The summer is 10 weeks long and this year we had 10 young adults come to work with us from One Mission Society and the College Missions Program from IM. The goal of the internship program is to help the interns to learn the basics of making disciples in a cross-cultural setting, so we teach them the Four Fields disciple-making process, the same process that we use to make disciples and plant churches, both in Catania and in other parts of the world.

This year was a lot of fun in that we had the opportunity to teach them what they should do, show the process of sharing the Gospel in modeling with others together in the piazza, send them out to do the same in our “infamous” seed-sowing times, and then finally have them teach what they had learned to others. In the first half of the summer, the interns followed the schedule that we provided for them, and then at the half-way point of the summer, they analyzed how their work was going by using the Four Fields process that we use, taught from the parable of the sower that Jesus taught his disciples in Mark 4:26-29.

The interns then went to Mission Camp, an annual favorite for which this year was no exception, which gave them a break from the city life and their daily routine and gave them an opportunity to make a number of new friendships with people from various other parts of the world.

Returning back to Catania, we looked back to the evaluation that the interns had done to make some changes in the schedule, to update some of the ministry opportunities based on their ideas, and then began to prepare to lead others. They began to do outreach and evangelism in the evening and were able to begin to gather people at Agape Bici for fun, for worship, and for discussions of the Gospel. We loved to see them taking the initiative for themselves to lead the work of making disciples, doing it in their own way while also using simple tools to lead others to know Christ.

At the end of the summer, a team from Germany came through our partner church La Parola Che Dà Vita (The Word that gives life), so this would be an opportunity for the interns to go on to teach what they had learned and practiced through the summer. They had an opportunity to not just do the work of discipling cross-culturally, but they went on to also teach cross-culturally. We teach the idea of MAWL-ing (Model, Assist, Watch, Leave) when we teach leadership development, but having the German team come and having the opportunity to teach them to teach gave us a perfect way to “MAWL” the interns this summer so that they could do the same with others.

The interns needed to live in community with one another, resolving any of their differences throughout the summer. They needed to learn to abide in Christ together. They learned some of the first steps of the Italian language together. They helped to lead in church together. They shared the Gospel with others. They discipled others. And they taught others to be disciple-makers as well. Our hope was to send back home a group of young adults who are equipped to be disciple-makers wherever they go, whether in Catania, back in the US, or wherever else God will one day take them. They achieved this goal and much more. We thank God for the opportunity to be able to share with them and get to know this great group of young people, even in the short time that we had together!