Ryan Rapp  2021-22 Intern

When I started the Erēmos Internship, I wasn’t very confident in my leadership abilities. While I had seen a lot of growth in my spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical health over the course of three years of programs, I knew I had a lot of room for growth in order to become an effective leader. From fairly early on in my healing journey, I knew that God was calling me to help others find healing in the areas of trauma and addiction. I hoped to develop the skills necessary to accomplish that and continue in my own healing journey by going through the internship.

I have found the Internship to be a great opportunity for growth. I have been able to continue to grow and foster new relationships, and I have been able to continue to more deeply process who I am in Christ. I have been able to see and practice areas in which I am gifted, through the opportunities the Internship has provided. God has already used my story and the gifts he’s given me to help participants in programs find healing. I’ve been able to see that despite how weak I’ve felt, I am strong in Christ, and he can do great things in me.
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Over the course of the Internship, I have seen God working in several ways. The biggest area of growth is in how much more confident I’ve become in God’s ability to use me in leadership. He has shown me that I can be an effective counselor and help people find healing who are trapped in relational and sexual brokenness. In spite of my own feelings of inadequacy, God has used me as a small group leader, lesson facilitator, worship leader, and even given me a role on Mid-Valley Fellowship’s staff. Even though I felt I wasn’t ready to pursue leadership, God still used me and set me up not just to be in leadership at MVF but to go beyond any expectations I had of my role in leadership.