We are so blessed to manage a summer internship every year. It is a ten week program where the interns learn about service and the mission field in a hands-on environment. We call them our J-Team.
This year, our interns included many students who are looking to go into the medical field or the mission field, or both.
Madison Holcomb is a recent graduate of Lee University from Charlotte, North Carolina. She is working on applying for nursing school, and is planning to come back to us soon for a longer internship.
Sellers Swann is a rising junior at the University of South Alabama. She is from Greeneville, AL. She is a pre-med major, and has already been accepted to medical school at USA. She plans to apply to other med schools before making her final decision.
Hope Morris is a rising senior at Lee University, and she is from Sevierville, Tennessee. Her major is Interdisciplinary Studies, a program that allows students to combine several different majors to create their own. This program is typically used by students who want to do full-time missions, and Hope is no different.
Haven Edgemon is entering her final year at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and is from Soddy Daisy, Tennessee. She is currently a pre-med student working on studying for the MCAT and applying for med school. After that, she plans to go into missions.
Mara Cox is heading to East Tennessee State University as a pre-med major. She is from Johnson City, Tennessee. She wants to go to medical school once she finishes undergrad, and eventually wants to do medical missions. Unfortunately, she was unable to stay with us for the full internship due to medical issues.
These young ladies helped us tremendously throughout the summer. They helped us prepare for and care for several teams, including Church of the Highlands, Lee University, Jacksonville Education Team, and the Big Lake Heights/Destiny Church combination team. They worked long hours cooking, cleaning, and assisting these teams while they were here.
We were able to take them to Las Minas with us on our regular brigades. We sent them to San Luis to stay with a trusted family to give them a true cultural Honduran experience. They even helped us deliver baby number sixteen, who was named Ivani. We cannot thank them enough for all the work they helped us to get done. They worked very well together as a team, and their strengths and weaknesses balanced each other out. It was truly amazing to witness a group such as theirs operate with such cohesion.
While they may have worked very hard, they also played hard. They were always having movie nights and game nights. We heard there was a lot of Codenames, Spot It, Speed, and Nerts going on in the apartments behind the hospital. They were always playing music while they worked. Despite their fun attitudes and excessive enthusiasm, they only won the lip synch battle once. Apparently, they were “robbed”.
For their end of year trip, we took the whole team out to Copan. They were able to explore some Mayan ruins, go shopping and horseback riding. A lot of dessert was consumed over a two day period.
At the end of their ten weeks, they departed with valuable medical and missions experience. They also left with more close friends than they came with, and we can’t wait to see what these young ladies do in their careers and in their walk with God.
