My name is Maggie McConnell and I am currently a rising junior at Battle Ground Academy. I first became involved at Preston Taylor Ministries in elementary school through a mission camp at First Presbyterian Church during VBS. I fell in love with the program and the kids and I knew I would want to keep coming back. Because I live far away from PTM, I had not volunteered for a long time, but started volunteering again this spring. When I started back volunteering this March, I realized how much I missed working with the organization and knew I wanted to be involved in some way during the summer. When Mr. Chan mentioned an internship to me one day at church I was nervous and excited. I knew then that PTM was exactly where God wanted me to be this summer.
Because of PTM, I have learned how to share and see God’s love in many more ways than before through the staff and kids. I have already learned so much about patience and kindness from the kids in their interactions with one another. I get to share so many special moments with the kids and one of my favorites is when all of my groups in the reading class finished their reading and got to work on the coloring page after answering all the questions. It’s the little things. Another of my favorite moments here has been when I was reading a book with some of the older PTM students called Peacemakers from the Past. As we got to Mahatma Gandhi, one of the kids in the class began to read his name and struggled to pronounce it. The next three words were even more difficult than his name and not in English, and the boy reading stopped and looked at me and said, “Are we speaking Spanish or something?”
A fun fact about me is that if I could travel anywhere in the world it would be to Spain! I really love to speak Spanish and I’m completely fascinated by the language and culture.