Equipped

 

Flashback around one year ago:

I graduated from college, knew I was going on the world race, but not for another 8 months. I was originally signed up for a September route because my thinking was "why wait"? I knew this is what I wanted to do – it was a done deal ever since I found World Race through google back in January 2012. I would get all giddy and happy-cry just at the thought of it. But a couple months before launch, I began to get an uneasy, rushed feeling. Long story short, I decided to defer to the January routes, and put all this university learning to the test and find a short internship for the fall until I left. God placed an internship in my lap that was far greater than anything I could have ever expected. I was working at fantastic company called Cooper Aerobics. I was an intern for the corporate wellness entity, which basically means we worked with different companies and business to help them find ways to decrease their health care costs by improving the health of their employees, and consequently increase their profit. I also got to work with awesome people, who made going to work every day such a joy. I was learning and soaking it all in like a sponge. 

 

                                     What I didn't realize was that God was training me for a job. 

               Not a job that I could come back to after the race, but a job that I was would do on the race. 

 

Last week in Uganda:

     We visited a local hospital where our contact's wife worked with HIV patients. She arranged for us to come to the hospital and help out in any way we could for ministry one day. We get there and to my delight – they needed people to take blood pressure, and talk about healthy living with the patients. I was so excited to be in my element; doing what I was doing a year ago for a living, but now as a way to bring more to the kingdom! 

 

     On the race I have done the most odd jobs such as catching chickens for widows, moving boulders through mud + cow poop to build tilapia farms, to more normal jobs like teaching, sports, etc. as ministry. When I think about it, the only time I was ever "trained" for a ministry job, was last week at the hospital. But I still did – rather thrived – at most every thing God put before me, through His strength. 

 

     God equipped me especially for health-pertaining ministry, and I'm so thankful that He pressed it on my heart to wait to leave, to give me that internship, and then to confirm that I was in the right place at the right time, one year later.

 

                       But one thing to note is that God also equipped me for everything else. 

    Yes, some things were most definitely not in my comfort zone, such as delivering babies, but I had faith that each job God picked out for me was carefully planned, thoroughly thought out, and was brought to me for a specific purpose. 

 

     God's master plan is always in motion when we trust Him & it is comforting to know that no matter what, we can have faith that He will always equip us when He needs to show others His love – and for that I am thankful.