Project Transformation Interns’ Blog

Each Friday, interns are exposed to various vocational opportunities in service or ministry through guest speakers, field trips, and interactions with lay and ordained church leaders. Examples include visits to various United Methodist churches and institutions, such as Methodist Health System, UMR Communications, Justice for Our Neighbors, Perkins School of Theology, Texas Methodist Foundation, Methodist Children’s Home, and more. We call it Friday Experience, and this blog is an intern’s reflection on on of her experiences.

Friday I had the opportunity to spend my morning touring and learning about a community here in Dallas called Jubilee.  Jubilee is unlike anything I have ever seen or experienced before.  It is a neighborhood where community members and state officials alike work together to ensure the prosperity of the community.  They have a head start program for preschoolers, an after-school program for older kids and youth, a community center complete with Zumba (which some of the interns participated in while we were waiting for our tour to start..  so fun!  Haha.)  and other engaging programs for adults, and a senior citizen program in which the seniors get to go on trips around Dallas and have speakers come to speak to them about senior issues.  The speaker of our tour joked that Jubilee sticks with its residents from the cradle to the grave.  :)

Jubilee has a few staff, but most of its programs are run by volunteers.  It is able to thrive the way that it does because of the commitment of the people in the community to its success.  They want their community to be a place where kids can feel safe crossing the street and get the chance to eat a healthy meal every day.  They want their lives to be enriched by the opportunities of Jubilee.  The community seeks comprehensive success. Not only do they focus on education through programs like head start, but they also seek out healthy living by way of a community garden and nutritious meals for kids after school.  They aim for security by forming a partnership between the residents of the community, the police force who patrols the area, and the county prosecutor who punishes the rule breakers.  They focus on the aesthetic appeal of the neighborhood by allowing architecture students to come in and design new houses for some of the residents.  

Jubilee works because the people involved in the community want it to work.

The funny thing about my experience at Jubilee is that my favorite part was not the wonderful people who welcomed us into the community. It was not getting sweaty while laughing and doing zumba with the women of the neighborhood.It was not my changed perspective, or even the delicious Mexican food and homemade guacamole that they served us for lunch.My favorite aspect of Jubilee Park was the houses.

“The houses?  Of everything you got to see, you liked the houses the best?” you may ask…Well let me explain.

I suppose it wasn’t exactly the houses themselves that I loved so much, but more so the image that they represented. Beautiful, architecturally sound houses made of new wood sat next to houses with crumbling paint- new next to old.

The neighborhood was not complete. Even after all the work the residents had put into restoring their area and creating safe places, there were still houses that weren’t perfect. The neighborhood wasn’t flawless.  The residents could not brush off their hands and congratulate each other on a great finished product. There was still work to be done.

To me this is a BEAUTIFUL image that God is still working in Jubilee Park.  Even after all of the amazing things that have been done there, the work is not complete. God has not brushed His hands off and congratulated Himself on a job well done. He is still working and He still has people in mind to come to Jubilee and do His work. I love that even when we see so much good that God has even bigger and better things in mind for us. This is not only true of Jubilee Park. God is still at work. He is still at work in the cities and communities across the world, and He is still at work within us.

What a wonderful God.

Krista Castro

Project Transformation Intern 2011

Univeristy of Nevada,  Las Vegas

God’s love is an incredible and undeserved gift. Never have I felt this love more than I have this summer, not only around the children but around my fellow interns as well. Coming to Project Transformation for the first time this summer, I was wary of what lie ahead. I knew of the program best through a few close friends who served as interns in 2009, but still I wasn’t fully aware of what all PT encompassed until I arrived here myself. Wow, have I learned a lot.

To start off, one of my personal challenges is making friends in a group of new people. I realize this is true for many, but for me it’s because I am very independent and enjoy alone time. Sure enough, to break me out of my mold, God put me in a place this summer where lining in community and being immersed in interactive situations are daily, no, make those hourly, occurrences. Living with a roommate is nothing new, but living with almost 100 is, especially when you consider that we work, eat, and worship together. I have been just blessed, though, to encounter such a challenge with a group of individuals who have hearts for God and for caring for others. At dinners, when I don’t mind just having a relatively quiet meal, I am instead often greeted with a friendly “hello” that leads the way into a great conversation. In fact, as the summer progresses, I am more and more delighted to talk to someone new each day. Even last night, one of our summer staff, Meredith, greeted me with a simple, “How are you?” that wound up leading into a half hour conversation. And it’s in these moments that I remember God put us on this earth with others so we can have fellowship and not go through life on our own. I am so thankful for the surprise blessing this community has been to me and continue to look forward to time of fellowship I have left these next weeks.

Stephanie Oliver

PT Intern 2010

Texas A&M