Let’s rewind about a year and a few months ago. It’s the fall semester of my fourth year of college. I am currently taking methods classes and will begin student teaching for two semesters in January of 2013, set to graduate in December of that same year. Knowing that I have only a few months left of college, I begin really thinking about what I want to do after graduation. Most of my friends (being future teachers as well) were excitedly planning their first classrooms. I, however, did not have the same excitement. Sure, I wanted to be a teacher and work with kids every day…..eventually. Thinking about finding my first “big kid” job after graduation made me feel claustrophobic. Shoot, I would only be 22 at graduation, and settling down then seemed like a death sentence. So, I began looking into my options- Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and other service trips. I had thrown around the idea of a mission trip with a close friend of mine, but that idea carried as much weight as the other options.
One afternoon, I was at a friend’s apartment trying on clothes she was giving away. I expressed my feelings about wanting to travel the world and help people, and she instantly told me about this crazy trip where groups of people travel to 11 different countries around the world, doing a wide variety of service work. Sounding like the coolest adventure ever, I wrote down the name of the trip and organization to research later. That night, I started reading blogs, looking at pictures, and watching videos of people relying on the Lord for everything. I was hooked.
Throughout the next year, I prayed like I’d never prayed before. I was trying to decipher between my own worldly desires and where the Lord was leading me. One of my most repeated prayers was for the Lord to smack me upside the head and show me what to do. Little did I know, that’s exactly what he was doing the whole time. From going to a new church where the first sermon was a video of the paster preaching from across the world, to a sermon on trust and taking a risk, to reading books about taking leaps of faith and trusting that the Lord will catch you, my loving Father was preparing my heart to accept the fact that He wanted me to go on that crazy trip. It even amazes me that he introduced the idea early enough for me to take my time to process it all before applying.
I applied, had my phone interview, and then had a follow up interview. After the follow up interview, I realized how desperately I wanted to go on this journey. I pleaded with God to give me peace in whatever the outcome was. About thirty minutes later, I received another phone call telling me I had been accepted! The rest of that day was a blur of emotions- relief, shock, excitement, joy, and fear of the unknown. I slowly processed what was happening and secured my spot.
It is now a new year, a new season of being a college graduate, and the year we embark on our journey. I am so excited for this next adventure! I know that there will be more ups and downs than I can imagine, but at the moment I’m at peace, and I thank the Lord for that.
