My whole life is a big adventure. So it´s no wonder that I am spending my summer in Whitehall in Michigan. This is a challenge, something that moves me further, higher… The first and the basic: language skill. Why is this so important? Because learning to communicate helps me to conect to pepole. Even if you don´t speak, sometimes it is enough when you listen and understand words that your partner in conversation is traying to give you. And words could be blessing or cursing this is a choice that we can make. And I choose to learn how to bless people, which is one of the reasons that I decided to come to USA again. Life in America is diferent from the one in Europe. Comparing to Slovakia, where I study at Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary University in Bratislava, and specially in Serbia, my country that I came from, life is here easier.

The advantage of this intership program is also about mobility. I am not sitting on one place in the office, but I am everywhere. One week I was in the camp in Stony Lake. The weekend after that I was on a pastoral visit with our Pastor Doug in Muskegon or in the White Lake area Pastors meeting in Montague very next day, and in the meantime, I participated in the preparation of the Swedish Smorgasbord in Lebanon Lutheran Church or on the wedding. Not to mention moving from one family to another family, during my stay. Packing and unpacking bags is not as difficult as when if after a while you get used to some family and became close and a few weeks after that you move to another family. But this is a good opportunity to get know more people and their life stily.
Intership will also help me profesionally. I will go back to my last year in Seminary, where I study Diakony, full of new experiences. Working with people is difficult but nice. I wish to learn how to help them to solve their problems so they could live easier, which is actually a part of my studies. This is also a good opportunity for meeting people from different professional fields and to make conections for the future. I am happy that my summer practice started just recently. I have plenty of time to use for all the good things which God has prepared for me.

Ana Uher,
Student on summer internship in Whitehall, MI