My Internship – Tasting Mission for Myself

Hello! My name is Cooper Pitts, and as I write this, I am in Edinburgh on an internship with GEM UK, serving as part of the Arts Ministry Team in Edinburgh, Scotland.

For years now, I have felt a gentle tug from God towards the arts. The infusion of creativity and consuming love of the Father continually inspires me and draws me into deeper contemplation on His universality, His all-encompassing nature, and His wonderful invitation into the love of the Trinity. Poetry from John Donne and T.S. Eliot, music from Wu-Tang Clan and High-Church choral symphonies, and paintings from Michelangelo and Rothko all bring me into the wonder of the ever-faithful, eternally-creative Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

A call towards missions work in a European context goes with this bent towards the arts. The call the Church now holds is to minister to a generation of people emerging out of a society which has, in large part, disengaged from life in the church, and subsequently, life in Christ. This speaks to me personally.

Wrestling with faith and asking hard questions of God marked my life throughout growing up—especially as I came out of childhood and into adulthood. By no means would I declare this wrestling match ceased. I’d say God and I are still in round two (He’s had me on the ropes the whole time). But this has always led to the most life in my life when it is done with fellow believers. There is a need for mature people of faith called to live and integrate into the wonderful mixture of people who find themselves living in Europe. Through this integration, combined with relational evangelisation, the mission of the Great Commission is fulfilled.

I’ve witnessed this firsthand with my time spent in European ministry contexts. Having spent a year serving with GEM in Athens, Greece and Prishtina, Kosovo, as well as a semester spent working with a church in London, England, I have seen firsthand the needs of Europeans across different contexts across the continent. My time has fluctuated: Moments of wonderful vulnerability with people seeking answers, beautiful testaments of God’s love in the salvation of close friends, and rapid maturation of my soul have happened alongside moments of deep despair and doubt, personal hardship, and confusion. But God’s guiding hand held me upward throughout every situation I’ve been in. His faithfulness to me during hardships in kingdom ministry testifies to me that God is good in the anguish of living in a world simultaneously redeemed, being redeemed, and fallen.

All this to say, when my friend, Kavi Collins, told me about the Arts Ministry Team she was joining in Edinburgh, Scotland, I knew I wanted to go. Specifically, I wanted to find out what it looked like to combine the callings of arts and cross-cultural ministry in real time. So, course of a couple of months, we talked about what it would look like for me to spend two months with them in the city. In preparation to go, I met with the lovely Ian Prince—short- term coordinator extraordinaire—had calls with Kavi and Jason McFarland (lead of the Arts Ministry Team in Edinburgh), bought a ticket, and flew over.

I would highly recommend a short-term GEM UK internship. Internships are specifically designed to give you a taste of life living as a missionary in the UK. Through your work as an intern, you will get to work closely alongside missionaries in the local community. You will receive support from the field, which includes one-on-one guidance from a supervisor, help with finding a place to stay, a solid budget, and built-in relationships in the city you’re placed in.

Being placed as an intern typically follows a streamlined process of being put in contact with a mobilizer in the US. They will then reach out to GEM UK about your interest. Once GEM UK is made aware of you and your specific interests (length of time desired, ministry callings, etc.), you will meet potential people interested in hosting your internship around the UK. It sounds more intimidating than it is. Everyone throughout the process wants to help you grow as a person of faith exploring a call to missions, because everyone knows we need more workers on the field for the cause of the kingdom.

Returning to my personal experience this summer, I believe the conversations I’ve been able to have through my time in Edinburgh—encompassing theology, ministry, and the arts—will help me in my understanding of what it means for me to respond to my own call to Europe from God. I’ve been able to get connected with people across the UK, meeting with people in Edinburgh, Windsor, London, and beyond about the call God has placed in my heart and what this could look like once I return to the US at the end of my placement in Scotland.

Additionally, I was fortunate enough to get to be a part of conversations with Jason and Kavi about their vision for their Arts Ministry Team, and how their work could hopefully lead to artists around the UK seeing and hearing the truth of the gospel. If that wasn’t enough, I have also been able to serve in two different church cafés and an English conversation café this summer, building relationships with Scottish people through these wonderful ministries.

All in all, I would highly recommend pursuing a short-term internship with GEM UK. I anticipate and pray that once I return stateside, it will prove helpful as I discern my own long-term call to Europe.

If you are interested in serving short-term with GEM UK: follow this link to find out more!