Letter from Megan Goodwin, INN Ministries intern

The INN Ministries interns. Photo courtesy of INN Ministries.

As I filled out the application to be an intern last year, I reflected that for the first time I had reached a point in my life where I no longer had the current of an obvious life path to tell me what to do next.  At this point of transition, I found that I desired to pour into a community filled with relationships, with common visions, with room for questions, with a love for God and with concern for other people.  I found myself looking to the same place that loved me during my time as a student at Western.

I have lived another year in the embrace of this crazy place we call the INN.  I have found myself drawn to it for the same reasons I was when I first walked through the doors of First Presbyterian Church on a random Tuesday night almost six years ago.  I find the same holy space filled with prayer and worship, with booming laughter and shouted conversation, with questions and reassurance.  I find people who share with the same open minds, open hearts, and open conversations.  Much is the same, but my role has changed.  I get to be part of the daily life of this place, working out the details in the background, loving and nurturing and growing alongside the students whose lives I share.

As the last weeks of this internship and my time at the INN come to a close, I find myself falling out of the current gain, not sure where to go, afraid of drifting.  My greatest prayer is that I can find another community that will be home for me in the same way that the INN has been.  While this year has not given me all the answers, it has taught me how to ask questions and, with that, I feel a little more prepared to move on to the next step of my life.

– Megan Goodwin, Intern at the INN Ministries 2007-08
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington

The INN University Ministries has been serving college students in Bellingham since 1974 as a mission of First Presbyterian Church, an intergenerational congregation of less than 400 people.  Each Tuesday night the sanctuary is packed with 200 to 400 energetic college students who come for worship and fellowship.  Each month several of those students take part in small groups, local service opportunities and Sabbath experiences.  Each year, the INN manages to recruit 75 unpaid student leaders and four to six  interns who will start to receive stipends this academic year.  Mission trips, retreats, cookouts and, of course, outdoor recreational  activities round out this dynamic ministry.  How did they do it? Contact director Jim Schmotzer to find out.