My name is Mercy Mikkelsen, and I am a junior here at NHCC. I came to NHCC in the fall of 2020 with hopes of growing in leadership, learning more about God/growing spiritually, as well as following the call that I felt was being placed on my life. Over the past two years, I have been an on-campus practicum student at New Hope West. With that experience, I learned a lot about how ministry is done in the Church. With that practicum, I spent about eight hours a week helping at New Hope West, mainly in the children’s ministry. This experience taught me what real hands-on ministry work looked like within a church setting. I learned skills such as communication, administration, team leadership, and how to work within a team.

During my sophomore year, as I continued to be an on-campus practicum student, I also started volunteering with Young Life in Springfield. For those that don’t know, Young Life is a worldwide youth ministry for local high school students. As I entered my junior year at NHCC, I took on a student staff position with Young Life Springfield. Now as I am learning what ministry is like in a non-church setting, I continue to rely on the skills that have been building over the last couple of years. In doing Young Life I lead at bi-weekly youth events (we call it club), lead a small group of about ten girls, and regularly show up at football games, soccer games, volleyball games, and really any event where there is some point of contact. The unique thing about Young Life is that as well as asking kids to show up (like how a youth group would be set up) the leaders also show up in the lives of the kids. Here at New Hope we really believe in the importance of community and doing life together! I believe that my time here has influenced the way I serve the community I’m placed in, as well as my fellow peers.

Being a student of a Christian college, these hours working in ministry in the community all go towards credit hours for the ministry practicum course. I can say that because of my time here at New Hope I have been equipped well to lead others. I’m continuing to seek the Lord and walk out in obedience as He guides me, and I’m excited to see what He has in store for me and the ministry I am a part of.