"Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." ~ Joshua 1:9 (ESV)
God gave me this verse tonight in my prayer time. As I was praying for the strength to stand against homesickness, illnesses, culture shock, stress overload, and so many more emotions I fear that I'll face over these next few months, He reminded me that He will be there with me every step of the way. He was with me before my move from my hometown; He has clearly been with me, working in my life in my new city and school; He will be with me as I stay and serve His people in Uganda.
God has strengthened my relationship with Him more than ever before over the last year. He has proved to me the personal level of Jeremiah 29:11; that He has a plan for my life, He is all powerful and has ultimate control. I may not understand the direction that He is leading me at first, but everything He does has a purpose leading to the beautiful revealing of His glory.
A few months ago, I was offered an internship to work at an orphanage in Uganda. A few months extension to my two week trip, I was overjoyed at the thought of such an exciting, new adventure. Despite the yearning to look more into this opportunity that had arisen, I was still ever-waiting on an answer from the education of my heart's calling, Moody Bible Institute. At that time, I asked God to make things clear to me. My entreaty was that if I was accepted into Moody, I could know for sure that that is where God wanted me during the next year(s) of my life. However, if God had plans for me in Uganda for the following year, I prayed that He would deny my application to MBI.
God answered my prayer more clearly and breathtakingly than I could ever think up on my own. While in class on an average school day, I received news that my mother had come to school, bringing the envelope that had come from Moody in the mail that morning. Sitting on the hallway steps with my mother to my left and the envelope in my hands, I had no idea what to expect or how I'd react. Opening the letter and skimming the page for the sentence that would reveal my future, I was dealt a decision that I didn't know existed. I have been accepted into Moody's 1+3 Program; a relatively new system in which my first year of classes will be taken online, and the following three will be guaranteed at the Chicago campus. While other applicants with this same, unexpected outcome, may have been at first a bit disappointed, I could only think of one thing, "I CAN DO BOTH!"
Clutching to my mother with my weak knees and tears streaming down my face, my joyful heart kept repeating that one, beautiful thing, "I can do both!"
Two crazy, busy months later, I am about to embark on a mission trip that will most definitely change me forever. I pray that God will teach me more that I ever thought possible. I pray that He will strengthen me as a person, give me faith like no other, and make me into a person so full of Him that I radiate Him all about me. I pray that this time serving in an orphanage will teach me so much about life, and make me into a woman of God that will someday make a wonderful, Godly wife and mother.
I am now a high school graduate. Magna Cum Laude with a proud 3.93 GPA. I have my life ahead of me and no understanding of where I'm going, but I know that God knows His plan. "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" I know that He is with me wherever I go, helping me to face a God-hating world, 3 months in a third world country, and doing it all without indoor plumbing.
I know that I cannot do this on my own... Thank God that I have Him to be always with me, wherever I go. He is always there; I have nothing to fear.
Joshua 1:9
Thank you Jesus.<3
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