Food pantry/pastoral care internAt — Crossline church

Assist in pastoral care and supportive services. Will pray with families in need of food while also providing a skilled psychology help with a Christian foundation. Will help walk through life with families helping them find financial assistance, housing assistance and help them spiritually and mentally with whatever season they are in with kindness and the love of Christ. Also setting up the ministry while helping with other outreaches tied to our ministry such as helping the youth in our congregation 

Tasks:

Set up of food pantry, distribution of food to guests, packing food, tear down set up when food distribution is completed, interact with guests, get to know them on a personal level, pray with them, assist them with any type of psychological help they need, use our literature to help them find financial or housing help, many people have emotional problems and that’s when the psychology training comes in to guide them to the next steps in their life mixed in with all the resources and tools we currently provide. Help others on staff that may need someone to talk to outside of the immediate church, someone seen as non judgmental or too attached to the church. Help with other events that we partner with, such as kids or young adults, and help them with their spiritual and psychological problems as many ask for help through our ministry

Training:

General employer orientation, suited slightly to address their specific skill set. Weekly one on one mentor meetings at the end of the week, typically Saturday or Sunday. Shadowing not only the director of the food pantry but also the pray team to maximize learnings opportunities, not only with how things are ran and why but also to have that intimate and vulnerable time with people in need. There will be training on how to prepare food and also how to approach people to give them space to open up so their own personal training and knowledge can best be used. They will have a two week period of training and when they appear to be ready they can start interacting with people on their own and they get to dive deep into their spirit, emotional and mental problems and assist them in ways that God has prepared them to help

Learning Outcome:

By the end of the academic internship, the student will be able to have used their psychology degree on real people with real needs and learn from experience that these are unique people and not projects. Learn how caring for someone isn’t just for 5 minutes but to walk with them in life while being patient with the progress or lack of progress they choose to make. They will also learn that doing something tangible, like physically feeding them, opens up a door for a relationship and trust. I hope what is gained here can be transferred over to their home church or somewhere else in their lives so they can help those that we can’t reach here