To begin with, I guess I should just say that I haven’t been especially ready to talk about the next stage of my life because I haven’t had any idea of what that would look like. For the better part of a year, my plans post-graduation have consisted of moving away from Greeley, CO with as much speed as possible, and then heading for Fort Collins, CO, some forty-five minutes away. Grad school at Colorado State University was a definite possibility, followed by the “safe” career choice–how safe is any career these days?–of teaching English Literature in Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA or, Department of the Army) high schools overseas. That was the plan.
At least, that’s what I thought the plan was.
What I expected was to move out of my tiny green cottage on May 15th and not look back. I thought I’d put down roots in Fort Collins, maybe find someone to settle down with. Going to grad school was more for formality’s sake than because I’m passionate about teaching. It was a backup plan. It was the only plan.
God has a really funny way of knocking us right over our plans. We go tumbling head over high heels–or moccasins in my case–over everything we thought was so cemented and natural. What’s funnier are the ways he uses to get to us. Like, social networking for example. Like, Facebook, for example. More specifically, the advertisements on Facebook.
A few months ago, I was looking for a summer mission trip, something that would last from graduation to the beginning of next school year. I’d been asking all my friends if they’d heard of a good missions group to work with, with little success. Web searches were turning up great options, in fact, if I was a Southen Baptist, I had access to literally dozens of missions. As the daughter of a Southern Baptist chaplain, these options were fairly open to me, but something wasn’t right. I was praying for the Lord to open the right door. Instead, he led me to open a Facebook ad. Talk about not what I expected.
What I found, much to my surprise, was a missions trip that had my name written all over it. Eleven months. Eleven countries. Backpack. Tent. Team. God. Me. The World Race.
Fast forward through the initial excitement, the application, the interview and the final phone call that confirmed what my heart already knew… This is where I’m supposed to be.
In October 2011, I will be joining around fifty other believers of varying denominations, packing a one backpack with everything I need to live for a year, and traveling from Gainsville, GA to Guatemala, our first stop. From there, I’ll be spending a month in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi in that order. Somewhere between Cambodia and Malaysia is another country, one that we haven’t quite decided on yet. I’m excited to see what the Lord ends up choosing for my squad. (You can see my route here.)
On the way, we’ll be working planting churches, feeding the hungry, loving the orphans, casting out demons, healing the sick, being Jesus to prostitutes and their pimps, child soldiers and their commanders, the homeless, the abandoned, the children of God. We’re going to go be part of miracles. We’re going to go see that the God of the Old Testament, who parted the Red Sea, who made the sun stand still for Joshua, who saved Daniel from the Lion’s Den and Jonah from the whale, is the same God today. We’re going to go see that the God of the New Testament, who came to Earth as Jesus, who raised Lazarus from the dead, who caused the blind to see and the lame to walk, who died blameless for our sins and rose from the dead, is the same God working on earth today. I want to be part of what He’s doing here. I want to serve alongside Christ.
I’m going to need to raise $15,000 for this trip. Before you freak out too much about that seemingly astronomical figure, think about this: if 25 people pledged to put $50 in my support account every month for 12 months, my trip would be 100 PERCENT paid for. That’s all it would take. If you feel like the Lord might be leading you to do this, you can go to my blog and click on the “Support Me!” tab on the left-hand column. Even if you can’t support me financially, I would really appreciate your prayers as I follow the Lord’s leading over the next 18 months.
This adventure is just getting started. There’s so much more I could tell you now, but the main thing is that we have a mighty God who LOVES us, who thinks enough of us to have died for us. who wants to have a relationship with us. There are people in the world who don’t know that yet and I have the opportunity to tell them.
So I’m going. So here we go. Where you go, I go, Lord.
