Estamos Juntos!
One of the first phrases I learned in Portuguese was this one. "We are Together" The phrase doesn't just mean a physical proximity but an emotional and spiritual connection. It's a wonderful phrase that oozes relationship. It was with this premise and others that the International Internship in Mission was birthed.
One aspect of leadership training relationally is that for the experiment to work, the Leader and the follower must be willing to risk being EXPOSED. The goal is that the great gulf of fear, mistrust, hidden sins, perfect personifications would be exposed, thus bringing truth and honesty into the relationship. This way of life is a breeding ground for true, heartfelt relationship to grow and bear fruit, producing healthy and transparent leadership.
When we began the internship three years ago, I had no idea of the breadth and depth of exposure the decision to live this way would cause in my life. For three years, I have tried to live this way with our mozambican missional interns.
The up side is that I have witnessed first hand the transformation as the guys turn into some of the most amazing leaders I have ever seen. They lead with confidence, passion and character. It is with great joy that I serve along side them day in and day out.
The down side is that, in recent days, I have fallen short in my own leadership ability and my character issues and own pride have been exposed. Because of unthoughtful words, unkind actions and neglect I have caused hurt and harm to my relationship with the interns as well as influence in their lives.
To be honest, it has been a rough few weeks. Slowly and yet ever so consistently, the guys are revealing their hurt, anger, frustration and concern.
I have come to realize that the intent of my heart has been lost in the translation. After almost 7 years, I still struggle to choose the right word or expression causing misunderstanding. Also, I am still learning how to communicate my own hurt, frustration and disapointment in a culture where the person is directly connected to the action. It is almost impossible to disconect the person from the action; to reject an action or idea is to reject the person. I am still learning to to love and influence my african family.
Yesterday, I was praying through these issues and the Lord spoke as if to say, "Rodger....Duh!...."This is exactly what we envisioned 5 years ago. We wanted to create an environment where leadership could be exposed for what it really is. Leaders are broken, sinful people who are in the middle of their own sanctification. To live in an environment where the world is quite clear of your gifting and failings is scary and a dangerous place. However, God is answering our prayers. We clearly are seeing failure, forgiveness, restoration and love in a whole new dimension
We are truly together, however it's not as clean and tidy as it can appear from the outside.
During our time together, we learned to love these young men as our sons and many special relationships developed between the Schmidts and the interns and the interns with each other.
Of the six interns, two are returning to lead the internship, being trained and mentored to do the work that we have done for the last three years. The other four are in the early preparations stages of starting their own businesses as well as working in different capacities in their home churches or missions of the churches.
We love them so much and will continue to pray, give counsel and walk alongside them as we are needed!
The best part...this will be the view from our kitchen!
This is Manuel. He represents what the International Internship in Mission is all about. Life-on-life mentoring. Manuel is a neighbor that one of our interns is in relationship. When we started the church in 25 de Junho, he was the first non-intern to start attending church. He accepted Christ, went through the discipleship course and was baptized on December 20. He recently had a long conversation with Rodger about what he feels God is doing in his life. Please pray for him!
