How did I end up here?
How did I end up committed to spending 9 months away from home?
How did I end up not applying to college?
How did I end up on The World Race?
During the summer of 2012 I had an incredible opportunity to go over seas on a missions trip to Honduras. I believe this is where everything began. During my stay I worked with a team from my school to build a playground and small kindergarten classroom in the community we were staying in. This was one of the best and also most confusing experiences in my life.
I had come to know the Lord earlier that year and was baptized only a few months before this trip. As someone who made the decision to follow Jesus I was looking for a way to surrender my life to him, but I really didn’t know what that looked like. Then when I was in Honduras I genuinely experienced the presence of God for the first time. I felt a sense of purpose and God’s guidance in my life and I knew that was where God wanted me to be.
Since that trip I have been striving to follow God’s will for my life and to be obedient to him. On this trip I believed I was fulfilling my purpose, and when I got home everything changed because I wasn’t doing that anymore. Now I realize that I was where God wanted me because he was preparing me for something else. I learned that living with purpose isn’t about doing the one right thing, but being intentional and doing everything with the purpose of glorifying God.
This takes me to November of last year when God presented me with another amazing opportunity, this time rallying in the streets of DC with Invisible Children to bring awareness to Joseph Kony and the L.R.A. This was something that I NEVER would have imagined happening. There was too many obstacles and it was too short notice, but once again God showed up. When I began doubting that I would be apart of this incredible movement everything started falling into place and shortly afterwards I was in a van full of people making the road trip to DC. Again, God was with me teaching me new things. Since then I have been learning that God will open and shut doors. I know that ultimately I will end up where he wants me, and I don’t have to worry about where that is, how I will get there or what it will look like because God knows!
And this takes me to the present. Trying to figure out what I will be doing after high school. For a long time I have been saying I am going to take a year off and do some sort of missions work. Truthfully, at first this was all about having the experience. Then I went to Honduras and it was about serving God and finding my purpose. Then as time went on, I felt like I needed the time to grow in my faith, prepare myself and strengthen my relationship with God for whatever was to come next in life. I realize now that its all about being obedient to God. I want to go where he wants me, and I want to do it with my whole heart. I believe God has called me to the missions field and I don’t have to understand it, just trust that God is in control, and surrender myself to him.
