Four weeks ago an email was sent out asking all the Route 1 – “M Sqadders” to pray about possibly switching to the Route 4 – “P Squad” as they needed a few more people to fill up their route. My first thought was an immediate NO! Why would I want to leave my squad, the people I’ve been with for 7 months?! The people I was familiar with and comfortable with already?! No thank you! …so I left the email be and went back to work. A little later a friend of mine texted and told me she was thinking about making the switch over which, kind of made me sad but at the same time I thought, if she feels it’s what she needs to do then, good for her. She sent me a graph she had constructed comparing the 2 routes and showing that 5 of the 11 originals were the same. As I looked at it I got a tinge of excitement inside as the “P squad” route had South Africa on it. I have wanted to go back there ever since I went in 2004! The excitement grew to the thought of praying about it so…I prayed about it. The time frame for making the switch was very short, as they needed to solidify travel/squad info 2 days later. As I prayed I had many thoughts and questions…questions such as, ‘If I switch, will I be looked as double-minded since I “knew” this route was the one I was supposed to pick in the beginning?’ and ‘Would I be switching because of the route or the people?’. I spent the day & evening praying about it but wasn’t getting an answer. By the next morning it was all I was thinking about! I needed to give them my answer but didn’t know which way to go. I felt that if I didn’t make the change I would be disappointed that I didn’t do it but at the same time, I knew that God had called me to Route 1. As I drove to work tormented by not receiving the answer to stay or go, I called my mom. I explained where I was with it and told her I wasn’t getting an answer and needed to know what to do. She then said something that I had never thought of before. She said, ‘if God’s not giving you a definite yes or no, maybe He wants you to choose the one YOU want and will bless whichever choice you make’. Wow! This totally calmed the troubled seas inside! Peace washed over me as I thought more about it. I spent the rest of my drive praying and thinking and by the time I made it to work I knew what I needed to do…
So, as of October 4th, I am now apart of the Route 4 P Squad and will be heading to the below countries:
South Africa
Swaziland
Mozambique
India
Nepal
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
Malaysia
Moldova
Romania
(it's not over…) …later in the day, after the switch was made I was telling my good friend Rexy about the dilemma I had had with the decision. She just looked at me and said, “No ma’am, this does NOT make you double-minded, in fact, the first thought I had was, He wants to bless you! When you were first thinking about the WR you really wanted a route that was going to South Africa, but they didn’t have it, so, you obeyed and applied for the one you felt He wanted you to go on. Now, I feel like He is saying, because you were faithful and obedient in picking the route I wanted, I am now blessing you with the opportunity to switch to the route you wanted.” WOW! I had NEVER even thought about it like that. I just looked at her in amazement and got overwhelmingly excited. Thank you Jesus for AMAZING friends and family who speak life into me and who uplift me with actions and love!
So there it was, my new journey had been set before me and I was off 10 days later to meet my new WR family (more on that to come)…
