Mission Internship 1997

During the summer of 1997 I went on a “mission internship” through Christian Missionary Fellowship.  Most, if not all, Bible colleges of the independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ require an internship for graduation.  Not all such internships are international in nature.  Normally young people spend a summer working with a preacher or in a Christian non-profit to fulfill the requirement.  The funny thing is that I had no such “requirement.”  I was then enrolled only in a community college.  In any case, going to Brazil that summer marked a major turning point in my life.

I went into my internship expecting only to gain an awareness of missions and to deepen my ministry experience.  For some reason I always imagined that if I ever did any “full-time” mission work it would be someplace like Lithuania.  Don’t ask me why.  I don’t know.

Even the choice of Brazil as my destination that summer was mere process of elimination.  I didn’t like any of the other options on the list the mission organization provided me, so I put Brazil as my first preference.  I think Chile was number two.  One of the professors during my brief stint in Bible college had mentioned in passing a “revival” taking place in Brazil, with hordes of people (my words, not his) converting to evangelical Christianity.  That sounded interesting.

A few months of support-raising and organizing later and I was in Brazil.  I had little notion of Portuguese and nothing in the way of previous international travel.  By the end of that summer I could speak basic Portuguese and was convinced I had to devote my life to mission work in Brazil.  A year later I returned to Brazil with a team from Harding University, where I was studying in earnest for a ministry degree.  Two years later, after graduation, I met my beautiful wife.  After all that I spent slightly less than three years in full-time mission work.  I hope to return to it someday, with a fresh perspective and improved outlook.

Today marks the 13 year anniversary of the day I made my commitment to Brazil.  I still hope to fulfill that promise.