One step closer!

With graduation officially behind me I have now entered what I am calling my “nomad” stage.  Until I leave for Peru I will be living out of a suitcase and hopping around from family member to family member.  These two months are the time I thought I would really be working to fundraise and speaking with churches in order to reach my budget.  Well, I should learn not to try and plan things out the way I expect them to happen because sometimes God likes to take those expectations and do something completely different….

Last week I received my official email that my entire budget is already raised! I have known I was very close, if not there, but all of the funds weren’t officially in my account.  Now they are! In just a matter of weeks I have raised what I thought would take months.  To say the very least, I am completely overwhelmed. So first of all I want to say thank you.  Thank you for the complete and utterly amazing outpouring of love, support and donations.

So then, seeing as I still have three churches scheduled to talk to the question hit me, “Um, what do I do now? What happens if I raise more?”  I sent out support letters not too long ago, and I still have people telling they want to join with me in the journey and make a donation. This is a question I never dreamed I would be asking myself.  I had faith that God would provide, still though such a large budget was pretty daunting. But, man did He provide!  I took it as a huge confirmation that I am doing what He wants. But now what do I do?

Well, I have been visiting with SAMS and I am able do any number of things with any extra money in my budget.  For example, I could extend my stay there if I chose to (my parents probably won’t be too keen on that option), I could use it to make a return trip to Peru again next year, or I would be able to use it in case of an emergency.  But when I heard my final option, I knew what I wanted to do…

Now for the exciting part, my final option – Anything I raise at this point I will be able to put toward a special project for the kids there in Arequipa! What that project will be I do not know yet, but I am so excited that I will have the opportunity to use the generous donations and support I have received in a way that will directly benefit these children!!

I have my flight purchased and I leave October 16.  Everything is starting to feel so real.  I just want to thank everyone once again for the support and I ask for your prayers as I prepare for this journey.  And, if you still feel led to join me and make a donation, everything from now on will go toward some type of special project for the kids!

Image of St. James' Episcopal Church in Dalhart, TX where I spoke on July 28.  I have my very first church memories from this church, and it has a very special place in my heart.

The journey here...

How did I get here?  A question I have asked myself over and over.  The answer seems pretty obvious, God led me here.  It has been a journey made up of small steps, signs, and experiences.  But when I look back and see how everything played out, it’s pretty evident that He was guiding me and directing me the entire time.

A lot of it began last year, May 2012…Someone told me the night before I left for a study abroad program in Spain that the experience was going to change me.  And it did, to say the least.  Living in another culture, seeing different parts of the world, and just getting out of my comfort zone and experiencing a whole new set of adventures was an incredible opportunity.

I remember telling my mom at one point, “I want to move abroad or get a job in another country when I graduate.”  But what the heck would I be able to do?  It seemed like a pretty unlikely dream….

Not long after, my brother, Mark, and I had a long conversation about our similar “unlikely dreams.”  We both ideally wanted to go somewhere in South America and do some type of mission work.  From there we just had to figure out how to make it happen.  School started and my classes got hectic, but I tried my best to do research and look into programs when I could.  Then one Sunday in church, a missionary came and visited with our congregation about the work she was doing in Japan.  I took this as a push from Him, and I decided it was time I started taking more deliberate actions.

I visited with my priest and contacted that missionary.  I also really started talking to my brother-in-law, Kevin, about everything.  I came close to applying with an organization that would have been a year commitment.  But when the time came I was scared. First of all, I had never gone on a mission trip, much less a 52-week mission trip!  Kevin and I both agreed it would probably be wise to get my feet wet with a short-term trip before I dove in headfirst.  I also was beginning to see my life was going in another direction.  Being gone for a year was hard to imagine, and I made the decision to hold off.

Over Christmas break, two friends told me their plans of going on a mission trip to Peru during Spring Break and mentioned that I might be able to join them.  They were going with the Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) group at Tech.  I contacted RUF's leader, Steve, and through a lot of selfless effort on his part, everything fell into place for me and I was able to join up with their group.  “Ok,” I told myself, “This trip will give me some experience with mission trips if I do end up deciding to do a longer one later on down the road.”  Later on down the road, I said.  I had just about convinced myself that my future was going in another direction.

The semester started, and shortly into it my world was turned upside down.  That future I had imagined was no longer going to happen. The mission trip to Peru came at just the right time, and as I was boarding our flight in Miami I was thinking, “This is just what I need.”

What an understatement that proved to be.  God worked in my heart that week and when I returned to Lubbock I took the idea of something longer-term off the backburner.  I felt guilty for denying something that God had obviously placed on my heart, and I set out to make it happen.

I called Kevin, we talked, and he sent me information on an Anglican organization he had learned about at a conference.  Next thing I know, I am visiting on the phone with Bridger coordinator, Lynn.  I told her everything, my available time frame, where I hoped to go, and what I hoped to do. Within the next week I was turning in my application, and three weeks later I was flying to their training program in Pennsylvania.

Everything worked out even better than I could have imagined, and it fills me with faith that I am doing exactly what He had planned.  I will be moving to Arequipa, Peru and will be there from October 2013 – July 2014.  During that time I will be working with SAMS missionary, Kym, another Texan!  I will be working in the schools and also with the local church.

Until that time I am finishing up my undergraduate degrees, and starting to fundraise and prepare for my trip.  It will be a lot of work, but I am excited to see how God will provide and what all He has in store for me.