The Gradual Call

After a year of college I got some good insight about my future. It went kind of like this: I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE! I tried thinking about the things that inspire me, and practically all of my results could not be found through higher education. Which was too bad because most of high school I was very academically oriented. I knew I couldn't handle another year of school, and I was totally over "The American Dream", so I asked God about a discipleship program some of my friends had done.

Six months later I started the program and was satisfied that I was exactly where God wanted me to be. Over the next nine months I attended various classes and took outreach trips to the West Coast, the East Coast, Turkey, and Israel. (Also I had taken a trip to Nepal and China the previous summer). I had never experienced so much of God or the world, especially in such a short amount of time. 

I was enthralled by how much God loves people and I wanted to be a part of His work more than ever. So when I was on the East Coast after all this ministry was over, I finally made the decision to go on the World Race. I had heard about the race before I joined my discipleship program, but at that time I was too young to even consider it, so I filed it in my brain for later. But when I visited the site again, my heart came alive. I immediately knew this was the next step God had for me, and that He had actually been preparing me my whole life for something like this. I knew my life would only be fulfiling if I gave it for the sake of others.

I was pretty resolute about going on the trip, but for the next couple of months the details started to get hazy. I knew it was right, but I wasn't sure about the "when" or "how". I decided to go in July of 2013. I knew that would be safe because it was more than a year away. In that time-frame I knew I could raise most of the money myself.

I started looking for jobs and was planning on coasting through the next year until the Race started. Fortunately, God spoke up and reminded me that I'm not meant for a life of comfort and safety…even at home. So through the help of a friend, God showed me that he wanted me to go in January instead.

I was frustrated that my plans had been changed and hesitant about trusting God that much, but that was exactly what He had in mind. He wanted me to come to a place where if I didn't trust Him, it wouldn't work. He wanted me to lean on Him like never before. It scared me to death, and still scares me occasionally, but growth is never very easy. 🙂

It's funny. I never really expected to do missions at all. It just kinda creeped up on me. And now I'm going to eleven different nations! God really does fulfill the desires of our hearts.