“God, do whatever it takes to bring me to the end of myself and make me hunger for more of You.”

This is the prayer that our DiscipleMakers staff encouraged me and my 13 fellow interns to embrace as we started our 7-week internship. After months of support raising, God finally brought us from our diverse colleges and experiences to become a team in Penn State for the sake of the gospel. All of us brought different backgrounds, hopes, fears, and experiences to the table.

I was excited to be out of the Christian bubble for the first time, but after an especially exhausting, humbling year at college, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to pray this prayer. After all, I was already feeling pretty incompetent! If I’m honest, part of me feared that my Lancaster-grown faith in God wouldn’t survive a harsher secular environment.

And yet... wasn’t the whole point of the internship to make Christ known in any way possible? And didn’t I want to have a deeper appreciation for the gospel myself? What would be the point of holding back? I prayed the prayer and braced for impact.

It can be easy to glamorize ministry in our minds – preaching the gospel, showing people the love of Jesus, reaching out – and it certainly has many beauties and joys, but the first half of the internship brought me face to face with my own weaknesses and disappointed expectations:

• Texting over 60 girls in one day, only to get 5 texts back (all saying they were busy)

• Having wonderful interactions with students who were excited to go deeper… and then never hearing from them after that

• Waiting at events and meals for students who never even intended to show up

• Pouring myself out in sports and events and facing my own physical weakness in exhaustion and pain afterwards

When the highlight of your week is that a student responded to your hangout invite by sending a voice memo of them barking at you like a dog, you know it’s bad.

I remember pleading with God on a particularly discouraging day: Please just give me one girl! I knew that ministry would be a lot of unglamorous moments, but I don’t even feel like this is worth it. Is it worth it to stand at a table and have everyone walk past, unwilling to even look at me? Surely it’s fair for me to be frustrated at these students who fake me out! Surely this is a waste of time.

In that moment, God impressed on my heart His unconditional love, patience, and persistence towards me. How many times had I scorned Christ’s sacrifice and taken Him for granted? Hadn’t I been flaky and false? Wasn’t I also a “waste of time”? And yet… He took the initiative to go after me and persevere in wooing me to the beauty of the gospel.

I had prayed that God would make me into the image of His son, and this was His answer. I had the opportunity to mirror His radiant, unending love - all He was asking of me was to take the initiative in the power of the Holy Spirit and trust Him with the results. For a girl who committed herself to the idea of following God’s call anywhere in this world, the idea of being called to persist in love and continue pressing in on a college campus was so simple. It was something I was incapable of on my own… yet in His grace, God had brought me to the end of myself and made me hunger for more of His beautiful gospel.

I’m thankful for the opportunities God has given me to express His unrelenting, inexplicable love to the students at Penn State this summer.

I’m thankful to have gotten so familiar with Noelle’s laughter and to have the chance to show her that she’s wanted in our group, even if she’s non-religious.

I’m thankful for my conversations with my atheistic satanist friend Mad who accepted my lunch invite with the agreement that we wouldn’t talk about Jesus, yet was willing to talk with me about all things religion once she realized I was just a real person who loves Christ.

I’m thankful for the hours I spent talking with my friend Anastasia, whose pursuit of authenticity opened countless deep, vulnerable conversations.

In the chorus of one of my favorite songs from this summer, there’s a prayer: “When my failing flesh is tempting me to stray, teach me to obey!” There are so many scary prayers. It’s a terrifying thing to ask God to make you more like Jesus, to bring you to the end of yourself for His glory… but it’s so worth it, friends. The harvest is plentiful, whether or not we see the results. Jesus says that we are salt - we were created to preserve and add flavor to our societies, not stay in the salt mines of our Christian bubbles. Would you take a step toward that kind of Kingdom impact now by praying a hard prayer with me?

Heavenly Father, we recognize that You are writing an incredible story. Thank you for inviting us to be part of it! Give us courage to step beyond our comfort zones for the sake of Your kingdom. Burden our hearts for those who do not yet know you, give us opportunities for the gospel, and embolden us to proclaim Your truth in word and deed. Do whatever it takes to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we hunger for more of You, and we cannot help but speak of Your goodness to those around us. May we reflect Christ well! Continue the work that You are doing at Penn State through DiscipleMakers, and give the staff and students there strength to persist in ministry. May we have the joy of worshipping alongside Noelle, Mad, Anastasia, and the other students at DCF someday! We pray this in the name of the one who purchased our victory through His blood, our King Jesus. Amen.

Please also pray that God would…

• Help everyone involved in this summer’s internship (interns and staff) to transition into the next chapter well, apply what we’ve learned to our new normals, and discern God’s leading in our lives.

• Strengthen me for my senior year LBC, especially as I seek to invest in students as a Resident Assistant.

• Develop a deeper appreciation for the gospel and trust in Christ within me and my team.

You will never know the impact your prayers and encouragement have made on my heart this summer. I praise God for you – thank you for holding the rope for me.

Until the next adventure!

Liana Minnich
DiscipleMakers DMX Intern, Summer 2026

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