2023-2024 Interns

Highlights of February was for sure the trip we had to Indianapolis with the rest of the Team, It was such a great time to spend with people, For King and Country concert was awesome and the Pacers game was fun. Traders Point is the biggest church I have ever seen in my life, an attendance of 10,000 people every weekend it's literally crazy, what surprised me most is to reflect that God is in the middle of a group of 3 or 4 or 5 people, but in turn he is in the middle of a group of 5,000 or 10,000 people, in his power and his magnitude He is glorified when two or more people are gathered in his name, I'm really happy and thankful I was able to make it to the trip. On the other hand I'm so happy to be back from home, getting to see friends after the holidays is nice and I'm truly joyful because I've been able to make good friendships and be surrounded by great people, on my trip back home for the holidays I talked to Rossel Medina my church's lead pastor, leaders  and staff members about ides I had to potentially work at my church to help it grow, one the things we talked about was Growth Track and they really liked how the CedarCreek used this tool to introduce people to Jesus and help them find their on purpose in the life changing adventure with Him, currently in my church there is nothing to engage first time visitors and we believe that we can adopt some of the Growth Track culture and own it, so as a game plan I'm going to start learning about growth track looking for resources and try to capture all the possible information, gather everything up and bring kit back to my church to start implementing and making it our own growth track. I'm definitely excited for that and see what God is going to do the rest of this time here. Thanks You All.

4 months, wow I'm basically going back home in less than three weeks you know the year is almost done when Spotify sends you the wrapped of the year with your most heard songs. This month felt like flying and part of my experience this month was being part of the Whitehouse Campus arts ministry, serving there was a good experience I got to meet new people and see a service from another perspective being able to experience what the challenges of another campus are but at the same time how a staff and dream team together overcome this challenges was nice. When I was at the Whitehouse campus I met this gentleman his name is Tim he caught my attention because he was wearing a cowboy hat and I was wearing mine too so that was like a good conversation starter which I kinda struggled a lil bit at beginning but as we kept talking he got to share with me his story, how he is starting a new chapter in his work as he is starting a new farm from scratch and the way that kind of life connected him with animals and life it self and how God created everything around him made him wanted to visit a church and he found CedarCreek Church and felt good in it and how he enjoyed the service; so I encouraged him to keep coming to church and even to visit the Perrysburg campus in case he wanted to experience a bigger style service, I had a good time chatting with him and sharing some apple cider. Another highlight this month was the halloweekend  it was for sure something different for me as I always grew up being told that halloween could not even called a holiday because it had nothing of holy in it, but let me say that experiencing what halloweekend itself was and seeing how community grew in that service felt pretty special, it definitely pushes the boundaries but the goal of sharing the God's news to people that needed to hear it was there and the mission was accomplished and by the way I have finally memorized CedarCreek's mission statement. To conclude I must say that driving in the snow is a lot of fun and that I'm loving this super cold temperature days.

This last month has been a very challenging month in the leadership area, I've been challenged to take a student band group with Nate and Berkley and we have been reading in the class the Amplified Leadership book, which has open my eyes in a different way to leadership the five practices this book talks about are literally based in establishing an intimate relationship with that person or group of people you want to influence build and and impact but if all of this is not based on truly honest relationship its not gonna work, Jesus gave the example with the disciples he traveled with them, they made a life all together and they got to meet each other so well so that way they got to take Jesus' leadership example to show it to the rest of the world. Last night I saw the student band group play their first two songs and it was legit, to be honest they sounded pretty solid and it feels honestly great to see the work someone can invest give its fruit, its a small group of around eight people 3 adults and the rest 13 to 16 year old students and the ultimate goal with this group is to make them grow musically so that they can be able to play for student worship night but at the same time allow the to grow spiritually and know Jesus better in their lives and so far its going good the purpose is on mind and hopefully we will make it possible as time goes on. When I did the ideal team player assessment my lowest area was the smart area and that result made me realize that it is has been like that my whole life, I have always refugee in the fact that I'm an introvert person so I'm not the guy that will first break the ice to start a conversation, I'm not the guy that loves to meet new people and some other excuses that I have made or put up, so this last month I have been challenging myself to come out of that comfort zone and be able to talk to new people to and try to break the ice to start a conversation, it has  definitely  been tiring sometimes overwhelming but I feel that I have growth in this area my social wellbeing is thriving now I'm part of two men life groups and it feels nice to feel that your efforts are giving its fruit, one of the very first thing my mentor thought me was that who you are or the way you are wired those not influence your leadership skills or capacity so I have embraced that and tried to put it in practice. So far it those not feels like three months but I have enjoyed every part of this program and enjoyed every relationship I have made. See you next month my friends.

Hello everyone, this month I went to Hocking Hills and I had never seen God's creation in its maximum splendor, it is a very beautiful place starting with the caves until sunrise from a rock, a very beautiful adventure and I would do it again and again . It's been two months now and God has shown me his wonderful love through so many good experiences, I have grown in friendship with different people and I have been able to grow in different areas that I would not have imagined in my life. I am so grateful to God for the people he has put in my life on this journey. Within that group of people, there is my accountability partner, he is a person who serves with his wife so joyfully if you need help, he will do everything possible to help you and if not they will connect you with someone who can help you, a few weeks ago we met to have a coffee and chat a little about life to get to know each other a little better, the weekend at church after the 9 o'clock service AM told me that he had some normal routine exams to see how his health was and the doctor found a very high probability that he could have prostate cancer, but what caught my attention was that after telling me the news he started smiling and told me that he was happy to be able to come to church and have the privilege of serving people who needed it. That touched my heart and I prayed for him in spanish because I didn't knew some of the words I wanted to say, we all prayed and at the 11 am service he was serving and welcoming the people who came through that door with a face of joy and love. This man is definitely is an example and I am so grateful for his life. God is a God of love and joy and I think we are all sure of that but many times we do not remember it and we are not aware of it and we let the things that happen around us frustrate and stress us even though we know that God is in control. of everything and the truth is that we have to show everyone the love and joy that God shows us in our daily lives otherwise we will not be able to reach more people for God.

My name is Hector Galeas and I´m from Honduras small central america and the only five star country in the world since our flag has 5 stars in it, I feel that by this point most of you know me very well and if not I´m the only dark hair guy wearing cowboy boots in the Perrysburgh campus’ hallways. I’m not gonna lie, since this blogging stuff si totally new for me by this point I did around 4 drafts of my first blogging post and I just ended posting the less worst one but, this year (July 2023 - May 2024) God gave me the opportunity to join the awesome team of CedarCreek Church staff through the internship program. Honestly I can´t believe that a little bit over a month is gone by now, literally, time flies, but I´m so amazed by the amount of experiences and life lessons God has already shown me in this month. For example how fast north americans drive but still the amount of rules you need to follow like stopping in a stop sign that is in a parking lot or how amazing is to see how the same mission of sharing out the gospel to everyone can join people all over the world regardless of culture or language. When I arrived here I had all kind of emotions since I moved all the way from my country to the U.S.A. a new house, a new host, and a totally new environment, so I was very excited, nervous, afraid a little bit of everything but now after a month I feel I have settled down in a good way and now I am ready to challenge my self and see what God is going to keep me showing through this amazing time I will get to spend you guys; I want to thank God and all the staff members that were invovled in my application process for selecting me and let me go through this amazing Journey, hope to keep you all entertained through this media and share with you my amazing experiences. Please keep me in your prayers so God can Show me what he has for me. THANK YOU!