I feel I am still standing here with my mouth gaping open, unsure of everything that is taking place in my life. If you would have asked me 1 month ago if I would be preparing to leave for the mission field for a year I would have laughed at you, not even with you, AT you. Yet, I look back at how everything has been orchestrated over the last year and see how all the puzzle pieces I could only scratch my head at are now falling into place.
It rained for the first 4 days of training camp, packing up our wet tents by headlamp light and meeting early in the morning to exercise or to hike out of our camping spot, I wasn’t sure if 30 year old Destiny was as rambunctious and ready for this as 20 year old Destiny was. After packing up my stuff and beginning to help other people pack up theirs, I got a little teary eyed as I began to feel life and purpose flowing back through me in some ways I hadn’t felt in a long time… We shared food community style, eating with our hands most days, food portions that were much smaller than what the typical American eats but that is more than sufficient and likens more of the portion that we will eat overseas.
One of the first days of training camp the Lord spoke to me and said, “The boundaries (of your life) have fallen in pleasant places…” (from Psalm 16:6) but He added onto there, “Destiny, you aren’t even close to them yet.” He has been gently nudging me into deeper waters, and then suddenly the floor has fallen away and I am out in deep waters.
I have always known I would be back out in the mission field one day, that is the international field. I fully believe that wherever you are called is your mission field, be it your family (shout out to stay at home moms!), your corporate 9-5 job, your tables you serve at the local restaurant, they are all your mission field. I am not going on a mission trip, I am being obedient to what I feel God is calling me to.
Not everyone feels called to live out of a backpack for 11 months. $4 a day for food (which is what more than half the world lives on) sleeping in buses, planes, floors, dirt, wherever you can find a place to lay your head, most likely crammed in a tiny place with your teammates and all their packs too. Not only is everyone not called, not everyone finds joy in the middle of doing it. I am one of the weird, wild ones. When asked about a highlight of my life, I find my time in Malaysia comes quickest to mind. No running water, no electricity, gets my motor running and lights up my eyes. Preaching the Gospel through a translator, with sweat beading on my forehead, playing in the rain with the kids on the street, and eating food I can’t quite identify makes me feel alive.
(Not everyone thinks this is a beautiful sight..)
Typical sleeping arrangements overseas..
I will be carrying my home and my closet ON me for the next 11 months!!
Sometimes you get hot coffee in your collapsible bowl and it feels like Christmas morning after a long, cold, rainy night in your tent.
I have done many things I have loved over the last seven years, things I feel qualified for, skilled for, but I knew that at some point I would be privileged with stepping onto foreign soil. I knew that I don’t ever feel quite as alive as when I am out doing what most people consider the “hard things”. I didn’t see the timing of it coming nor the way it came but it is here. He is calling me out again. How everything continues to fall into place is just rocking my world, as if I had somehow forgotten that is what He does and who He is. I have a place to stay for free until I leave (JANUARY 6th yall!!!) storage, to put my stuff in for the year while I am gone, and people are coming out of the woodworks to come around me and support me both emotionally, spiritually, physically, and financially.
Adventures goes through a process of handpicking leaders to begin the teams out on the field, which is subject to change throughout the 11 months, and I was honored to be picked for this first initial time around. I feel the privilege but also the responsibility as I help lead out this team into what God has for us. I am so looking forward to getting to know them! “Our team name is “Water Fetchers”. It comes from 2 Samuel 23:14-17. We are God’s mighty warriors who are going into enemy territory to take back what the enemy stole (water=God’s children). We are fearless and obedient. We will risk our lives to bring water back to our King.” (quote by Jordan who after all of us praying came up with this!)
Team Water Fetchers
I am on a wild ride and I would be lying if I didn’t say I am a little intimidated by it all but I know that He holds my future and it couldn’t be in better hands!
