Before I came on this trip, I was honestly very skeptical about my "calling," if you will, to go. I love being at sagu and I love attending to school and going to church and basically being a normal 20 year old girl. It's not really normal for someone like me to take a semester off of school to fly halfway around the world for three months and serve with a missions organization that I knew almost nothing about. Everything in me wanted to stay at school and graduate. I had my life plan all set and ready to go. But I'm not called to be normal. And God has a way of changing all the plans I make for myself.
The only thing I knew about this trip was that we would be working with an orphanage, and I wasn't even really sure about that. I applied for this trip on a complete whim, because I'm spontaneous and because I can. What can I say?
Just before I left, I was questioning myself even more. I wanted to go back to school with all my friends, but there I was, boarding an Amtrak train bound for Atlanta at 12:23AM (eagerly awaiting the news of my sister who was in labor with my first nephew at that very moment!). A week of training camp went by and it still didn't really seem real. I would be leaving the comfort of my home for three long months. Behind the scenes, though, God was working on something far bigger than I could have ever imagined.
We arrived in Manila safely after a very long 24 hours of traveling. Very jet-lagged and swollen (when you have a 14 hour plane ride, you should probs walk around or else your feet will be swollen for 4 days, FYI), we took a tour of all the branches of the ministry that we would be working with.
Let me interrupt this little tale and tell you, reader, a little background about my life. I attend Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, TX. I study Social Work, children's ministry, and Bible. I began playing music (started on violin, ended up on viola) when I was 9, and continued on and off until now. My heart is to work somehow with the foster care system and be involved in the church with children's ministry somehow as well.
Going back to the story, the ministry that we are working with is Kids International Ministries. On our first day here, we learned that we will be working with the orphanage/children's home where there are social workers to help with the cases of individual children. I also learned that we would be helping disciple the girls from the community each week. To top off this perfect cake, the ministry got a donation of a whole closet full of violins, and I am going to be teaching violin to the kids!
It's crazy to me that the plans I made for my own life are still being used, but in a completely different context than I imagined. Each aspect of my life (social work, children's ministry, Bible classes, and music) has a purpose. God didn't give me those passions for no reason. He has been working for a long time to prepare me for this trip. The Lord has finally revealed to me why I have the passions that I do. And I can't help but smile to know that God's behind the scenes work is/was so extensive and perfectly placed in his time.
(Also, don't be surprised if I never come back…….)
