Mission interns get the GreenLight!

International (MNN) — “When I was younger, I would think about missionaries and I would think, ‘Wow, that’s really cool! Missionaries are just these amazing people that do amazing things all the time,’” shares Kate Hilderbrandt with The Mission Society.

Mission work can seem glamorous, but Hilderbrandt thinks there’s something to be said for actually experiencing God’s work on the field.

“Getting to be kind of on the field, [you] learn okay, it doesn’t look like that all the time, it’s not so glamorous,” she says. “But knowing that it’s still something that you can be passionate about and loving people every day is so much more exciting.”

The Mission Society has a program that gives young people an opportunity to experience sharing Christ’s name and love the mission field first-hand. They are getting ready to send out their next wave of GreenLight Interns at the end of the month. Internship periods can last anywhere from a few months to a full gap-year.

Hilderbrandt explains, “We pair students up with a mentor who’s a missionary with us on the field or a local partner that we know and trust, and that mentor kind of walks them through, ‘Okay, this is what everyday life looks like on the mission field.’”

GreenLight Interns also have access to The Mission Society’s resources same as the missionaries do. Hilderbrandt is involved in member care and will often Skype with the interns for debriefing and support.

For this fall 2013 season, GreenLight Interns are going to Namibia, Kenya, Peru, Paraguay and Thailand. Ministry opportunities include things like working with orphans and teaching English.

“We try to keep it small just so we can keep the quality pretty good and keep it so that our mentors really are the ones who are passionate and interested in working with these young people,” says Hilderbrandt.

Interns often come back with a new vision for sharing the Gospel. “It’s really cool to see people catch the whole missions bug and run with it,” says Hilderbrandt. “And even the ones who are not wanting to come back full-time yet, it’s really cool to just see them apply what they’ve learned to their lives.”

Hilderbrandt shares one story from an impacted GreenLight Intern. “There’s one girl I know who she just went for a two month summer [internship] in Kenya last year, and this girl is just on fire. She has worked with her church since then doing a mission weekend with them and just getting them fired about missions as well. [She] is planning on coming back in 2014 for a longer internship after she graduates.”

Here’s how you can be praying: “For our interns, we’d just love prayer that they have a great experience; that they have some of those tough times that help them grow as well and that God will just get them through it,” says Hilderbrandt.

Information about summer 2014 GreenLight Internships are soon to come. Want to learn more? Click here.