How I Was Called to the Mission Field

We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip. 
Here is my story….

 

I’ve been very active in church since I was pretty young.  My parents took my brothers and I to church every time the doors were opened, it seemed.  I didn’t really understand that Christianity was meant to be a relationship until I went to a church camp the summer before my 7th grade year.  Lake Sallateeska is where I met Jesus for the first time.  I went to camp with a group of friends from school and was lucky enough to have that same group of friends all through high school.  When I was in high school I was in church most nights of the week.  If I wasn’t at a basketball or volleyball game I was at some sort of youth service with all of those amazing friends.  The churches in my home town (Fairfield, IL) all had youth services on different nights of the week so we could all go to all of them.  I didn’t realize how awesome it was to have such a great group of Christian friends and all those places we could go and be together until after I went to college.  I think I thought that everyone had that kind of support group in their life. 

 

When I went away to college (not far – Southeast Missouri State University) I was without that support group for the first time.  But, not for long.  I started church hunting and pretty quickly found a Sunday service that I enjoyed(Bethel Assembly of God).  It wasn’t long after that that I made some new friends and got involved with the youth group.  I was once again in a church or at a church activity most nights of the week and I loved it.  I loved working with the junior high and high school kids and thought then that I would eventually become a youth pastor.   Once on a youth workers retreat I remember watching a video.  I can’t even remember what the video was about but I do remember one picture.  It was of someone holding an orphaned child.  When I saw that I immediately knew that I would do that someday.  I didn’t know when or how but I knew it would happen. 

 

To graduate college I had to do an internship and was able to do mine overseas.  The Department of Morale, Welfare and Recreation of the Navy hosted me and 9 other students in Sasebo, Japan.  We ran the day camp for the children living on the base.  This was my first real travel experience.  I had always loved going new places and meeting new people wasn’t really that difficult for me.  I hadn’t ever been anywhere that far from home.  My family would go on vacation, mostly to the southeast, but that was the only traveling I had done.  I absolutely loved Japan.  I was super homesick when I first got there and thought maybe I had done the wrong thing by going, but I had such a great experience.  I was able to see so much and meet people that are some of my best friends today, Christy and Rachel.

 

 

One of those friends is the reason I am in California.  Rachel had gotten a job at YMCA Camp Marston as an Outdoor Education Instructor and told me they were still hiring.  So, I applied and was accepted and so was Christy.  At this point I wasn’t too concerned about what God had planned for me, I just wanted to go somewhere and California was as good as any.  I worked at camp for the spring and summer seasons and had a good time but made some poor choices while I was here.  After those two seasons I moved from camp into San Diego and started working for The Rock Academy Preschool.  The Rock Church is a megachurch here in SD.  I loved working at the preschool and having the totally Christian environment again.  I also met one of favorite people in the world, Sheila.  Sheila and I would talk about one day opening and orphanage together and I was reminded of the video that I saw in college.  I still didn’t know the how or the when but I knew it would eventually happen.

 

I worked for The Rock for about 9 months and then decided I needed to go back to camp.  There is something about camp that makes it ok to be exactly who you are and nothing else.  I really did love it there.  So I went back for the summer and had a great time.  Then I went back to my parents house in IL for a few months to try and pay off some debt.  That didn’t really work that well

and I moved back to San Diego.  I was going to start back to school to get my masters in divinity so I could finally become a youth pastor.  I was an intern at my church in SD and learned a lot.  I think the most important thing that I learned was that I wasn’t really meant to be a youth pastor.  I loved the kids that I worked with and will always love working with kids but not as a pastor.

 

Pretty soon I was back at camp again.  I’ve been here for two years straight this time and will be really sad when it is time to go.  But, I know it is the right thing.  I found The World Race when I was doing a Google search for a short term mission trip.  I thought maybe I would find a trip for a month or maybe two.  When I started reading about the Race I couldn’t get it out of my head.  I prayed about it and called my friend Chelsey.  (She’s one of the awesome friends from high school.)  She agreed to pray with me about it and thought it sounded exactly like something Jesus would choose for me.  I finally decided it was what I needed to do and applied, was accepted and now I can’t wait to go on this amazing journey. 

 

I am so excited for whatever, wherever and whoever this journey will include!