Hello! My name is Peyton and I am from Greeneville, Tennessee. I am a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga alum (Go Mocs) where I majored in Communications. 

I am so fortunate for this internship opportunity. Here is why:

The old Jewish prophets, before Jesus, had a saying that ran something like this: The quality of your faith will be judged by the quality of justice in the land; and the quality of justice in the land will always be judged by how orphans, widows and strangers fare while you are alive. In short, the most vulnerable groups in society.

Jesus, in his discourse on the final judgment in Matthew 25, takes this a step further. He essentially says how we treat the poor is how we treat God–that we’d know the extent of our love for God by how well we love people. Maybe this is why, in the New Testament, one out of every 10 lines deals directly with the poor and the call for us to respond to them. 

This internship is nothing short of my desire to love God and love people.

C.S. Lewis, in the last paragraph of Mere Chrisitanity says, “Nothing you have not given away will be really yours.” In the Domincan Republic, I am most excited to witness what can happen in a person’s life when they are devoted to giving it away.