Hello there lovely people! I am so excited to be here with you and so thankful you are reading this. I hope it blesses you in some way! My name is Courtney, I am 22 years old from a small town in Indiana where I grew up with my crazy, God loving family. My parents are so awesome and I love them both dearly. I am so thankful for their love and support throughout my life and this journey! I also have the support of my nine siblings; three beautiful younger sisters, two older brothers and four rambunctious little brothers who all play such an amazing part in my life. I absolutely love my family even though we all pick on each other a lot! The story of how we ended up a family of 12 is a story I seem to tell a lot and I love telling it. My parents being the crazy, loving people they are, opened their house to foster children. Eventually, there were some children who never left – and by some I mean eight of my lovely siblings! I always warn people that our family is a bit dysFUNctional and that when you come into our home be expected to be treated as part of the family.
I think that growing up with a big family was always God’s plan for me, even if it isn’t what my parents expected. I believe this because my family is where my passion for people began. Seeing my parents’ love anyone and everyone who came into our home made me see the value each person holds. Now as an “adult” I have gone on to pursue a career where I can help others! I now have my bachelors’ degree in psychology with a minor in criminal justice. I had an awesome time in college and made some life long friends. Friends that have encouraged and challenged me in my walk with Christ; friends I would never trade for anything! (Shout out to all you lovely friends reading this, seriously you rock!) These friends are on the same journey of growing closer to God everyday as I am and I am so thankful for that. These people are friends I know I can always talk to about life and God! I never thought I would find a group so on fire for God, walking the same walk I am, asking the same questions I am, and having the same love for God I have.
Toward the end of college I began looking for jobs, which turned into looking for mission opportunities. While applying for jobs, my computer seemed to continually have a missions website open. I was thinking maybe this was where God was leading, but as job applications were sent out and interviews began, the missions tabs began to close. I knew it wasn’t what God wanted right then. So, now I am working as an addictions counselor. I have learned so much through my time as a counselor already. God has not only opened my eyes to what is really going on in our broken world, but he has also opened my heart to listen to what my patients have to say. Probably the two hardest things about my job are getting up at 4:30am (uggg, I am not a morning person. My office mate can vouch for that), and not being able to share Jesus, the one solution, with my patients. I am blessed that we have a God who works in our heart without us saying a word because I get to pray for my patients during my time with Him. But oh man, I so wish I could just pray with them when they are sitting in my office crying or broken.
Now five months into my job, my desire for going into missions and being able to share Jesus’ love through serving, actions, and the Word hasn’t left. I truly love my job, so when I began to look for where God may be leading me next, I was kind of skeptical. I was thinking that maybe, for now, he just wanted me to look and wait for someone or something to come to me. So that’s what I did, I looked and found a few different opportunities and then I waited and waited a little longer. Until I realized maybe it wasn’t someone or something I was waiting on, but rather God was waiting on me. I truly believe he was waiting for me to step out in faith, to realize he was and is answering my prayer, to see he is a God who listens and acts.
A lot has happened from the time I started waiting on God to do something, to writing you now. God reminded me of what I had been asking him to do in my life, and what he has done thus far. He reminded me of his Word and his people, such as Jonah, who I found I can be a lot alike, and Romans 12 (you should look it up!). Before turning in my application I went from a solid “NO” one evening, to an “ok God, here we go” the next day. Nothing super dramatic happened, God didn’t verbally say yes to me, or even give me any assertive confirmation that this is what he had for me. Honestly, this is kind of what I was hoping for. I wanted God to speak more directly to me. I wanted to hear him how I thought I needed to. But man, God is so good and spoke to me how he always does, through giving me peace about where he is leading and guidance from other people. I have noticed throughout my life God has used an abundance of peace to confirm the path he is leading me down. I’m not saying there aren’t those little freak out moments where I get big eyes and start thinking “what in the world am I doing, I am crazy,” but rather he gives me a peace that I can rest in Him. I think realizing how God speaks to me is one of the biggest things I have already learned on this journey so far. Now, I know it is good to challenge ourselves to listen to God and speak with God in different ways because you never know what will happen. However, I learned I wasn’t challenging myself to listen, but rather, I was challenging God. I truly think it is important to find the ways God speaks to you, so that you can hear Him. If you don’t understand how someone communicates you will never be able to really listen to what they are saying. I encourage you to look back on how God has spoken to you in the past and remember those time he has communicated with you so you can hear Him.
God has truly blessed my life with his presence. To be honest, I know that if I didn’t have Jesus in my life I wouldn’t be where I am today and doing what I do everyday. I know my selfish heart would have taken over my life and I would have been living all for me. I know that my daily life would look a lot like me trying to boost myself up and gain a social status instead of me getting to see each person for who God sees them as. I know this to be true because on the days that I am not pursuing my relationship with God first, that’s what happens – I stop seeing people for how God sees them and the true value they hold. At the end of the days when I am living selfishly, I feel empty. And when I realize what I have done my heart breaks. I am so thankful God never gives up on my selfish heart and continues to break it for what breaks his! Knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him gives me the opportunity to live unselfishly. I get to work for something that is everlasting! I know my relationship with Jesus doesn’t impact my daily life as much as he wants it to, and I know this is because of my selfish heart. So, I am excited to see God continue to work in me so I can do his work in the world.
Therefore, I am stepping out where my trust is without boarders, literally, and I am going on the world race! I’ll be going to 11 countries in 11 months with my squad, where we will be partnering with missionaries in each country to continue to do God’s good work! I could take up this whole blog just talking about my family, friends, God’s sovereignty, and this journey I am about to go on, so if you want to know more feel free to ask, there’s tons of stories to tell!
