As I begin to put my first thoughts down for my journey to Zambia, I can’t help but reflect on this season of my life and how intricately the Lord has navigated the path for me to arrive at this blog post. In order for you to fully understand how my fingers landed on this keyboard writing this post for you, I would like to try to take the small puzzle pieces and make sense of them to showcase the Lord’s faithfulness in placing them together. My mission to Zambia has taught me so much about the Lord’s character already and I am only on blog post number one. I will never fully understand the Lord’s reasoning behind every moment, but I know one thing for sure and it’s that the character of God is good and so much better than mine. If my faith remains in him, he will set the path beneath my feet.
Walking into my sophomore year of college I was on cloud 9. Coming back to college friends, a familiar school, a new house with all of my friends living a grand total of five feet away. It was awesome. This was going to be the best semester yet. And in a lot of ways it was. But in a lot of ways I was quickly humbled reminded of where I needed to find my joy. I came into college as a fashion major and knew since my senior year of high school that I wanted to spend a part of my college career studying abroad. So first semester of sophomore year I focused a lot of my time looking into programs. I came across a program for summer 2020 in London that would give me a seven week education along with a seven week internship. It was perfect. I had it all planned and figured out. Flash forward to the end of my first semester, and holy cow God reminded me very quickly that I was not in control. Friendships, relationships, positions, and situations that I thought I had complete grips on seemed to crumple fast and I was lost with no direction it felt like. I came to God confused and went to my community looking for answers. When no one had the answer I came up more and more frustrated. A good friend of mine was quick to lead me to scripture that reminded me of some truth that I had very obviously forgotten. Trust.
Psalm 17:5 says, “My steps have held fast to your paths my feet have not slipped.” Exhausted from trying to pave my own path, I began to pray that the Lord would do this for me. A few weeks later I had changed my major and my study abroad that I had been planning was no longer relevant for my class credits. Things were changing and they were changing fast. Thankfully, I was resting in the truth that the Lord was paving my path so even when I was uncomfortable with the changes, I had truths that made me content.
I came home for winter break and broke the news to my parents that I had changed my major and that all of my summer plans had changed. I had no clue what I was going to do this summer. In the week to come I had to go Christmas shopping and I ran into one of my friends moms who had done The World Race gap year. I began talking to her and my heart fluttered at the thought. I went home and started researching possible trips I could go on. Zambia was the first one I found that worked with my summer schedule. I instantly began the application process. A month later I was accepted.
I will never be 100% certain of why we go through the things we do or why we are placed in specific circumstances. In this thought there is beauty because this is where God teaches his children. I had forgotten what it looked like to trust God with the direction of my life, and now I am reminded daily. God is working constantly but selfishly we forget to look and give thanks and ask. I am so expectant to see how God will use this trip for the people of Zambia and for the hearts of the missionaries. Join me in prayer as we embark on this journey. God is working always.
