the beginning of something is always the hardest in my opinion. it is so unknown, and i dont always like the unknown. but there is one thing that i do know. and that is, the Lord loves me. my whole life he has provided for me and given me all my hearts desires, and much, much more. ive been on a journey the last 4 years of developing a heart for missions and specifically africa. it has been a slow progression of simply falling in love. with a country ive never been to and people ive yet to meet. this may sound crazy, and sometimes i think i am, but i really am just listening to my heart and following the Lord as best i can.
when i started school at college of the ozarks in the spring of 2009 i had no idea what the Lord had in store for my life. this passion began my first semester at CofO when i realized that mission work was even a possibility. it just wasnt something that i had really ever considered. there was just no way that someone like me, so broken, so human, so sinful, could do any kind of work like that for the Lord. i slowly learned that those are exactly the people God calls to do his work. people like me. and people like you. imperfect people to complete His perfect plan.
over the next few semesters i met many amazing people who encouraged my desire to travel to africa and spread God's love. it slowly became not only a possibility, but a great reality and something that was heavy on my heart. i have countless stories of times when i prayed for strong direction regarding africa and the work i might do there and the Lord gave me HUGE signs that this is definitely what he has in store for my future. the first time this happened was my junior year. africa had been on my heart, like it so often is, but i felt like there was no way i could go. it seemed so much more complicated than that. so i prayed my whole drive from home(Rogersville) to school(Branson), a 45 minute drive, that the Lord show me what he wanted and tell me if africa was just a silly dream i had for myself or if he was really the one putting that desire in my heart. the next day, as i walked into the education building on campus to go to a class, i saw a poster on the front desk in the main lobby. it read "teach in africa". i immediately felt goose bumps raise on my arms and a few tears come to my eyes. i asked, and the Lord answered. as simple as that. the poster was supporting an organization that sends college graduates to africa to teach for a year. i knew this was not necessarily the organization that God wanted me to work with, but it was enough to tell me that "yes, this is a desire I have placed in your heart. keep believing. keep trying". another time of confirmation was immediately after i got back from colorado in the summer of 2011. i was in one of my first calsses of the semester and i was seriously doubting why God wanted me in school if all i was going to do was go to africa where my degree wouldnt even matter. the teacher opened class with a devotional. she began reading an excerpt from a blog of a former student. as she continued on i could tell that they were in africa. when she was done reading she told us that there is no limit to what God might have in store for us. we might be getting a degree in education to teach in a classroom in the states or maybe to move to africa and teach impoverished children and show them God's love. either way, she wanted to make sure that we werent putting God in a box. i walked up to her after class with tears in my eyes and thanked her and shared with her my plans for the future. she seemed very pleased that God had led her to share that. it was definitely a "God thing".
i have a lot more to share, but this has already become very lengthy. i hope to be posting more soon about where i am now on my adventure to africa and what the Lord is doing in my life. please be praying for guidance as i continue to follow this desire that the Lord has placed in my heart.
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