Meet our New Missions Intern!

Q and A with Mike Jessop

Who do you call your family and where do you come from?

I hail from down south in Bal­clutha. I grew up in a loving Chris­tian home with two great parents and four awesome sib­lings. I also have a sup­port­ive wider church family who encour­aged me to step into lead­er­ship oppor­tun­it­ies within the church. This included being a youth group leader, being part of the youth worship team, serving at the kid’s holiday camps and endeav­our­ing to take every oppor­tun­ity to help those around me.

Why did you decide to do the Mis­sions Intern­ship with Bish­op­dale Theo­lo­gical College (BTC) and NZCMS?

I’ve always been inter­ested in mis­sions. As a kid, I was inspired by mis­sion­ar­ies’ testi­mon­ies. In 2015/16 our family went over to Kapuna Hos­pital, Papua New Guinea (PNG), for six weeks. The exper­i­ence was very impact­ful, and it opened my eyes to more than just NZ. After I left school, I spent a year at Kapuna, living and serving along­side both PNG locals and inter­na­tional volun­teers. This was a trans­form­a­tional time and solid­i­fied my call to serve people all over the world.

Being fresh out of school, I felt like I needed more life exper­i­ence and skills to be able to better fulfil my calling. So, once I came back to NZ, I became a build­ing appren­tice with the hope of using build­ing skills to serve people over­seas. This didn’t go as I’d hoped so after two years I left and looked at going to bible college to gain a greater under­stand­ing of God and mission. The Mis­sions Intern­ship with BTC and NZCMS com­bined those two aspects, and I was imme­di­ately drawn to it. I applied, got accep­ted and here I am!

Tell us a bit more about the course. What will the average week look like for you?

The course I’m doing is a Level 5 Diploma in Chris­tian Lead­er­ship, with three papers per semester where I will com­plete assign­ments, do read­ings and attend a three-hour lecture for each paper every week.

My intern­ship involves working with Alice Kinyua, NZCMS’ Inter­cul­tural Min­istry Enabler. The shape of the intern­ship is a two-pronged approach. One aspect involves getting involved in inter­cul­tural con­texts, build­ing rela­tion­ships, and serving people from dif­fer­ent cul­tures. Right now, I’m involved in Inter­na­tional Student Min­istry groups and Alice and I are con­tinu­ing to explore other areas where I serve and learn.

The other aspect is local mission: evan­gel­ism and dis­ciple­ship. I have con­nec­ted in with Nelson’s St Steph­ens Com­munity Church and am learn­ing about all the ways they are involved in the com­munity. Going forward, we will begin to explore ways to build on what is already being done.

If you were to describe how you’re feeling about the Mis­sions Intern­ship in five words, what would they be?

Grate­ful.
Excited.
Eager.
Hopeful.
Open-minded.

What’s a top outcome you hope to get out of the next year?

One thing I hope to get out of this year is to be able to con­fid­ently share the Gospel to those I meet, through both word (sharing my story) and action (serving others).

And now, the most import­ant ques­tion – Rugby or cricket?

Foot­ball! I grew up playing foot­ball and that’s my favour­ite sport.

Learn more about our Mis­sions Internship.