Here's the second part of my story, obviously not the end but how I got to where I am now…
I was about 21 years old when I started attending New Life Jeff Park and at that point I was just so broken, heartbroken and bruised. I had a long time ago given up on the idea that God would ever use me, the idea almost seemed absurd to me, considering where I was and where I had been. I was just broken and directionless in life and all I knew was that I NEEDED to run back to God and into his arms. During this time God used so many amazing people to minister to me to pour into me and He started to restore me.
When things were starting to come back together and I had found some direction I still didn’t see or think that God was going to use me. I briefly entertained the idea of possibly studying missions, but I quickly gave up on it… It was as if I had lost my chance, my shot. It wasn’t that I thought my chance at being a missionary necessarily but rather I thought I had lost the chance to be used by God in ministry, to use my life to serve him. It was if I had just messed up too much, gone way off course and my new path was leading somewhere else.
I was pretty happy with this new course, I chose to study social work, for me it was like missions but here at home, and was set to graduate this May and go off to Grad school, start this new career. God however had other plans and this new path lead me to the World Race, I had heard about the world race about 2 years ago and it just seemed impossible, like something I never could or would do. But God placed it on my heart in July and I just knew this was the next step. It was as if he was telling me that of course he was going to use me for his service. He had a plan all along and the mistakes I made along the way weren’t going to deter this plan, and I was crazy for thinking that it ever would.
I’ve recently found myself wondering what my life would’ve been like had I gone route that I thought I was supposed to? If I hadn’t wandered off for those years and I realize that it doesn’t really matter, because I KNOW that where I am, getting ready to go on this journey, is EXACTLY where I AM SUPPOSED to be. In the end it doesn’t really matter how exactly I got here, what matters is that I am here, feeling God tugging on my heart, telling me that He wants me to go serve, minister and further His kingdom around the world. And this time I’m making sure that I follow where He leads.
– Jess
