It was one of those times where something happens and you go, “Wait. Could it be? ‘Cause if it is, it all adds up now.” I don’t know that I have fully accepted it myself because quite frankly, God does things in preparation for the bigger picture while I’m still trying to figure out how to get through the little one. But let me backtrack a little bit and catch up with whatever the heck it is He’s doing inside of me.
Sometime around the fall of 2010 God began to sneak things into my heart without my knowing it. Through books, pastors, His Word, and other people, He was calling me to the nations – I just didn’t know it yet. I finished college, interned at a church in Natchez, MS, and returned home to get a big girl job.
Then, in August of 2011 I was hired to worked for Marriott. {It was throughout this year that people, some I knew some I didn’t, started asking if I had ever considered teaching. Others asked right out, “Are you a teacher?” – I thought, maybe I’m putting off a vibe I do not know about}. My degree is in Hospitality and Tourism so working there was right up my alley, sort of. I had no desire to work in corporate-America but I knew this was going to be a means to an end. I like to call it my “tent building season,” like Paul. About the exact time I started working there, I began to notice this desire for the nations that God has slipped in my spirit one year prior. It was all I could think about. How can I go on a mission trip and where can I go? I didn’t have a certain place or people group in mind, all I knew was I wanted to go and I wanted to go RIGHT THEN.
This is an excerpt from a blog I wrote on September 4, 2011 entitled, “One day I will Go:”
“Is it possible that God has not put a certain place on my heart because He is giving me freedom to choose? Is it possible that I learned all those years of Spanish because He is going to send me to Central or South America?”
And on September 29, 2011 I wrote a blog called “Directions, Please?” basically whining about being “stuck” in the States when I felt like I was supposed to be doing ministry elsewhere:
“I ask Him all the time. WHY? I thought I would be called to Lima or San Jose or Johannesburg. Somewhere with real mission opportunities, as if they don’t exist here. I ask Him all the time, “GOD! I’m begging You for some direction. Show me where I’m supposed to be. I’m wide open, Father. My life is Yours, send me! Pick me! I will go, I will spread Your Good News to all the nations.”
In February 2012 I applied for something that would change my life forever. And a few months later, on September 9, 2012 I launched on The World Race for 11 countries in 11 months. I remember writing my first status from Zimbabwe on September 17 saying:
“This is the first time we have had Internet since we left so first of all, HELLO!! We made it to AFRICA!!! My team and I were talking, and we can literally feel your prayers, so thank you. We will be in Zimbabwe for the rest of the month and we all love it here so much. The people are amazing and warm and friendly. This week we are in the bush and will be until Thursday then we are going back to our host in Harare, Zimbabwe. I cannot say thank you enough for all your love and encouraging messages… and ESPECIALLY for your prayer. The power of God is BLOWING my mind and I cannot imagine doing anything else with my life right now.”
Ten months later I found myself in Nicaragua fighting high fevers, rashes, body aches, exhaustion and chills. I was miserable enough to go to the local doctor even though it was advised to stay away from those. (I need to write a whole blog on that experience in itself). After giving a urine sample in a baby food jar, I knew it was time to go home and get treated. The two and a half weeks I was at home was spent recovering, visiting friends and family, and preparing to come home and be a teacher. Throughout the race God had been softening my heart to teaching and now I was researching, getting information, etc. to come home and do what I needed to do to be a teacher …. IN THE STATES. {Jesus must have been giggling at this point}.
On July 2, 2013 I flew to Costa Rica to join my team for month 11 of the race. I was excited and revived and ready to finish this thing with a bang. I could not wait to complete month 11 and return home to begin the next big thing Jesus had for me. I arrived to find out we would be living in a school/church doing random ministry things around the San Jose area. I heard great things about Melissa, the principal of the school, from my team so when we were invited to dinner at her home, I was eager to meet her.
Being the curious little thing that I am, I began asking her questions about how she became a teacher/principal, how she ended up in Costa Rica, and other personal questions that no normal adult would ask. But like I said, I was curious. This conversation led to her dropping the bomb I was nowhere near prepared for. Ria and I looked at each other with mouths dropped when Melissa looked at me and said, “What are you doing after the race? Do you want to teach here? Try it for a semester and if you love it, you can stay! By the way, I have an extra bedroom upstairs.”
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For the rest of the story…. see part three of this series here!
