My name is Elijah and I am a Next Generation Ministries summer intern. We are currently on a missions trip in Pittsburgh and we started today off with a fun activity. We visited Heinz Field, the stadium of the Pittsburgh Steelers. After the tour, we went to lunch at Panera Bread and had a book discussion on Student Leaders Start Here, the book we’ve been reading for the past two weeks. We discussed our different leadership styles and our spiritual gifts. After, we went to East End Assembly of God to continue helping them with their Vacation Bible School (VBS). Today was the last day of the program so it was crucial to make sure the kids took away the messages of the week. I had so much fun meeting and interacting with the kids, not only physically, but also spiritually. I will never forget this experience and I am definitely glad I went on this missions trip.

This Friday, we went on a tour of Heinz Field, where the Pittsburgh Steelers play. I’ve wanted to visit here for a long time, but have never had the opportunity. We got to see the large field, the press box, the luxurious suites, and the infamous Steelers Locker Room. We were in the same locker that Antonio Brown and Ben Roethlisberger use. It was A-MA-ZING! I learned so much about the Pittsburgh Steelers and Heinz Field that day. After the wonderful tour, it was time for Vacation Bible School (VBS). As we set up and waited for the kids to arrive, we reflected on the fact that this was our last VBS day. It was a bittersweet time. It was our last day with most of the kids so we were all kind of sad, but we were able to still have fun and enjoy the day. We sang and danced, we ate good food, we played games, and we made crafts, but most importantly, we learned God’s word. This was truly a day I will never forget.

-Simone | College Intern

About a week ago, we began our Youth Leadership Center summer internship program. On the first day, we had orientation and did a fun activity to learn about our leadership styles, from a book we’re reading, Student Leaders Start Here. The book, along with our leaders, teaches us what kind of leaders we are and how we can grow.

There were 4 general types of leaders. Movers are people whose primary goal is to get a team of people to accomplish a goal. They love to accept challenges, set goals, get people involved, make decisions, take risks, and persevere over difficulties. The next type of leader, a relater, is a person who just wants the team to get along. They love to build relationships, get to know team members, encourage others, be supportive, and they are good listeners. The third type of leader is a thinker, someone who wants the team to develop creative solutions. They specialize in gathering information, analyzing situations, brainstorming new ideas, developing plans, being creative, and getting all of the pieces to work together. The final type of leader is a doer. Doers tend to focus on the task at hand, make checklists, organize things, correct errors, and hit deadlines. Essentially, they like to do things and do them right. We all took a 10 question personality test to see what we were. Here were our results:

The main thing our group learned from this is that we need to focus a lot on relationships. We have a lot of doers, movers, and thinkers, but barely any relaters. While a leader can be good with only one of these characteristics, a great leader portrays a little bit of each characteristics. All through this summer, we are learning to grow so we all have to keep growing to eventually become the leaders of tomorrow.