A little less than a year ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was excited to be in a new season, and have the opportunity to learn and grow. I asked God to challenge me—I was ready to be thrown in the fire and come out refined like gold and silver.
Little did I know that He would go above and beyond in answering my prayer.
Let’s talk a little about fundraising first. I’ve talked about it before, but boy is it still intense, humbling, and crazy. To follow Him in obedience, and completely trust in His goodness and provision has taken me to a new level of faith.
Now we’ll switch gears. If you knew me at the beginning of my college career, you would know that I’m spontaneous, adventurous, and all over the place. I took a personality test at the end of my freshman year and found out that I was 100% Orange (meaning I’m outgoing, spontaneous, etc.) and 0% Gold (meaning I’m NOT organized, don’t plan in advance, etc.). I was surprised that I didn’t have the slightest inkling of Gold in me, so I made it a point to become more Gold.
This doesn’t mean that being Gold is my jam now, (but I have to say, you’ll be surprised to know that I have my Excel finance sheets, To Do Lists, and plan in advance for different events), but I can be Gold when the situation calls for it. I’d still prefer being my Orange self any day (;
I wanted to give this description of me so that you’ll understand why I had to laugh and smile when I was asked to do logistics for my squad. Although I’ve grown in leaps and bounds in the area of organization, there is so much more for me to learn! I’ve done logistics when I’ve traveled all over Europe, Japan and the mainland U.S., but now I’ll be helping lead my entire squad from country to country.
Let’s just say that I’m in for an incredible ride! I’m stoked to learn more about the behind the scenes of leading a group this large, and see God work in crazy, amazing ways. It was definitely not my top pick, but this is definitely an area that I’m excited to learn and grow in!
On top of logistics, God put it on my heart to do photography and videography ministry. Seriously, this is more left field than me doing logistics. The main reason being that up until two weeks ago, all I did was point and shoot with my camera.
But I decided, why not? I mean I asked God to challenge me and this type of ministry is way out of my comfort zone. I have absolutely no clue what’s going on, so my learning curve is exponential. Once I said yes and was obedient to this call, everything started falling into place. It seriously blew my mind and is still blowing my mind.
I knew I was meant to come home and spend my last few weeks with my family in Hawaii before going back to the mainland for launch. I had no idea how I was going to pay for my ticket back to Georgia though. Turns out, I was beyond blessed that my aunty used her miles for me. The money I was supposed to use for my ticket, I ended up using for a new camera body and two lenses.
When I was on vacation at Disney Aulani, my friend who’s a professional photographer, took me under his wing. He gave me all the professional editing software, taught me how to use it, helped me buy my camera gear, taught me how to use my new camera, and gave me a backpack designed specifically to carry my gear.
Let’s just say I’m still in shock at how all this turned out in the past TWO WEEKS. WHAT. It definitely goes to show that my Daddy is so good.
These are just a few areas in my life that God is challenging me in. Over the past year, He’s challenged me in all the areas of my life I need help in, and He’ll continue to do so. At times I get overwhelmed from the sheer amount of intenseness of it all, but when I stop and look at how far I’ve grown and see the potential for growth in the year to come, I have to say I’m sure blessed that He thinks I can handle what He gives me.
He doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle. (Seriously a constant reminder for me in this season.) My hope is that all of us want to become refined like gold and silver.
But in order to become refined like gold and silver, we need to go through the fire first.
What areas in your life is God challenging you in?
