When Your Boss is Better than Michael Scott

For those of you who are not familiar with International Justice Mission, the man in the blue shirt in the photo below is Gary Haugen, Founder and CEO of an organization that works against modern-day slavery by rescues thousands, protects millions and works to prove justice for the poor is possible. The moment in this picture is just a small glimpse into the care the people at IJM have for their people and their work.
Here are a few things I learned in my first few weeks as an intern at IJM:

1. We are on a mission together. Ending slavery is an ambitious dream, so we must depend on one another and rely even more heavily on the Lord. We need each person in each department to work with excellence, to come together in prayer, and to encourage one another constantly. As the president of IJM said lightheartedly, “if accounting fails, we all fail.”  As an accounting intern, I felt like my role mattered just as much as the law and field operation interns.

2. Sometimes servant leadership means getting the tacos. When you work in the city and there aren’t a lot of places to park, sometimes interns are the ones who keep driving the car around the block while your co-worker picks up tacos for a department lunch. Sometimes that co-worker keeps her touch-to-start car key in her pocket when she gets out of the car, leaving the intern to drive on crowded, downtown streets with the car threatening to turn itself off in the middle of the road. I’ll leave the rest of the story up for interpretation...

3. There are great people doing great things in the world. Not only do I admire the people at IJM who work earnestly on behalf of the lives of the poor in developing nations, but I also admire the inspiring work of individuals I meet in D.C. Whether the person is an FBI agent, a founder of a nonprofit, an organizer for a world food festival, or a street musician, I’ve been fascinated by the ambitious, resilient, and creative efforts of people in this chaotic, beautiful part of the nation.

With an experience like this, the only thing that could make interning in D.C. better is ice cream!