Rewind a year and I was extremely happy, my boyfriend and I had talked in depth about getting married and an engagement ring had been purchased – we had even penciled a date in for summer 2014. I had the next couples of years completely planned out, I was applying for jobs in Norwich (where he is a student) and planned to move there while he continued his studies. We had even talked about doing the World Race together a couple of years down the line after he had finished his foundation years in a hospital.
In September 2013 my whole world fell apart, we broke up without any warning and I was devastated, I believed that he was the one for me and suddenly I felt very vulnerable. Everything I had planned had been pulled out from under me and I no longer had a plan of where my life was going.
Looking back on the last ten months I know that God has been there for me completely, not walking beside me but carrying me like the poem Footprints.
Here are just a few ways God has changed my life and helped me to come to terms with the break up and really put my trust in him:
Church
Because of my plan to move to Norwich I hadn’t really tried to get connected with the church I was attending. I would arrive just before the service started and leave shortly after it finished. Occasionally I had a short conversation with someone but I didn’t feel connected. In January I decided this needed to change so I joined a hub group and started to get to know people in the church. I started going regularly on a Sunday rather than dipping in and out of church and I now help with the cafe before and after church when it is my hub groups turn. I have also just finished doing the Alpha Course. I feel so connected with church and can see the transformation God has made in my life.
World Race
I first heard about the world race when my friend Peter Frizelle went on it in September 2011. From that moment knew I was also being called to do mission work in the same way and even started an application for a route starting in September 2012 but never finished it. It wasn’t the right time; I wasn’t ready spiritually or emotionally to give 11 months of my life to mission work. In October last year I found myself on the world race website daily and started to apply for the September 2014 Route 2. It was during my correspondence with Austin about this route that one of the links he sent me directed me to the wrong place – a page about World Race Europe. My heart stopped. This was God talking to me. No longer did I need to worry about getting to training camp and back and then back to America for launch, the plan was this route was going to train and launch in London. So I started to apply for this route, excited for what God had in store for me. This route has now been combined with World Race Korea to form World Race Fusion and I am still just as excited. I feel privileged that I will be part of a multi-cultural squad.
Friendships
Last August one of my oldest friends moved back home after getting a job at the same hospital I work at. We have known each other since we were four years old and despite going to university’s miles from each other and not staying in contact as much as I’d have liked to our friendship has grown since she moved back. Lisa was an absolute rock for me through the toughest times, she was there to listen, she became my gym buddy, my lunch friend and crucially gave me the accountability to really get connected with a church as I had seen her do. God placed her back down south just when I really needed her.
I am happier than I have ever been and my relationship with God has grown considerably. I have learnt to trust him and I know that even if things don’t work out the way I thought they would it is because God has a much bigger and better plan for my life than I could ever imagine.
Trust in The Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares The Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
