Amelia Herrera is a 2024 graduate of the SOEHS Division of Educational, Child & Family Studies. This summer, she was able to complete an internship with Harvest Ministries on the island of Guam. She graciously agreed to share some of her experiences with us.
My name is Amelia Herrera, and I majored in Child Development. I chose this degree because I love education, but I didn’t see myself in a traditional classroom setting. Through this degree, I could study different aspects of education that impact both the child’s development in and outside of the classroom. In my freshman year, I became aware of Harvest Ministries in Guam. I have some good friends who had taken advantage of summer intern opportunities there and loved it. While at BJU, I was also able to take part in a fundraiser that helped raise funds for the Training Center in Guam. That’s when the Lord opened my eyes to Harvest House, a foster care ministry on the island.
I tried a few times to join the summer team, but due to different reasons, it didn’t work out for a couple of summers until this year. Clearly, the Lord wanted me to wait for His timing. I knew that after graduation I wanted to spend this summer abroad and doing something new. In His will, the Lord led me to Harvest House and allowed me to be their summer intern. Studying at BJU allowed me to grow in cultural awareness. As an international student, I was always on the lookout for cultural commonalities and differences with my home country, the Dominican Republic. Guam is a melting pot of Asian and Micronesian cultures, that I was able to get to know firsthand and be immersed in. I was able to see how similar the culture in Guam was to DR, and I could relate to that culture in different aspects like food, music, people, and weather!
As a summer intern, I got to do everything an intern can do: join meetings, run errands, service families, answer the phone, reply to emails, keep track of donations, engage in conversations with volunteers, hold babies here and there, all the fun stuff. I would come in every day and check on the to-do list for the day or the week, it usually included contacting foster parents for different reasons, contacting donors, and replying to text messages. Then I would go through the donations from the previous day, and I would sort them in our resource room. Foster parents schedule their monthly appointments so that they can come in and “shop” for the foster kids. Parents get to come pick 5 outfits, a pair of shoes, hygiene products, and underwear, for free. We can give them all of these items because of the donations we get.
Harvest House’s biggest event in the summer is the Back 2 School Backpack Stash, where through donations we supply backpacks filled with school supplies for almost every child in the foster care system of Guam. There are about 700 kids in the system, and this year we had over 500 backpacks and over 370 children come to our event and get ready for going back to school. As the intern, I was given the chance to be the volunteer coordinator and along with my coworker plan the event. This is an opportunity to show these kids and their families how God provides for them, and takes care of them, even when their home situations have led them to be in the foster care system.
I have so many memories, both happy and sad ones, from my time here this summer. I saw how broken humanity is, how drugs and alcohol have ruined so many families, and have led parents to lose their children because of it. I realized how blessed I have been to grow up in a stable home with loving parents who have done as much as they can to guide our family in a godly way. On the other hand, I was able to build relationships with foster moms and their kids. I got to hear their stories about how God brought them together. We serve a sovereign God, who takes care of each one of us.
As I return to Greenville, I will begin working as a Registered Behavioral Technician (RBT) at Project Hope Foundation, providing ABA Therapy for kids with autism.
