Now is the Time

Each year, the Institute for Christian Thought and Practice sends ministry students who have just finished their junior year of college on a seven-month, full-time, full-semester college credit internship called PRIME. PRIME stands for “Practical Research and Immersion in Ministry Effectiveness.” Current students and alumni of our ministry degree programs agree: PRIME is life-changing.

I sat down with Inah Miller and asked, “In what ways did you grow while on PRIME?” She responded by saying,

“One of the biggest things I grew in was in my own faith journey by learning to ask good questions about my own faith in order to have a strong foundation to stand on.”

Inah’s experience was very different from the other PRIME students because she was not in a church but rather serving with an organization overseas in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. She had the opportunity to learn Arabic and interact with the locals through tutoring sessions and to develop relationships through the organization she was serving with.

Inah spoke to me about how being immersed in an environment where most people were not Christians pushed her to grow in her personal faith and understanding missions. She had to wrestle with the fact that the local people she was meeting weren’t going to change their beliefs, at least not quickly or easily. She began to ask herself, “Why do I believe what I believe?” This question pushed her to dive deeper into her beliefs and get better at answering questions about Christian beliefs that local friends asked her.

One way that she connected with the Muslim community was through her testimony. She grew up in the Amish church but left during her early teenage years. She showed them pictures of her wearing the head covering that she used to wear, and they connected over that similar experience. She shared with her Muslim friends how the culture during her childhood was different compared to her life after leaving the Amish and following Jesus in a new way. Because she had grown up in a culture with some similarities to the Muslim cultural backgrounds of her new friends, she was able to connect with them and have deeper conversations about religious beliefs and customs.

Inah said, “I believe people who are feeling a calling to do missions overseas should step out of their comfort zone because you learn so much about yourself and the practical application of doing missions in a different culture. Now is the time.”

If God is calling you to do missions overseas, the Institute for Christian Thought and Practice offers the PRIME internship so that you can follow Inah’s example and her advice. Allow God to push you out of your comfort zone and gain real-world experience before you graduate from college!

Learn More about PRIME at Huntington >