How This Mission Came to Be...

Now that school's out for the summer, I finally have time to 1)make this blog, and 2)start posting. Although I am not yet gone, I would like to take this time to show you all how everything has been falling into place, and share how God has led me up to this point.

From the moment I stepped into my new life APU, I was in awe. The beautiful surroundings, the friendly, Christian environment, the awesome professors, and my new-found friends all made me feel welcome. I couldn't step outside my dorm without feeling I was dreaming - it all seemed too good to be true. But it DID last, and I couldn't stop thanking God for allowing me to be here. That I was actually well enough to attend college full-time, and that I might actually get to have a 'normal' college experience.

A few weeks into school, there was a meeting for those interested in summer missions. Seeing as I was doing better than I had in a long time, I jumped at the opportunity, went to the meeting, scouted out locations, and picked up an application. After all, I thought, this might be the only chance I have to go on a mission, so I should go while I can. In my mind, going on this trip would be a way for me to give back to God all that he had given me.

I applied for the Uganda, Ghana, and India/Bangladesh teams, and made it to interviews, but unfortunately, didn't make it on any of the teams. Then I got a call asking if I would come in to discuss certain 'health issues'. Great, I thought. That's it, I'm finished, they won't let me go... (I KNEW my health history card didn't look so great...) I went in and explained my situation to Adam, one of the mission's coordinators, who was very understanding and helpful. He had some intestinal issues of his own (although different than mine) and agreed that the teams I had applied for weren't the best choice for me - even the healthiest of people get sick in those locations. He gave me a list of other teams that might work out better for me, along with a list of leaders names ad phone numbers. With Adam's blessing, I set out to contact each and every leader, and only two responded. China was ruled out right away, because we would be teaching English classes to college students, and I wanted to work with younger children. So I met with team Ukraine and we all thought it would be a good fit (although, I don't know if my common love for fantasy books and Sci-Fi TV shows may have influenced that decision...) My new team didn't yet know what we would be doing over there, but that didn't matter, and I ran back to the Office of World Missions to tell Adam the good news.

All things seemed set, and the week after winter break, we began sending out all our support letters. Shortly after this, my Crohn's Disease started acting up again. At this point, friends and family began questioning my decision to do Missions, saying that I wasn't well enough and that I should wait until I was doing better. Who's to say I won't get better before the trip?, I said. I believed I had enough time to recover even if I needed the surgery my doctors wanted, yet I became torn. Do I listen to everyone telling me not to go? or do I trust God will get me there? God had miraculously placed me on a team, did that mean nothing? In tears, I went back to Adam, telling him everything. Again, he encouraged me, letting me know that he had no doubt that everything I had been through so far had led up to this point, and that I belonged on the Ukraine mission's team. We prayed for healing, and it came... just not in a form I had anticipated.

I ended up needing the surgery, and much sooner that we had thought. Yet having it that much sooner gave my body the chance it needed to fully recover before our trip, and I am doing better than I have in a long time. In fact, there's a pretty amazing story that goes along after this with further healing that is too long to be included in this already longer-than-average post. To read that story in full, follow this link http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=12279754930

We now know for sure what we will be doing in Ukraine, which, oddly enough, includes teaching English to College students. The funny part is that's basically what I've been doing this entire semester for service hours, teaching English to the Spanish-speaking parents of Cerritos Kids (an after school program I did the semester before) God has already been preparing me for this trip, whether I knew it or not, and I'm in awe when I look back and see, like Adam said, how everything that's happened so far has led up to this point.