Each year we accept a small number of interns to journey and learn with our Western-based intentional Christian communities. Currently most of those are hosted in inner city Vancouver, BC by the Servants Vancouver community. However, if you are interested in interning with the Southall, London community contact us to see if there are any openings coming up.
Your internship with Servants will probably be quite different to any other you have experienced before. This is because the emphasis of your time will not be so much on what you do but on what you learn. The objectives of a community exposure with us are usually as follows:
* Consider God's heart for the poor and what it means for your life. * Gain an understanding through participation and readings of what it means to live incarnationally amongst the urban poor in a Western context. * Experience life within an intentional Christian community including daily and weekly rhythms of prayer, meals and fellowship * Increase your understanding of Servants and perhaps discern together with us whether God is calling you to be a part of this movement.
The intention is that for a few weeks you make a deep connection with those who live in the Downtown Eastside: drug addicts, mentally ill, the poor, marginalized, and allow God to open up a space in you to hear him afresh. This will occur not in a quiet garden or at the beach, but in a noisy and vibrant inner city urban community. It is an irony, but true nonetheless, that God is most often found in the places where we would least expect him. And when he wants to make himself visible - it is invariably in something "powerless" or weak or poor: like a baby in a stinking stable; or amongst the naked, the prisoners, the hungry and thirsty (Matt 25:31-46).
Being in a new environment and living in community with others, you will sometimes have struggles and frustrations. Your emotions may erupt in ways that call into question what you have never questioned before. You may face things surfacing in you that make you to want to escape. But the wonderful promise of these wilderness experiences which we must all face from time to time, is that if you endure, you will begin to see God sustaining you (Lk 4: 4) and you will discover yourself to be "a beloved child of God" (Matt 3:17).
Interns in Vancouver live within our intentional Christian community in the Downtown Eastside and a large part of the impact of this internship will be from your interactions with our neighbours and the team.
You will be provided a Formation manual as a daily guide to assist you in ways of looking beyond the surface of what is happening the neighbourhood and community. Readings included in the manual are to stimulate your thinking with regards to poverty and its causes and our response as followers of Jesus. We will also provide you with a guided daily spiritual journal to help you find God’s place in the midst of it all. One or two of the Servants team members will be allocated to you as mentors and you will meet with them at least once a week to discuss your experiences in the community issues that have arisen from your daily journal or the readings that you are set each week.
Additionally, the team meets regularly for morning and evening prayers, meals and other activities. You will join in fully in our rhythms of life. For more information see the Internship Info pack.
Although a big part of the program is experiencing poverty and being transformed through the process you will still have the opportunity to contribute in whatever ways you can. During the weekdays you can be involved in a variety of Servants projects depending on your skills, gifts, and passions, and the particular needs of Servants while you are here. For example, there may be a need for some research to be carried out that requires some time and energy beyond what local and Servants staff have on top of their daily life and work.
We are looking for applicants who have a spiritual maturity allowing them to face difficulties and learn from the experience. In addition we are seeking people who:
* Have a heart for the poor and those suffering injustice, and are seeking to demonstrate that in the way they live their life 'at home'.
* Have a commitment to Christian community, and are seeking to demonstrate that in the way they live their life.
* Are seeking to be actively involved in ministry already.
* Are actively exploring a commitment to long-term mission among the poor.
* Are flexible, self-motivated, self starters who will be able to survive (flourish!) by using initiative and courage in very simple living conditions and a new culture.
* Who come to learn, to be challenged and to be changed (rather coming to do things and save or change others).
If you believe that you fit these criteria there is a three step process for applying:
1. Short Term Application Form
Download and fill in the short Application Form and send it off to your local Servants office with a more in depth email about yourself, your sense of calling to mission, gifts, past experience, etc. They will contact the team you are interested in interning with (currently only Manila, Phnom Penh and Vancouver are receiving interns, but let us know if you are interested in another team and we'll see what we can do...) Someone will respond within 10 days to your email.
2. References
Its a good idea to talk to your pastor or leadership about your sense of calling early on and ask them to support you in prayer. Download copies of this Reference Form and ask your pastor (or an equivalent person who knows you well) to fill them out. We will also want to contact your referees to discuss your application if we don't know you.
3. Interview
You will need to meet with someone from Servants for an interview. During this time they will explain to you more about the internship and answer any questions you may have. You will need to arrange a Criminal Record Check (an unfortunate necessity in this day and age for anyone working with children) and you will receive a copy of our Child Protection policy to sign.
Your application will then be discussed with the field team before acceptance is confirmed.
Preparation is an essential to make this experience as valuable as possible. We want to see you beginning to engage with issues of poverty and injustice in the world and thinking through your personal response as a follower of Jesus. In order to achieve these aims we aim for about 4 months pre-internship preparation time during which you will:
Readings
Read at least one book about Servants such as The Sound of Worlds Colliding or The Urban Halo
Read one of the following: The Irresistible Revolution or Community and Growth
Read the Servants Vancouver Community Guide and the Internship info Pack.
Also have a look at the Recommended Books and articles which all long term Servants workers read before joining. You don't need to read them all but many may help prepare you for what you are about to experience. There will also be readings to complete as part of the internship.
Documentaries
Watch some of the videos on YouTube about the Downtown Eastside (search Downtown Eastside and lots will come up). Here are some interesting ones: here, here, here and here.
Write a short response to these videos.
Personal Response and Mentoring
Keep a journal in which you can jot down or draw your thoughts, feelings and ways in which you can respond to the readings, pictures and movies you have used.
Find a mentor (wise friend, pastor, spiritual director) with whom you can share your responses and commit to meeting on return from your internship.
Share your responses to the pre-internship material with the Servants team coordinator or other Servants person. This can be done through email, by phone or face-to-face.
Community Involvement
Participate in local Servants groups or events if available in your area.
Keep your home church informed of your progress. Ask a small group to commit to praying for you and commit yourself to sharing with your church on return.
If you are travelling from another country, make sure you have your passport, tickets and visas all sorted out. Before arrival, you will need to send us the results of a Criminal Record Check (American info here, other countries have their own systems listed here). If you have not already filled in this Final Details form (or any details have changed), please fill it in before departure and return copies to your Servants Office and the team you are joining. It covers important details such as insurance information, power of attorney (who can sign your stuff), what to do with your body in case of ahem...accident or death, a release of liability etc. Yah! Fun.
At the end of your internship you will fill in a debriefing form and discuss your learning with a member of the field team before departure. This discussion will also include issues concerning re-entry and the importance of continued discipleship and accountability with a spiritual director, mentor or prayer partner. Goal-setting with regards to life-changes and maintaining accountable relationships is very important for making the most out of your internship.
After Arrival Home
Within 1 month of returning home you will meet up with the Servants mentor you met with before your internship by phone or preferably face to face. This meeting is to help you process your experiences and also to discuss goals and possible ways to continue contact with the field team, your host family and the ministries you may have been involved with. We recommend that you also debrief with your mentor within 1 month of returning home. Discuss with them creative ways you personally can live more justly. Write an article, story or poem for the Servants newsletter or website.
4 to 6 months after your internship we will follow up with you to discuss how you are integrating your experiences into life and how we may support you. It is important that you keep meeting regularly with your mentor also. Take any opportunities that come your way to encourage your church’s participation in the work of Servants or ministry to the poor in general. Staying involved with the Servants community through local events, prayer groups, email and phone contact is expected and useful to enable the long-term impact of your experience to consolidate itself.
