January Internship Report – Alexander Noriega

Published January 11, 2017

Northmoreland Baptist Church, Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania

Ministry Highlights

I was able to join my church for caroling two different times, and it was better than I thought it would be. I’m not good at singing, but I really enjoyed singing with a group and seeing the joy from the faces of the people we visited! We were able to visit some shut-ins and sang to an elderly man in an assisted living facility and also to a living room full of strangers. Something as simple as coming to people where they live and singing for them was incredibly well appreciated and received. It’s helpful for me to remember the little things.

I was able to join Pastor Seboe in visiting a lot of shut-ins and those who were sick, and I really missed that. November was a busier month, and with Pastor traveling we didn’t get many visitations in. Being able to hear stories from the lives of older brothers and sisters in Christ was a great encouragement to me, that what I am going through isn’t anything new under the sun. Being able to bless the hearts of our members who can’t make it out anymore to any gathering is important, and I love that Pastor has that desire to love them and let them know that we haven’t forgotten them.

Centershot is pretty much ready to launch! We have received a lot of helpful resources to setup and tear down our materials, as well as invitations and ads to further get the word out for the first event date! We’ve had a handful of people pre-register already, as well as numerous others who intend to come. We are excited to see what will happen opening night!

Key Prayer Requests

As January 12 looms just around the corner, please pray that God will use us to effectively minister to whoever comes to Centershot. We need to be faithful ambassadors for Christ!

I have a lot of study/work to do for February! I will be teaching the adult Sunday school class as well as preaching the evening service, so pray that my brain won’t fizzle out on me in January.

Our church has made a lot of progress in our business and financial meetings, and Pastor has been helping our leadership grow in their roles and responsibilities. We still have a ways to go for better efficiency so keep our leaders in your prayers for continued growth. Also, please do rejoice with us in their faithfulness and humility! These men and women are incredibly caring and loving and are giving all of their attention to serving our God.

Prominent Lessons

God has greatly blessed me during the Christmas season with the biggest encouragement coming from writing Christmas cards. As I would sit down and think on what to say, many memories from the past two-and-a-half years of attending Northmoreland would come and go through my mind. I have made many quality friends over the past few years, and I’ve been greatly encouraged and blessed by them. So, I was grateful for what God has given to me through the people He has placed in my life.

It is still weird for me to consider something like having lunch with someone as “ministry time.” Midway through December I realized through my internship coach that my hours were low, and he walked me through all of what would count as ministry hours. I guess the weird part is that so much of it seems like things I ought to be doing anyways, not simply cataloging it on a sheet for numbers. I had it in my mind that things I did at church were “ministry time” and meetings with church family, my family, friends, strangers, all would be outside of that. It was helpful for both my internship coach and my Pastor to help me see that ministry isn’t only done at church or on official church business, it can happen anywhere.

There’s quite a bit of stuff that happen behind the scenes and during the off hours at church! A lot goes into the making of a service, or an event, and there will always be something that gets overlooked or a tad messed up. I’ve seen the advantage of working on a team, and in our body we have the blessing of having various brothers and sisters step up and help out in various tasks and responsibilities. Many of them aren’t asked, they just do it! I was surprised at the number of people I saw throughout the week who would come and work on things at the church, or come by to print stuff out to take to people who missed a service. There will always be some who complain or ask why so and so isn’t at every service or doing what they think he or she should be doing, yet those people never see what happens behind the scenes. We have very faithful and hardworking brothers and sisters here, and I’m glad for their testimonies.

Key Goals for the Next Month

To see Centershot launch well and stay well maintained!

To start the search for helpers in website maintenance! I’ll be pretty busy for the rest of my internship, and I don’t want the website to suffer for it.

The Welcome team got pushed back pretty far, so January will be the time it should hopefully be up and running.