Fast answer: I’m moving to Spain in September. Keep reading to see how God lead me to this decision and what I’ll be doing.
Most of my life has been spent planning my future and sticking to said plans. My sophomore year of college I learned of Adventures in Missions and fell in love with the idea of doing the World Race. 11 countries in 11 months sounded like a dream to me. So I set my mind on doing the Race after graduating from college, and now here I am 8 months into the Race. Sometimes my plans changed, but I took the credit for those changes. That it was my idea. I think it just made me feel like I had some type of control. I’ve learned I need control and usually don’t do too well when I don’t have it. God knew that too. For a long time…honestly up until now, I think He allowed me to think I was in control. That or I was living blindly in a lot of pride. Probably the latter.
I’m excited to say that I’m finally to the point where God knows I’m ready to give up control. My after-the-race plans were set in stone, or so I thought. I had plans to come back to the states in June (June 22, to be exact!) and lock down a teaching job in Charleston, SC, with my sights set on a second grade position. However, pretty early into the race (around month 3), I didn’t feel peace about going home and teaching. I thought it was just because I enjoy traveling and changing things up every month. The thought of settling down with an actual job and doing the same thing every day almost gave me a panic attack. It didn’t feel right. I also didn’t have a choice. Because of a SC Teaching Fellowship, I have 5 years to “pay back” 4 years of teaching to the state (no money, I just literally have to teach for 4 years). Obviously this year I took a grace year, which means if I don’t have to start teaching until this upcoming school year.
Like I mentioned earlier, I like control and I didn’t like that I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I was trapped and I did not like it. Now, we’re about to get into the roller coaster of how I got to my final decision. Since month 3, I’ve been back and forth about what I wanted. Conflicted because of the fellowship. Around my junior year of college, I developed this dream to teach on a military base in Spain. Not sure how or why, but the idea popped into my head and knew that I wanted to do it at some point. Spoiler alert: this is not why I’m moving to Spain.
At the end of month 6, I was talking with my squad mentor and he was asking me what my plans for after the race were. I told him I was going to go home…because I had to, but that I was excited and was going to make the most of it. Apparently he could tell I wasn’t 100% sold on the idea of moving back home right away and asked me what I really wanted to do. I said I didn’t know. We talked about the pros and cons of either teaching back home or teaching overseas. Then he threw out two other possibilities. One was leading a Passport trip (a 3 month trip for college students) and the other was attending a Christian leadership academy in Mijas, Spain called Generation 42 (G42).
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’ll be attending the G42 Leadership Academy in Spain and I’ll be leaving this September. I’ll save you all the nitty gritty details, but for a month I was back and forth between doing G42 and going home and teaching. God spoke to me through a lot of scripture, which is how I ended up on my decision. I was never able to fully shake the feeling that G42 was the right thing for me to do in this next season of my life. I ultimately know God has called me to be a teacher, specifically in the states. God even reminded me of this back in Myanmar while I was teaching at the orphanage. I felt like God was reminding me why He created me — to work with children, and doing G42 doesn’t change that.
What does G42 mean and what is it? G42 stands for the “42nd generation” and describes people who choose to “become like Christ” in how they live and love others (based on scripture, I’ll link the video explaining it at the end). The program is a 9 month leadership academy based in Mijas, Spain. They exist “to mobilize Christ-followers to plant or lead missional communities that establish the Kingdom of God around the world.” I truly believe that God is calling me to either start or come alongside and build up a missional community back home in SC and this school that will further prepare me to do just that.
There are three trimesters. The first 3 months are in Spain attending classes and getting involved in the local community. The second 3 months are for a missions practicum. I’ll be placed somewhere else to walk out everything I’ve been learning in the classroom. I know some people have been placed in Asia, the U.S. and South America, so I could be literally anywhere. I don’t know where I’ll be yet, but I’ll let you know when I do. Then the last 3 months are back in Spain, continuing to solidify what we’ve been learning before returning home.
I see G42 as an opportunity to continue to prepare me to be the best teacher for my students and to have an impact on both a school community and the local community. This is not me avoiding or running away from the classroom. I’m simply going where God is leading me. To be honest, this is me walking into the unknown. This wasn’t in my plans. To be honest, I want to go home. I want to get my own classroom and have a little apartment in Charleston. However, right now God is preparing me for something bigger than I could have ever imagined. I’ll be gone from early September through May. Then I believe God is calling me back to CHS to live missionally there. Of course it could always change, but that’s where I believe God is leading me right now.
Now, how am I going to get there? Well, I have to fundraise again. $10,500. As I’m writing this, I only have $10,015 left to raise. I almost didn’t choose G42 because of needing to fundraise, but I know God will provide for what He’s leading me to. Money is never a reason to not do something, especially when it comes to walking into the unknown with God. If He’s called me to it, He’s already paved the way. Even with that, to be honest, I really don’t want to fundraise. I really can’t start doing fundraisers until I’m back home in the states, so until then if you feel called to support me you can donate at: https://www.generation42.org/donations. You have to scroll down to the September 2019 class and find my name and picture. You can make a one time donation or a recurring donation. Anything means so much to me.
Ways to be praying:
- For funding to come in.
- For the deferment of my teaching fellows scholarship to be deferred one more year (I’m applying for a special request deferment. Pray they see this as an opportunity to grow me as a teacher and prepare me to make in impact on both a school community and local community and that they would give me one more year before I need to start teaching/pay it back).
- The preparation of my heart for this experience.
- A bold heart.
- Peace about this next season.
