Name: Kodi Thompson-Moore
Age: 20
Hometown: Coos Bay, Oregon
School: Grinnell College
Major/Minor: Religious Studies
Site/s where you have served: Casa Linda 08/09
Q: Why did you want to serve full-time as a PT intern?
I love kids so I was looking for summer job working with kids. Plus, I know my calling is in ministry, so the opportunities to explore those through Friday Experiences was also a major aspect of it.
Q: What is the most important lesson you have learned from working with underserved children/youth?
That some of these kids have gone through so much, more than most of us could imagine, and they really need someone to love them unconditionally. It’s the kids who are the hardest to love that need it the most.
Q: How has PT affected your faith journey?
Being exposed to a wide variety of faith backgrounds at PT has helped me have a greater understand of where others are coming from, but also helping me to understand why I believe certain things that I do.
Q: How has your experience with PT helped you to better understand your gifts and your calling?
PT the past two summers has really taught me a lot about what it means to work with a team of people that can be very different than you and the importance of being able to rely on each other. Through that I think that PT really helped me start to cultivate the gift of leadership. As far as my calling, PT was the place where I first began to consider the possibility of seminary, whereas I had been opposed to the idea beforehand.
Q: What is your favorite part of the Project Transformation experience?
The relationships I made with the children and the other interns I worked with. Being able to be goofy and crazy with both the kids and the interns, yet somehow becoming so close to both of them over a short summer.
Q: What are your future vocational plans and how has PT helped to shape or clarify those plans?
Going back to the calling, I do plan on going into full-time ministry either as a pastor or a missionary, and PT is where that became much clearer and when I first started to think about seminary.
Q: What have you learned from living with other young adults in such a diverse Christian community?
I have learned that it is necessary to be open and honest with people, while still not compromising your beliefs is very important. Taking the time to understand where other people are coming from and why they think and believe what they do and being loving and respectful even when you disagree.
Q: What is the most important thing you will take away from serving through Project Transformation?
I think that the most important thing I will take away from PT is the memories. From being chased down and tackled by 40 elementary kids to dancing and singing with 90 other interns outside a Sonic, I will always miss those times I got to share with them.
Q: What advice would you give to a young adult who is interested in serving as a PT intern?
Be willing to give everything you have. Give all of your time, your love, even your finances, to the kids and your team of interns. “Intense” is a good word to describe the summer. PT will demand a lot from you, but if you are willing to give yourself to the kids and your team you will get so much more in return.
If you could tell one story from your experience at PT – what story would you tell?
The story of Emmanuel.
My first summer with PT there was a fifth grade boy named Emmanuel who was very smart but refused to participate in anything and not much could please him. At one point during the summer he wrote a letter to the PT program and the site church saying how much he hated the program and the interns and he disliked being there. But around the last week or two, after a summer of working with him and loving him, he began to change drastically. He was actually participating in things, being more respectful, and becoming a positive influence on his peers. On one of the last days, he came up to our site coordinator and told her that he was going to miss her and the other interns, and that he was excited to come back and do the youth program next year. It was so awesome to see how much he had changed over the summer!