A familiar spot in the road

Twelve years ago I was preparing to graduate from high school!  How time flies!  During the fall of that year I was prayerfully considering applying to be a Sojourner, a summer missionary through the North American Mission Board.  I had heard about it the summer before while at Fuge for camp.  I was very interested from that night of camp on.  I go the information packet and read through it and considered it and really wanted to do it.  I wanted to spend my summer after graduating as a summer missionary.  You could apply for something like 3-10 weeks.  I wanted to do all 10 weeks.  I wanted to have the maximum amount of time out serving.  To me it was going to be like going to camp for 10 weeks instead of just 1.  However, I had to realize what it meant.  Not getting to spend a lot of time during the summer with my friends that I had grown up with and spent the majority of the last 13 years with before we all moved to different colleges or to different jobs.  I knew it meant not going to camp with my youth group who was very much like family for that one last time.  It meant that I had already spent my last time at a Fuge camp as a camper.  (Can you tell how important Fuge was to me?  I loved that camp and how God taught me and grew me closer to him during those weeks.)  It meant that I would spend the majority of my summer away from my family before moving off to college.  It meant that I would spend more than a week away from my family (which up to that point I don't think I had done).  It meant a lot of changes for me.  For a shy, quiet girl who loved to be at home it was going to be a big change.  But I was all for it.  I wanted to go and I wanted to serve.  I felt like this was the right thing for me to do at this time in my life.

All that I had to do was apply.  I think it too me forever to fill out that application form.  To gather the recommendation form and write out my testimony and get it in the mail.  It was a process and it wasn't easy even though I really wanted to do it.  Sending in that application form was me agreeing to consider being placed anywhere in the US or Canada for the summer away from my family and friends.  Finally though, I finished it.  I mailed it off and hoped for a placement about as far away as I could get, the Northwest.

One day, I found out that I had indeed been placed as a Sojourner.  I was going to spend 10 weeks in Longview, Washington helping a day camp at a local church.  I was so excited!  My senior trip wasn't going to be to Cancun or anything like that.  My senior trip wasn't short.  My senior trip was 10 weeks long to a town that had a bridge for squirrels!!!  I was excited but the closer it came to actually leaving the more stressed I became.  I didn't know anybody where I was going and nobody was going with me.  Thankfully, at that time my family could still accompany to my gate.  It was a crazy time in my life.  I remember having an ulcer in my esophagus because I was so stressed.  I remember getting to training and crying or days because I was so homesick.  I remember talking to my parents about wanting to come home.  But there was part of me that knew I could do it and that I could stay.  I knew that it would be okay and I would be okay.  I just needed to make it through training and get to Longview.  I had 2 partners that summer.  Krystal was at training with me and she was just as homesick as I was, she definitely considered leaving early.  Lezli-O'Neal met up with us a couple of days after we got to Longview.

That summer was one of the best of my life.  I grew up a lot!  I learned that God doesn't leave me.  I learned that I can take scary risks and survive.  I learned that I can manage being away from my home for more than a week.  I learned that I can step out in faith and follow God.  I loved the ministry that I was a part of the people I got to serve alongside.  The pastor the church Ken Bjorge and his wife Joyce were amazing to me.  They were very influential in my life and were a lot like my second parents.  They were my family in Washington.  They helped me through a difficult time as the man I considered my grandfather unexpectedly passed away that summer.  I loved my time in Washington.  I loved it so much that I went to visit the next summer and right after Christ the next year.  I also tried mightily to spend another summer out there but God had different plans for me.  God had plans for me to work with Fuge camps.  Because I knew that I could spend a summer away from family and survive, a lot more opportunities seemed opened to me.

I know for a fact that because God took me to Washington and showed me that he was with me, I was willing to listen to His call for me to move to Hong Kong, China when I graduated college.  To me it was a lot like applying for Sojourners.  I knew nobody where I was going but I was going and I would survive.  God was with me.  I had already learned that.  I signed a 2 year contract to work in Hong Kong without having been there before or knowing anyone currently over there.  It was another step of faith, another step out of my comfort zone but I had done this once before and God didn't let me fall.  I knew I could do it again.

So here I am about to graduate from graduate school and I'm in a familiar place.  I'm excited about an opportunity to teach English in Korea and I need to apply for it.  I've been excited about this opportunity for months.   I've researched it a lot and have every intention of applying.  Even though it would mean moving overseas to a place where I know nobody and that isn't close to home.  It means missing a lot of time with family.  It's a step of faith and out of my comfort zone.  But unlike with Hong Kong, I'm more like my cautious 17 year old self that was hesitant while filling out the application.  Struggling to get it all complete.  I don't know why I'm hesitant.  God has proven faithful.  He has shown me that I can take these steps and he doesn't let me fall.  He has shown me that I am not alone.

I want to take the step in faith and apply.  I want to joyfully trust God and his leading.  I want to remember the joy of my summer as a Sojourner and how God taught me he was there.  I want to remember the comfort he provided even when it was hard.  It's time trust God and apply for Korea.  So tonight I'm claiming the truths of Romans 15:13 as I prepare to apply for this job and take this step out of my comfort zone "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."