At the end of 2025, Stephen, the Youth Pastor here at Oasis and my Life Group leader, asked me, along with others in our Life Group, if we would be interested in participating in the church’s internship program in 2026. I was not sure whether this would work for me. I have a part-time job, study full-time at Uni, and I still want to see friends, spend time with my girlfriend, and spend time with God. I just did not know if I could make it work. However, after seeing a few of the people in my Life Group say yes, I thought, “Why not?” So, I said yes, and then he asked if I would like to do an extra internship day, where I could choose a focus area to serve within the church. Being in Uni for secondary teaching, I thought, why not get some extra experience working with children and go into youth ministry?
Throughout my short internship, I have been helping with the youth program. I have learned about 9 Square and how to play it (though I am not very good at it). I have learnt how to plan the weekly schedules, choose games to play, and delegate tasks and responsibilities for leaders, and I love it. The extra day I put in during this internship has also helped me venture out and make good connections with some of the students at Genesis. We serve the grade 12’s pancakes and play 9-square with the grades 7-12s. I love it because I get to talk with all the students and build relationships with them.
Although I am only at the start of my internship, I can already see the positive impact it is having on my life, and I cannot wait for the rest of it. I am so excited about the future planning I have to do with youth, such as planning the Wakeover (where the youth often try to stay awake all night until 7 am) and helping plan for youth camp.
In preparation for writing this blog post, Stephen told me it would be a good idea to have a read-through of other people’s posts. I found it so interesting to see their perspectives on so many different topics and the ideas they have (I got a bit carried away with all my reading and made it all the way back to posts from 2019). I found it so good to see people so enthusiastic about what they were writing.
Another part about being an Intern is that we all get assigned a mentor. I have found it so eye-opening to be able to talk to someone with so much more experience than myself when it comes to Christianity, but not feeling disconnected when we talk. The two of us relate very closely to our stories of coming to Christ and our first years outside of high school. Having my mentor has allowed me to learn so much about prayer, reading my Bible, and thinking in a Christian headspace. It has allowed me to learn a lot about myself and how I work, as well as how to balance life, God, Uni, and the internship altogether.
Alongside serving in youth, I also serve at church. For the past year or so, I have been helping with the lights at 6 PM services, but part of the internship is to explore serving in other areas of the church. I have been helping in the connect team, which I have loved doing. It has allowed me to meet so many new people at the church and make such fruitful connections.
Caleb Kriel
