian young adults, and building one another up in love in order to begin addressing the many concerns heavy on the hearts of our brothers and sisters in Cambodia.


Our time in Cambodia and over the next year will prepare us for a Global Youth Rally in Ohio. The Global Youth Rally will involve 10 or so Youth and Young Adults from United Methodist Conferences in SouthEast Asia, Russia, The Congo, and Mexico all coming to Ohio! 


Our team needs your help! We need a network of people actively praying for this mission (in Cambodia and in the other conferences) over the next 18 months. We are hoping that you will join us in praying for the leadership and success of this trip and our mission, the people who will join our team, and the money we need to lead the mission.


CAMBODIA

Christianity only represents 5% of the population while Buddhism represents the other 95%. This is an area that Christ is not well known, and this will be an opportunity for me and the team I will be going with to spread the good news of Christ. We will also be building playgrounds at schools, in hopes that more children will find school exciting. Cambodia is currently the largest country in the sex trade. Young girls and boys are either forced or choose to be involved in the sex trade because they have no money. School tends to be an afterthought for them and the playgrounds become a bridge to bringing the children into schools and away from the sex trade. We will also be holding VBS for the children in Cambodia, to show them love, and to give them hope. The more they are loved, the less chance for them to willingly enter the sex trade.

As the team from Ohio, we have a chance to come alongside the Youth and Young Adults who are leaders in their churches in Cambodia. The Church in Cambodia is new and this is our opportunity to give them resources to reach their communities. 

As you can see, t

his is the mission trip of a lifetime for me and I need your help. I need to raise over $3000.00 by June 2011. I am hoping and praying you find it in your heart to donate financially towards my overall expenses and pray for safety and God's work on this trip. Through your kind generosity, you will be helping individuals in Cambodia meet Christ; you will be helping me make this mission opportunity a reality.

Next Steps:
1. Email me [a-smithers@onu.edu] if you are willing to pray for me and the team and if you would like to receive updates about Cambodia 2011. 


2. Click the Donate button at the top right hand corner of the blog to help financially. This is a safe and secure way to donate through PayPal. All credit cards are accepted. 


3. Send check to Allyssa Smithers, 402 West College Ave, Unit 3071, Ada, Ohio 45810. 




Thank you so much, in advance, for you support in my journey to Change the World. 

Ou

The End of the Line

The internship has now been over for one week. I am no longer "The Intern" at Central Avenue.

Now what?

God, what do you want to do in me and through me in this next season?

I am on the edge of becoming who I will be for the rest of my life. Who will I be? What will I accomplish? I do not want to waste my life - this is not my life. I am no longer living, but it is Christ who is living in me.

This has been a defining summer for me. I am not sure why or for what purpose, but I know that I am changed.

So now I am at the end of the line and I have decisions to make. Will I allow this summer to impact the rest of my life? Will I continue to change and grow? Or will I allow myself to return to my old habits and the comfortable place that I tend to return when I am tired or scared?

I have two weeks until I start my senior year, my last year of college. This is a big deal. I will be very busy with class work and meeting requirements and doing my last internships (yes, I will be TheIntern at two more places this year).

This is also a big deal because I have the opportunity to change the lives of many people: my family, roommates, new friends, old friends, Ada Friends mentors and mentees, professors, others students, etc.

I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD.

Maybe I think that if I say this enough, it will happen. Last weekend, for my last Sunday at Central Avenue, I preached. This was the first line of my sermon.

"I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD."

I really do mean it, but most of the time I have no idea what I am going to do in order to "change the world."

This year, I WILL CHANGE THE WORLD. I will change someone's world. I will make a difference.

Please, Hold me to this. Keep me accountable. Make sure that I am changing the world, someone's world.

What are you doing to change the world? Are you living like Christ is the one living your life? Is Christ living your life?

Think about it. Change the world.

On the Road... Again

As this is my second year as an Intern for the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, I attended my second "Seminary World Tour" last week. We traveled from Ohio to Georgia and back. We visited the Methodist Theological School in Ohio (Delaware, Ohio), Duke Divinity School (Durham, North Carolina), Candler School of Theology at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia), Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, Kentucky), and United Theological Seminary (Dayton, Ohio). The people were different; the seminaries were the same. I decided to not judge the seminaries or make an informal decision about where I would like to attend until after I got home, until I absolutely have to make a decision of where to apply.

I was intrigued by how similar each of the seminaries seem as they tell us all of the information they want us to hear so that we will think they are good seminaries. Do the statistics and the facts really matter? I think I am more interested in where I am physically and spiritually when I have to make the decision than the information that they pumped into us while we were visiting. The seminaries wanted us to be able to identify with the uniqueness of each institution, but I think the decision of where to receive a theological degree depends on more than that.

I have already said that I intend to consider the option when I have to actually start applying and judge how I am feeling at that time. I think this decision depends on where God is calling me to serve. I can tell everyone in the world that I really want to go to Candler because of all of these various reasons, but in reality, if God wants me to continue doing the work that he has intended for me here in West Ohio, how can I leave?

I do admit that sometimes I would be able to choose a seminary completely outside of my current situation - spiritually, physically, and financially. But I know that is not how life works. God is calling me to serve where I am with the people that he has surrounded me with. I don't think I take this too seriously and often feel like I have to wait until I am out of undergrad to start serving. Many people have given me this advice to serve where I am.

