With a small crew of students, three graduates and a handful of staff members populating the spacious Edstone Hall in Warwickshire, England, everyone plays a diverse role in day-to-day operations for the UK-Europe regional office. Each student serves in at least two departments in addition to his or her academic work. Their first summer at Edstone is a time to contribute to the Work more full-time, and in many different aspects. Here’s what some of them had to say about that.
Kaitlin Eames—Custodial, Call Center, Food Services, Editorial, assistant to Mr. Macdonald
“My favorite one is all of them …. I love helping out Mr. Macdonald, because it is a rare opportunity and honor to assist a minister [with research and writing], but I am honestly blown away by how many opportunities and the variety of job experience God’s Work gives us.”
Kiall Lorenz—Maintenance, Landscaping, Call Center
“[Taking calls] is great, knowing that this is possibly the first time the person has contacted the pcg. It is exciting to see the growth. But I would say landscaping is also up there. It is hard to beat when you get to work on such a beautiful campus surrounded by some epic views. The work itself may get tiring, but one is inspired to continue when taking in the surrounds.”
Samuel Livingston—Television, kpcg radio
“Radio is an exciting new medium that I’ve never worked with before. The news segments are especially fun because there is a big time constraint. We have to get the segments out by 12 p.m. UK time each day. From 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., we’re researching news, writing scripts, and recording and editing the program. The first few days were a bit stressful. We’d finish editing the segment with about 5 minutes to spare, but it was always satisfying to go to kpcg.fm and then hear the segment you literally just sent off—it’s neat working with it as an unfinished program one minute and then hearing it online the next. Thankfully we got into the swing of things pretty quickly though. Looking for news on the fly is totally different than having the luxury of sitting down to do research for an article. You’ve got to move fast and make sure the news is accurate. We’re fact checking as we go. The news segments provide a lot of structure to the morning routine. I never thought I would be able to work on producing radio content. God’s Work is so much fun, and it is full of different, incredible opportunities.”
Emmanuel Michels—Custodial, Landscaping, German Translation
“I enjoy landscaping. To be able to work outside and beautify the environment around Edstone is very uplifting. The same is true in the case of custodial. It is great to see the building become beautified from the inside. I also enjoy the interpreting of the message from the weekend, which usually takes about two to four hours. Normally, we do whatever comes before our hand that needs to be done—like painting or helping renovate the bathroom. It is hard to have a favorite. All are really rewarding.”
Victoria Lancaster—Mail Processing, Food Services
“I love that I can be creative in the kitchen … and I really love that I’ve learned so much about cooking. The thing I love about the Mail Processing Center is that it’s a very productive job because you feel like you’ve accomplished a lot when you’re done packing all the mail for the day. Also, it’s exciting when new people order literature. It’s awesome.”