Welcome to our Internship 2019 page, where we are showcasing our work which we have completed this summer
The main theme of this summer’s internship has been “Stories of Faith.” We have compiled a list of all the works that we have written into nicely packaged E-Book style so you may read them with ease.
Past:
We start with a deep delve into the past of Christianity for Koreans.
The first piece that we worked on was the blogposts for the origins of Korean Christianity and how it developed. We notified you by email whenever these posts were uploaded! You will be able to find a list of all of the blog posts written by the college interns by clicking below!
Soon after, the college interns created another set of blog posts now discussing the experiences of the 1st and 2nd generation Korean-Canadians.
Present:
We move onto the present which is now represented by the members of the St. Timothy community. This time, we were able to interview many people and hear their stories on how the church affected their lives.
Future:
The future is us. The college and high school interns that are hard at work to create this content for you. In this section, you will find the work that we have been able to do such as helping out VBS or going away on a mission trip and serving another community there. We serve and toil now so that our harvest will be plentiful.
The summer interns were in charge of creating the programme for the retreat. Ranging from creating the discussion groups to preparing community games for the congregation. The interns wrote the Stories of Faith blog posts in order to prepare the people of St. Timothy for the retreat.
Preparation is key. Before leaving, Simon Moksanim lead us in a fruitful discussion and reflection on mission. Through our studies we were able to prepare spiritually for the upcoming missions.
Mission Preparation Reflections
Montreal
Joshua Chung, Jocelyn Chung and Sarah Choe had the opportunity to help serve the Montreal community during the first two weeks of July. The main focus of the mission trip was to help inner city initiatives.
Saskatoon
The church sent a large team of Joel Chung, Doyeon Oh, Paul Jang, Monica Park, Torrance Yoon and Elisabeth Jong to Saskatoon for two weeks in mid July. They helped run a VBS at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, served at their Inner City Mission and worked at Camp Christopher.
Winnipeg
For two weeks in July, Lauren Lee and April Chia were sent by the church to Winnipeg, MB. They worked alongside Winnipeg Inner City Missions and Anishinabe Place of Hope Presbyterian Church to conduct a community assessment and learn more about the community living there.
Our annual VBS took place during the first two weeks of July. The theme of this year’s VBS was “To Mars and Beyond!” The Hi-C interns lead the children through different stations and as group leaders to learn more about God’s word while having fun doing different activities and going on field trips.
This year was the first year that Youth Camp ran for the entire two weeks! The College interns coordinated the program for the youth based upon the theme of “Leadership”. The kids explored this theme through learning about the “7 Good Qualities of Leaders,” which were enforced through activities, games, group discussion and daily messages and devotion lead by Pastor Dave Lee.
At KCWA, the interns took part in helping run a program for seniors called Empower Us Project: Increasing Senior Community Participation through Storytelling. We got to work closely with the leader of this project, Christina Hyejin Yun, as well as the seniors involved. Through several workshops, we learned more about the senior’s lives and experiences as well as practiced for the upcoming interviews. During the interviews, the interns recorded the seniors as they told us their stories from their immigration journey. These videos will be edited and some will be uploaded to Youtube! We are so blessed to be a part of this project as it helps us to connect to our roots and learn more about the generation that paved the way for us.
Evangel Hall Mission (EHM) is a Toronto-based organization that helps homeless and socially isolated individuals find a safe haven from the streets. Every day, up to 150 men and women come to EHM for guidance and support in the form of food, clothing, health and dental care, fellowship and counselling. This summer, Megan, Jonathan, and Maddie served at EHM for two weeks. They served food in the drop-in centre and also worked with the other various services EHM offers.
The Presbyterian Museum was being moved from St. John’s Presbyterian Church to the PCC headquarters. Some of the college and high school interns were helping out with packing and moving the books and commemorative plates. We were only simple labourers however with each plate, book and cup we packed away; we could see that each item held a story. It’s important to understand and appreciate the work that it takes to take care of the Presbyterian history. We need to preserve them so that it can be shown to the world.
Presbyterian Church History Centre
Opens Arms Toronto is an organization that was formed to help children in South Korean welfare centres (orphanages). The focus is to assist orphans that have aged-out of the system. This summer, Lauren and Jocelyn had the opportunity to tutor Yura Kang, who is part of the Open Arms program. They helped her with becoming more comfortable speaking English, working with her to assist in her pronunciation and developing her vocabulary.
Part of this internship entailed critical study of the Bible, along with deep personal reflections. From the Bible study, interns learned how to read the Bible critically and hermeneutically engage the Bible with their lives. All interns did the assigned readings, thought critically and engaged with the materials, and actively participated in discussions and reflections.
Once a week, the college interns allocated some time to reflect individually on a specific chapter of the book of John. After writing their personal questions, thoughts, and interpretations, they would reconvene into two groups to share and record their collective findings. Later, they all came together and discussed as a group consisting of all the college interns and Rev. Simon.
The Hi-C and college interns came together to study the book of Philippians. There were a lot of small and large group discussions and ideas shared. Together, we studied 4 chapters, one each day, and had intergenerational discussion regarding our interpretations of St. Paul’s letters. After a full day of discussions, each intern wrote a personal reflection on the ideas shared and learned.
The college interns wrote a long final reflection based upon their entire experiences as interns. We reflected on all 4 months of the summer that we spent working at the church. It was a time of honest and critical reflection where we wrestled with the in-depth and thought-provoking questions, provided by Rev. Simon. We have compiled the most thoughtful and spiritual answers for you. We hope you enjoy reading our reflections as much as we enjoyed writing them.