In late May, thirteen young people from across the country arrived in Montreal for the Montreal Mission Internship.
This summer internship, offered by Montreal Dio and the Montreal School of Theology, provides interns with individualized (and paid) service work placements at service organisations around the city, and a program of spiritual, vocational, and community growth led by program director Alan Ma and program mentor Rev. Fresia Saborio.
MMI is meant to give young people meaningful work experience while offering them opportunities to reflect on God’s call in their life and build community through weekly workshops, activities, prayer, and reflection.
Here’s the story of one participant.
Kristee Kuz is from Winnipeg and had never been to Montreal before this summer. She experienced a summer of immense personal and spiritual growth. “This program has really challenged my perspective. I’ve changed the way I view myself and view others and the work that I do.”
She worked at three different organisations during the summer. She started at Li-ber-t house, a recovery home for women, and ended the summer working at St. Michael’s Mission and Tyndale Community Centre, the former of which provides essential services to people experiencing homelessness, and the latter provides programs and services to the community of Little Burgundy.
Kristee comes from an evangelical background and was initially surprised by the type of mission work that she ended up doing as part of MMI. “I was struggling at the beginning because I felt like I wasn’t doing enough at the placements because I come from a background where mission work is literally evangelizing and praying for people. I definitely know now that I’m doing enough though whether I’m doing dishes in the back or interacting with people.”
During group reflections and her one-on-one time with Alan and Fresia she was able to delve deep into the challenges she found herself facing at her placements. “The biggest challenge is being able to still have a servant’s heart even when the people you’re serving don’t seem to be appreciating it. In one-on-one sessions with Alan we really dove in, questioning why I need to be seen by other people, and changing my perspective by asking ‘why do I need to be seen by other people when God is seeing me?’”
A theme she kept coming back to is the idea that we are human beings not human doers.
Many of the activities Alan led focused on presence and observation. During orientation week, for example, the interns were sent out on scavenger hunts in different parts of the city. “He was really intentional with saying ‘make sure you observe, see the demographic in the area, look around at what you see, but don’t think about why.’ It wasn’t just to know Montreal, it was to change our perspective. I really liked that activity because it made me remember to go into my placement and observe, take it in, be in the moment, be present.” This mentality has helped challenge her and the other interns to find God in whichever moments they can at their placements.
For her, the heart of the program has been the community of interns and the theological reflections. “I think some of my best moments so far have just been going places with everybody. As much as it looks like you’re just going to work all the time you’re also around community all the time. You meet people from all over, and you’re all growing together. Every person that is here is coming from a faith background and coming from a place of wanting to meet new people.”
Every Wednesday, the interns met together with Alan and Fresia to share a theological reflection. “It’s very open-ended. It’s supposed to be about an experience in our placements, but could be about something you experienced while walking home. When someone presents their reflection, the others will ask them a question to make them think more about it and see what’s actually going on. It could be the most simple thing like washing dishes but then it turns into a thirty minute conversation that gets incredibly deep. It’s about those surface moments that we notice, that we feel, and going deeper into them to find what God is teaching you in that moment.”
As the program draws to a close, Kristee feels immense gratitude for her time in Montreal with the other interns. “I would literally do this program like ten times! I went to a new city, and I’m being paid to do awesome work for the community.”
We are already making plans for MMI 2023 and look forward to continuing this program for years to come.
