It’s gone fast and we are nearing the end of our time as interns at Garnett Church of Christ and in the CML. So, lots of people (including us!) have been wondering what we will be doing next. We really don’t know exactly, but we have a little bit of a plan.
An experience like we are having with a set ending date is kind of nice, it has been a really good way to transition away from NLR into something that has given us new experiences and new things to think about, without having to commit to a new job or city. We want to have time to process the last nine months when we are done, so we are not going to make plans to move to Africa or something like that (although we would like to visit Uganda sometime).
So, for now the plan is basically to stay around Tulsa. We might be able to work part time for the church and the event center, which would be great. We like it here, and we can hopefully contribute to what is going on, and it would be some steady income.
Beth will (hopefully) be working with Chris doing admin work for GPS Tulsa. GPS Tulsa is a program that Chris is staring that is targeted to students in Tulsa Achieves. Tulsa Achieves is a program that allows Tulsa student to attend Tulsa Community College for free for two years. Because of this a lot of high school grads stay in Tulsa for college.
GPS Tulsa is designed to be a complement to Tulsa Achieves. Participants will serve at John 3:16 Mission (which will complete there required service hours of Tulsa Achieves). After a day of service they will process the experience so they can learn from it. There will also be a mentoring component to it so students can start figuring out who God created them to be, future vocation, stuff like that. The basic idea is to give students a place to belong, help them change their community, and help them learn how God has uniquely created them. If you know Tulsa people who you think might be interested in this send them our way!
I (Ben) will be trying my hand as a freelance designer. Kind of scary! I have not really been doing serious design for a while, so i feel kind of rusty and behind the curve, but more then that I am not very good at networking, selling myself, and finding jobs. Freelance can be a very up and down business. Ultimately I am not sure where this might lead. I would love to be able to do major project on a contract basis for organizations that i think are doing interesting things. For example, if there was an organization doing economic development that needed a catalog or video made i would do the project for them.
Another possibility is that I think it would be really interesting to be part of a group of people with a diverse set of skills who are consulting and doing projects for non-profits. So, I might go that direction. There is not a ton of plan yet (im sure that makes our parents happy to hear!). I have wanted to freelance for a long time, and I think I have something to offer organizations that I could work for, and now seems like a good time to see what that it’s like.
We will also probably work some for Challenge Quest, get random jobs if we need to, sell our possessions, that kind of thing.
We have also talked about trying to travel some (anyone want to fund a Ben and Beth world tour? We’ll be sure and send you a postcard…), finding cool hobbies, and listening to lots of podcasts. Those options are on the table also.