Goal for this upcoming year: follow that advice. Even though it is my last year, I intend to be involved in the community outside of the university, as well as immerse myself in campus life. This has always been difficult for me because I enjoy being by myself or with a small group of people. But I know that I want to impact this world for the kingdom of God. In order to do that, I have to be amongst God's people.

I know this has just been a spewing of random thoughts, but in my head, they are related to my journey as I prepare to make a decision regarding my theological education and eventually my call into ministry as a vocation.

How do you get motivated to become a part of communities that you know you will only be a part of for a short while?

Psalm 42:2

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:2. 


Working at a church is such an amazing job. I get paid to write sermons, read books, meet people and build relationships, take people (or be taken) out for meals, etc. When a friend or my mentor ask me how my spiritual disciplines are going I have to stop and think, "Oh crap! I haven't stopped to pray today or sit at Jesus' feet and listen." 


I get so caught up in the "work" and talking about God and "doing" things for God that I forget to spend time with God. For instance, let's look at today.


9:30 Spend time with my host family as we take my car to the repair shop to get brakes then head over to the farmer's market to pick up blueberries and peaches. My host likes to talk about God and so most of our conversations revolve around God and the church.
10:30 Get to the office. Read a multitude of blogs, mostly by Christian authors, a majority of which revolved around God and the church. 
11:30 Continue to work on my sermon (which I will preach on July 18th). This involved reading scripture (God's Word) and thinking over certain ideas and the message I am feeling God wants me to share.
2:00 Meet with my mentor to discuss what I have of my sermon so far and how to effectively deliver that great content that I have. 
3:00 Continue reading commentaries and other sources on my scripture text for my sermon then switch to writing letters to congress-people about social justice issues I am passionate about. 
4:30 Go home to then ponder my day and rest. 
6:00 Eat dinner with my host family (building that relationship) and then leave with them to go to our small group that just started tonight.
7:00 START>Becoming a Good Samaritan small group in which we discuss social justice issues and how we can do good in our communities. 


Now that just seems like a day packed with God. But I'm not sure I really just quieted myself to listen to what he was trying to teach me throughout the day. Even in my reading of scripture for my sermon, I was really looking at it from an academic perspective today because that was my next step (to learn the context of the story). It was not until 9:45 tonight when I got home from small group that I decided I was going to be quiet and listen to God. 


The verse at the top asks "When can I go and meet with God?" I hear this emotion. I am so thirsting to be filled by his spirit and his love. When will it be time to meet with him? I have said in the past, and have heard others say this as well, that I am too busy to meet with God right now - I will do it later. I am a little sad right now that I waited all day to spend time with him when I could have been with him in the midst of everything else, not just on a mental or intellectual level, but on a spiritual, emotional level. This was the point of the incarnation, right? God making himself available to us always, on our level. We don't have to set up a time to meet with God anymore. He is always present and we can always meet with him. 


This is my goal: Be with God everyday, all day. Lofty goal, I know. I will fail, but I press on because I know that God is worth it. 


I pray that you, who ever you are reading this, whether you work in a church or not, that you may feel God's presence on a personal, spiritual, and emotional level all throughout your days and that you can be aware of his presence meeting with you always. 

the Intern at work

Lately, as I am the summer intern at Central Avenue United Methodist Church, I have been introduced as The Intern. I find this somewhat comforting that I have a title, but also interesting that it has almost become a running joke.

I am in my 5th week of being The Intern at Central Avenue and it never gets old. I am a part of an undergraduate internship program through the Office of Next Generation Leadership of the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church. This internship was created to help young adults discern their call into ministry, specifically ministry as a vocation in the United Methodist Church, alongside an ordained mentor.

As I was pondering the word "intern," I decided to look up the definition on Dictionary.com. These are a couple of the multiple definitions:

• a student or a recent graduate undergoing supervised practical training
• a person who works as an apprentice or trainee in an occupation or profession to gain practical experience, and sometimes also to satisfy legal or other requirements for being licensed or accepted professionally

I realized that neither of these definitions fully (or at all) describe my role as The Intern at Central Avenue as a part of the West Ohio Conference. If I can mesh them together (while deleting some or a majority and adding my own thoughts), then it might just work. Let's try that. Here is my definition for The Intern at Central Avenue UMC:

• a student who works as a trainee in ordained ministry to gain practical experience and discernment for the future of the student's ministry

Another definition from Dictionary.com says, "send to the interior, confine." This would hopefully not be a comfortable definition for an intern who is seeking professional experience, but would rather be used for a prisoner of war or someone who is suspected of being an ally of a foreign enemy during a time of war.

When I saw this definition, though, I immediately thought of Ezekiel 37:1-2. (The hand of the LORD was upon me. and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.) The LORD led Ezekiel in and among the bones that the LORD was going to bring to life and breathe the breath of life into. The LORD sent Ezekiel to "the interior" of the work that the LORD was going to do.

I am really excited to get "practical experience" and to have time to discern my call, but I am most overjoyed that God calls each and every one of us to be interns - to be at the interior of the work that God is doing and calling us to carry out for and with Him.

Here begins my reflections of being theIntern.