Conference Young Adult Heads to Mongolia
Erin Eidenshink, a member of Mars UMC and former president of the Conference Youth Ministries Team, will soon head to Mongolia as a GBGM mission intern.
Erin Eidenshink as president of the Conference Youth Ministries Team addresses Annual Confernece 2005.
The question of “what’s next?” is a frequent one for college students facing graduation. As a young adult who became a college graduate this past May, my answer to the” what’s next?” question has changed and shifted over the course of my final two semesters of college, finding its flexible and current home in the words, “I’m moving to Mongolia in mid-October .”
Mongolia?
Yes, Mongolia.
Prayer, reflection, conversations with friends and mentors, lots of essays and an interview weekend in New York City brought me to this answer. It is an answer that reflects that I am in the process of becoming a mission intern with the General Board of Global Ministries. I will begin training at the end of September and, God-willing, I will finish in mid-October and board a plane for Mongolia.
The mission intern program is open to young adults 20-30 years of age and gives myself, as well as the other interns, an opportunity to commit to three years of service in social justice ministries.The first 16 months of our service takes place overseas and the second half occurs at a placement in the United States.The program caught my eye as I browsed the GBGM website one day this fall, looking for some way that I might follow the Lord’s tugging on my heart to partake in social justice ministry after graduation.
The more I read, the more I grew excited at the possibility of the mission intern program being the next step in my journey. I prayed as I filled out the application, I prayed as I waited to hear if I had been invited to interview and I prayed as I traveled to New York, met some of the other candidates and interviewed. I prayed
as I returned home and waited to hear word. I prayed as I heard “Yes!” and I am praying my way through this time of transition and preparation.
Discerning my call to the mission intern program began with my first missions experience- the Conference Youth Ministry Team’s week long Mission Discovery. I spent two summers helping to lead day camps for children near California University of Pennsylvania’s campus and it was there that I discovered that missions occur both across the ocean and in our backyard.
The learning continued as I moved to Texas to attend Southern Methodist University. After my freshman year, I became summer staff for a Christian organization that organizes and leads short-term mission trips for high school students. My resulting summer in Brooklyn, NY, taught me incredible things about poverty, injustice, community and the power of service.
Returning to school allowed me to participate in conversations and reflections with my community at the SMU Wesley Foundation. It was there that my bible study groups and friends helped me to further discern what it meant to struggle with these issues and to feel the call to serve. After spending time in Bolivia and working in Dallas, graduation approached and the mission intern program process began. I explored a variety of opportunities and organizations, but am thrilled that I will be able to serve as a part of The United Methodist Church.
Transition, travel and change will fill these coming months, and I greatly anticipate the opportunity to share the stories of this journey with the individuals, small groups and churches of Western Pennsylvania. I’m headed to Mongolia, but each of us is called to serve in different ways in different places. As I write about encounters with yaks or living in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, it is my prayer that we might each discover new ways to answer the call to serve and love our neighbor.
If you’d like e-mail updates throughout my time of service, contact me at erin.eidenshink@gmail.com.
Eidenshink is a member of Mars UMC who served as a Conference Communications intern in 2007.