Last night I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep. I looked at the clock and it read 11:30 and I was still wide awake, annoying right? Then I wondered what if they ask about my journey to come on this trip to Ireland? What would I say? Then this series of events came to mind...
I grew up in a Christian home, I became a Christian at the age of 8. I went to church every week, twice a week, like most Christian families do. When I was 14 I went on my first mission trip to Memphis, Tennessee and loved every minute of it and wanted to stay there working on homes for people who couldn't afford to or who were physically unable to do it themselves. The next year my youth group wasn't able to go to Tennessee and so we served in our community, which was even more fun than going to a different state. In 10th grade I went out my comfort zone and decided to go to Alaska, not with my youth group, but with another organization called Global Expeditions. It was great and I loved it! I came away from this trip wanting to make it my career. The next mission trip I went on was my senior year. I went to Galway City, IRELAND. This changed my entire perspective on missions and made me want to do international missions. I think I scared my parents, when I came home saying I found someone to live with! So, I went back the next fall, to work with the same church Stonebriar had previously worked with and came home wanting to do International Missions in Galway. I went back for the 3rd year and for what I thought would be the last for several years and came home with the decision that God was calling me to serve in Ireland at a church-plant doing children and youth ministry.
In between this three year span, I graduated from High School and attempted to go to college...several times and to multiple schools, and every time it got to the week of class starting, everything would fall apart and I wouldn't be able to start classes. This happened for 3 semesters. Every time God closed the door to school, He opened the door to Ireland pretty wide. The 4th semester God let me have my way and I started college as a Distance Learning Student through Moody Bible Institute. I was taking 4 (8-week) classes so I could receive my financial aid and working 4 jobs to pay what the financial aid wouldn't cover, I was THAT determined to go to school. In the end I failed two of my classes and passed, (if you want to call it that) my other 2 classes with a C and D. My mom called this "God getting personal with my grades". I lost my financial aid because of my grades and I guess I have to take this as my cue to look at what doors God has opened for me and one of those is not college. College has been firmly shut and Ireland has been wide open.
In all of this how did I end up going back to Ireland? Well, my friend Lindsey came to me with a trip to Africa, which was on both of our bucket lists. We prayed about it for 4 weeks and then she went to her parents to ask them to pray about the trip and with a VERY reluctant yes (should have taken this as a hint), we signed up and started fundraising. After about a month she realized that school was starting the day after we got home. She initially thought that that was move in day. So because of this she had to back out. I then got to looking and praying about the trip and realized 1) I didn't want to fly to South Africa by myself, and 2) I was going for the wrong reasons. I then began looking into other trips because I had raised all but $300 of my trip cost and the money was non-refundable. What trip was open? Ireland of all places (I'm not complaining). I say this when explaining it quickly to people. I signed up for Africa, but God is sending me BACK to Ireland.I think that He is trying to tell me something. While all this is going on, I had two people in the same week ask me why I haven't move to Ireland. I thought I need to go to school first and clearly God has a different plan, so in the next 2-3 years I will be moving to Ireland...for at least a year!
I leave for Ireland in 3 days and will be able to visit my friends in Galway before I head to New Ross with my team from Adventures in Missions!
Yes, this was all floating in my brain at 11:30 at night and so I got up and wrote it all down. I guess I just needed to share this with everyone :-)
I grew up in a Christian home, I became a Christian at the age of 8. I went to church every week, twice a week, like most Christian families do. When I was 14 I went on my first mission trip to Memphis, Tennessee and loved every minute of it and wanted to stay there working on homes for people who couldn't afford to or who were physically unable to do it themselves. The next year my youth group wasn't able to go to Tennessee and so we served in our community, which was even more fun than going to a different state. In 10th grade I went out my comfort zone and decided to go to Alaska, not with my youth group, but with another organization called Global Expeditions. It was great and I loved it! I came away from this trip wanting to make it my career. The next mission trip I went on was my senior year. I went to Galway City, IRELAND. This changed my entire perspective on missions and made me want to do international missions. I think I scared my parents, when I came home saying I found someone to live with! So, I went back the next fall, to work with the same church Stonebriar had previously worked with and came home wanting to do International Missions in Galway. I went back for the 3rd year and for what I thought would be the last for several years and came home with the decision that God was calling me to serve in Ireland at a church-plant doing children and youth ministry.
In between this three year span, I graduated from High School and attempted to go to college...several times and to multiple schools, and every time it got to the week of class starting, everything would fall apart and I wouldn't be able to start classes. This happened for 3 semesters. Every time God closed the door to school, He opened the door to Ireland pretty wide. The 4th semester God let me have my way and I started college as a Distance Learning Student through Moody Bible Institute. I was taking 4 (8-week) classes so I could receive my financial aid and working 4 jobs to pay what the financial aid wouldn't cover, I was THAT determined to go to school. In the end I failed two of my classes and passed, (if you want to call it that) my other 2 classes with a C and D. My mom called this "God getting personal with my grades". I lost my financial aid because of my grades and I guess I have to take this as my cue to look at what doors God has opened for me and one of those is not college. College has been firmly shut and Ireland has been wide open.
In all of this how did I end up going back to Ireland? Well, my friend Lindsey came to me with a trip to Africa, which was on both of our bucket lists. We prayed about it for 4 weeks and then she went to her parents to ask them to pray about the trip and with a VERY reluctant yes (should have taken this as a hint), we signed up and started fundraising. After about a month she realized that school was starting the day after we got home. She initially thought that that was move in day. So because of this she had to back out. I then got to looking and praying about the trip and realized 1) I didn't want to fly to South Africa by myself, and 2) I was going for the wrong reasons. I then began looking into other trips because I had raised all but $300 of my trip cost and the money was non-refundable. What trip was open? Ireland of all places (I'm not complaining). I say this when explaining it quickly to people. I signed up for Africa, but God is sending me BACK to Ireland.I think that He is trying to tell me something. While all this is going on, I had two people in the same week ask me why I haven't move to Ireland. I thought I need to go to school first and clearly God has a different plan, so in the next 2-3 years I will be moving to Ireland...for at least a year!
I leave for Ireland in 3 days and will be able to visit my friends in Galway before I head to New Ross with my team from Adventures in Missions!
Yes, this was all floating in my brain at 11:30 at night and so I got up and wrote it all down. I guess I just needed to share this with everyone :-)
Beautiful story...writing is also in God's plans for you. You need to write a small book about the 4 years of travel and missions in Ireland. Call it to "To Ireland with Love".
ReplyDelete~Dad
I don't know about writing, but
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