CIY: 3 Week Recap

What a whirlwind! Today is the last day I'll be in Joplin before we get on the road. I realized how little I'm able to share with the people in my life due to our busy schedule, so I thought I would post on this here blog that I haven't used in forever.

Here's the rundown on what I'm doing while working with CIY. My title is Customer Service Manager, I have a partner who shares job responsibilities with me. Her name is Kristin. We do the following things: place youth groups in dorms, contact all the youth ministers before the event starts, take all requests from churches to make sure they have the best experience, lead meetings with all leaders at events, know everything about the whole week, carry a computer, make the directors happy, make the program coordinators happy and mostly get some sleep. Basically, we work long hours. This week was the kickoff week, we've had a conference here at Ozark Christian College for the first time in CIY history. Each morning we get up and go to the morning session, then we go to work, then we have dinner and then we end the day with an evening session. Prior to this week, we would go to work all day, then find some fun activities to do in the evening. We're known to play ultimate frisbee, soccer and volleyball. I shouldn't say we, because I rarely play. But sometimes I do! We also spend a lot of time at Sonic, because there are 6 in Joplin. 6!!! One on almost every street corner. 

There are 26 Event Staff members (interns). Most days we spend quite a bit of time together, which has been kind of exhausting for me, given that I lived essentially alone for the last 2 years. But it has been really awesome to get to know so many people from different places. Staff members are from all over the country, California, Virginia, Texas, Florida, and quite a few from Oklahoma and Missouri. Oddly, I'm one of the older interns, only a handful of us are graduates. It's very bizarre because I've typically been the youngest in my group of friends, even amongst my friends in Medina. 

We are living in dorm rooms at OCC. They are nice, but still dorm rooms, so don't imagine any sort of luxury. I'm back to sharing showers and common rooms. I guess I should be fine with that, especially because I will still have roommates in the fall. Shout out to Kyzo and Big Fek! I have also had some run-ins with my trusty items. Bertha died twice, thank goodness my team leader Morgan knows how to jump a battery. I dropped my phone directly on the face of it, cracking the screen and rendering it useless. 

For anyone from Fuel reading this, we are reading through the life of Joseph this summer. Weird, huh? Turms out I won't be leaving Genesis any time soon. Which leads me to talk about the events themselves and CIY. I couldn't have imagined how fulfilling this job would be when I applied in October. If you aren't aware of the story behind this job, let me just fill you in. I applied after a conversation I had with a friend who works full time for CIY in September. I felt an immense call to care for the church in whatever way possible. Chelsie thought CIY would be a fit for me, so she told me to apply for this internship. I obviously did. I didn't find out that I was still being considered until January when I got an e-mail with a 3 day reminder to send in my reccomendations. I thought I had already sent those in. Skipping the middle correspondense and Skype interview to 6 weeks later, I got a call while driving back to Ohio to let me know I was being offered a position. Bertha and I had no idea what would be ahead of us when that position what offered to us. 

What I have found here is completely mind blowing. First, the people that work at CIY genuinely love their jobs, even when it is hard! They don't complain and they laugh a lot. I haven't been able to see work as a satisfactory in a few years. Watching these men and women work each day is just remarkable and inspiring. I think it has a lot to do with working for the Kingdom, greater purpose at work makes it more meaningful and fulfulling. Second, the creativity that takes place here stirs me to do and know more. I love knowing that the people who create the stage and the videos we play and the small group material all do so with such intentionality that it's not hard to see that links to the broader topics. I'm thinking bigger and grander and asking God what more I can do with my imagination. Third, while I'm getting less sleep each night because we work the whole day, I'm not tired. We get to wake up, go straight to session and worship God. After work, we go to session and worship God. When I start and end my day with worship, I'm not tired, I'm full. 

It's just simply amazing. I have no idea how stressful or joyful these next 3 weeks in Tennessee will be, but I'm excited to be where God has me. 

If you want to know more, visit www.ciy.com/move. I'll be at Tennessee 1, 2 and 3. Then California 1, 2 and 3. 

More to come from CIY.

-Courtney