My plan after School Of Evangelism (SOE) was to staff at Youth With A Mission (YWAM), and then do a School Of Worship (SOW). Sorry for all the acronyms… welcome to the life of a YWAMer. This has been my plan since my outreach to Asia. When I got to SOE I was talking to one of my 5,000 roommates who told me about a missionary opportunity that her friend was doing called the Word Race (WR). Okay I’m done with acronyms now. On this WR I would be living out of a backpack as I travel doing missionary work in different countries. 11 countries. 11 months. Im not sure why but it has always been a dream of mine to live out of a backpack. In awe at the opportunity, I obviously did what any Christian would do and said, “God if you want me to do a WR that’d be cool, but if not that’d be cool too.” And the God who knows the desires of my heart because, HE PUT THEM THERE, said yes! So I jumped up and down and got out my guitar and started playing “Good Good Father” by Chris Tomlin and everything was great! Only none of that happened cause I was freaking out! I was getting ready to make a huge commitment. I didn’t know what I was asking, so I started telling God all the reasons I wasn’t ready to go. I was going to miss my brothers first year of marriage, another year with my family, and Im already missing the growth and development of my little cousins. After all I didn’t tell Him no, I just wanted Him to hear the worries of my heart, right? Then God told me, “This is your Goliath.” (For those who don’t know, I recently found a perfectly round meatball-looking rock. Another dream of mine, because if David could find five I could find one. When I found this rock the Lord told me, “Its time to face Goliath.” I thought my Goliath would be this next outreach to Greece working with refugees. Now that we’re all caught up I’ll continue with this story!) I started talking to some of my 5,000 roommates about the WR and what God had been saying. They asked if they thought I would go. I knew God said yes but I was scared so I said, “Ahh I don’t know. Im still praying about it because it might not be from God.”
The next time I asked, “God what do you think about the situation.” He replied, Acts 9:4- “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” I of coarse thought, “Oh I must have heard God wrong because Im not persecuting Him.” So I asked, “God give me another verse on how you feel about the situation.” Then I got another verse in Acts and thought, ‘I knew I heard it wrong.’ So I turned to Acts 22:7 “I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?” Then I realized I was closing off my heart to God in this area and I was saying Gods words to me were not from God. I was talking falsely about God, I was persecuting Him. I repented and opened my heart to God that He might do with it as He wanted.
I was at the point of confusion because I thought I was supposed to do a SOW. Why lead me back to YWAM if I was supposed to go somewhere else? I continued to pray, and for the next 3 days I heard the names of 3 different countries: Uganda, Paraguay, and Argentina. Even at times where I wasn’t even focused on the Lord. One time I was singing a Kieth Urban song and BOOM Argentina! So I was like, “what the heck God, Im so confused right now.” Then I thought, “No, theres no way.” I pull out my phone and I looked up the WR routes to see if there was a route with these countries. My jaw dropped, there is 1 route with 3 out of 11 nations listed. I would love to tell you that that gave me peace in my heart but it didn’t. I was still worried and confused. Later that week we had a teacher who talked about Gods will in our lives. There I had the revelation that sometimes I have to put my obedience over my understanding. One of the mornings that week God lead me to Acts 27:9. I should probably read the book of Acts, huh? Acts 27 is the chapter that talks about Paul (Who was originally Saul, the guy persecuting Jesus. God changed His name to Paul after he became a Christian.) Paul was sailing to Rome and God told Him he was going to be shipwrecked. When the storm started God told Paul what to tell the sailors to do to keep them alive. After the shipwreck Paul was on an island where he was able to preach the gospel to the islanders, eventually being rescued. Sent to Rome, he was imprisoned but able to teach the gospel to a Roman solider before being killed. What I got out of that chapter was that God prepared Paul to be shipwrecked, he warned him and guided him through the literal and figurative storm. Through the ship wreck he was about to spread the gospel to the men on the boat, the islanders, and a Roman. It’s okay to be shipwrecked.
Because I live in the middle of no where I can see the stars beautifully. I was walking across campus looking at the stars as I usually do, and the sky looked bigger than usual. Then I heard, “Let me make your world bigger.” I replied, “Okay God, I’ll do it, if you want me to say yes I’ll say yes.” then I heard, “It is good and it is written.” I had no idea what that meant and I still didn’t have peace in my heart about going. So for the next few days I prayed for peace of heart. Later that week I was writing a thank you card that had Romans 10:13-15 “For, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they do not believe in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? For it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!” Incase you missed it, lets look at the last verse again. “FOR IT IS WRITTEN” Say whaaaat?! That’s the same thing God told me prior that week! Immediately I felt a peace come into my heart.
Although I am very excited for the World Race I am very much focused on whats happening right now. I am headed to Houston, TX on Wednesday and to Lesvos, Greece to work at a refugee camp in a few weeks. I am so thankful that God is leading my future but I think its important to not look so far into the future that we forget about what is happening in the present. I have been so blessed with meeting so many amazing people these past few months. And Im not just talking about in YWAM. I never thought God would bless me with such great people in the way that He has.For example, while I was working at Sams I was helping a customer with a Christmas tree, we started talking and I now consider him a friend. I met another gentleman through a friend of mine who is starting a church in a pizza parlor. I was invited to go and was able to meet so many wonderful people and their children. The stories go on and on. I have been blessed with the people I have met this season.
