Summer 2015 News
Mission Indy Inc.
2020 N. Girls School Road
Indianapolis, IN 46214
Where Are They Now?
God has given us at Mission Indy the amazing privilege of working with and pouring our lives
into college-age interns each summer since 2003. We offer an ongoing series of catching up
with past interns and learning how God has used Mission Indy in their journey of faith.
“A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”
I took that first step the summer of 2004 as I began
my internship with Mission Indy. Now, 1,000+ miles
(and 11 years) later my journey is far from over.
Lisa (Palone) Taflinger
(2004 Intern)
My internship at Mission Indy marks a beginning
point for me - the beginning of my awakening.
During this time, I was awakened to my role as
Christ-follower. I learned what it meant to be a
servant, how to be flexible in ministry, how to work
as a team, loving others in tangible ways, how to
pursue holiness, disciplines of Christianity, and
leadership skills.
After Mission Indy I obtained my Bachelors of Arts in Social Work at Anderson University, I
married my college sweet heart and we moved to Kokomo, Indiana. When deciding where to live
in Kokomo, my husband and I were very intentional about the placement of our home. During
my time at Mission Indy we talked a lot about community development and what our role would
be in Kokomo’s community development. We wanted our home to be located in such a place
where we would be able to assist and support those without provision. We found the perfect
home…downtown, in the heart of the city. Our house quickly became a refuge for many,
provided housing for some, education for others, food, and lots of love for others. “Neither he
who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” I Cor. 3:6
During this time, my husband helped start an after-school program for at-risk youth in Kokomo
called Bridges Outreach Inc. I took my first job as an Adolescent Case Manager at a Hospital. I
would later return to school to obtain my elementary-education teaching license.
In 2012, Kokomo, Indiana opened up an International Dormitory in which high school students
from all over the world would come and stay while they attend Kokomo High School. We were
asked if we would consider becoming the “Dorm Parents” to these students. Our family of four,
felt that God was literally ‘bringing the nations’ to us and we accepted the position! For two
years we lived in the dorm and were able to meet and serve high school students from around the
globe with the love of Christ. My two small boys were learning Spanish, eating meals with
Asians, and playing games with the Europeans! Our family was intentional about these
relationships and strived to make sure that our faith was heard and seen in the dorm. Our sons
shared their faith with the Internationals and developed deep relationships with these students.
In 2014 God placed a desire on our hearts to plant a church in Kokomo. The name of the church
is City 2:42 because we base it on the simple principles found in Acts 2:42. “They devoted
themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
City 2:42 desires to be intentional about discipleship, community development, and diversity.
Currently, I am working at a Classical Christian School called Acacia Academy as an
Administrative Assistant and helping with Bridges Outreach Inc. God continues to grow and
develop our family and we are so thankful for the influences that Mission Indy has had on our
thinking and worldview.
[Thank You Lisa, so much, for sharing your life and faith journey! May God richly bless
you and Travis as you serve faithfully in Kokomo.]
Weeks hosted at Englewood CC, Chapel Rock CC, Grace Missionary Church
and Hazelwood CC.
Greenville College Band
Tool Check-Out
VBS at Nehemiah Bible Church
Devo Time
Hammer Training w/ John
Group Pictures
(Eg. – Warsaw Community Church)
New for 2015 – Friday PM Training
Lots of Painting!
Blessings, challenges from our speakers, safety and lots of fun would be some of the ways to
summarize the Summer of 2015 – our 19th Summer. Praise God for His protection,
provision and power. We look forward to where He will lead us in the future. Already we
are planning for the fall of 2015, J-Term in January and the Spring and Summer of 2016!
Thank you for your prayers and faithful support!
Throughout this summer, I have been blessed in so many ways, including through the gracious
and warm nature of the Mission Indy staff along with the love and generosity that I’ve been
shown by my host family who warmly welcomed me in their home for five weeks this summer.
During my time with Mission Indy, I have learned to a large degree what it means for the church
to represent the hands and feet of Jesus, which includes loving and serving the people located in
the church’s community regardless of their background. God is in the process of restoring all
things to Himself, and part of that process includes changing the appearance of His followers
both inwardly and outwardly. In order to become Christ like in our daily lives, we have to learn
how to serve those closest to us. Mission Indy teaches what it means to embody Christ’s mission
for themselves, their church, and their communities. I am confident that through the Mission
Indy experience, each participant group that took part in the program in the summer was able to
gain practical steps to use in their own communities to be both missional and evangelical.
- Collin Cummings, Summer Intern 2015
Each summer, our staff and interns read and talk through a challenging book to develop our
understanding of discipleship and the Kingdom of God. For 2015 that book was
Mere Discipleship, by Lee Camp. We want to pull out a few sections that are particularly
challenging, in the hope that you will get the book and read it all.
Early in the book, Camp asks: “Could it be that “Jesus is Lord” has become one of the most
widespread Christian lies? Have Christians claimed the lordship of Jesus yet systematically set
aside the call to obedience to this Lord?” A little later on, he states “‘Following Jesus’” becomes
something one does on Sundays and in one’s quiet time in order to “go to heaven”, but the way
of Christ has no place in a world of violence, injustice and greed”. Near the middle of the book,
Camp says, “In all these ways, “the church” may end up being the greatest threat to the Christian
faith, because all the models of “church” proffer cheap substitutes for the gospel…As
Kierkegaard put it,
The established church is far more dangerous to Christianity than any heresy or schism.
We play at Christianity. We use all the orthodox Christian terminology – but everything
without character…The apostasy from Christianity will not come about by everybody
openly renouncing Christianity; no, but slyly, cunningly, by everybody assuming the
name of being Christian.
Camp often quotes John Howard Yoder,; here is one instance:
Here at the cross is the man who love his enemies, the man whose righteousness is
greater than the Pharisees, who being rich became poor, who gives his robe to those who
took his cloak, who prays for those who despitefully use him. The cross is not a detour or
a hurdle on the way to the kingdom nor is it even the way to the kingdom; it is the
kingdom come.
Last quote from the last page: The gospel offers the world a real alternative, the possibility of
something truly good, for it is of God. The challenge for evangelism may, however, be first a
challenge of discipleship: Will we be what we are called to be? Or will we, all in the name of
“relevance’, be grasping and grabbing to get our hands on the throttle of the old ways that have
been defeated, are on their way out, and are, in the end, irrelevant themselves?”