far as the East is from the West

I am a pretty traditional person. I like to follow the rules and stick within the crowd. Throughout high school, I was set on going to a 4-year college. I thought I wanted to be like everyone else & follow the “traditional” path of life. Year after year my Heavenly Father reminded me that my life was far from ordinary.

In the Summer of 2015, I attended my first mission trip to the Dominican Republic with Mission.Me’s “1 Nation 1 Day”. Here is where I learned my love for my Heavenly Father and the families & children I met that lived without Him. I saw how my Father was able to use me in the lives of the people of Dominican Republic with just a simple conversation. This experience ignited a passion inside of my heart yearning to go serve others from the East to the West with my words from Jesus.

In September of 2016 I traveled to China with my Mom to rescue my youngest sister, Rachel, from her orphanage. At only 2 years old she had grown up in an orphanage because of reasons we will never know. The day I entered the orphanage, I saw so many innocent children wanting to be rescued and loved on by a mother & father. My heart ached as I walked past the children to head to my comfortable and safe lifestyle with a loving family.

During my Senior year of high school, I so badly wanted to attend a University in the Fall of 2017. I visited many schools in the South and fell in love with Samford University. I began to pray for God to make it possible that I would be able to attend this so called “dream school” of mine. After Father gently reminded me that he had other plans for the Fall, I very hesitantly began to pursue the idea of attending Parkland Community College in my home town. When I finally decided to sign up for classes (after weeks of procrastination), I was reminded that this was not the plan my Heavenly Father had for my life. I gained renewed interest in Youth With A Mission’s “Discipleship Training School”; a 5 month program of knowing God & making him be known as far as the east is from the west.

I gave up the idea of what the world had for my life & started listening to what Father has. I was trying to fit God into my narrative instead of fitting my life into God’s narrative.