Hello it's me,
Sorry for the overused pop-culture reference, but it only seemed appropriate to break the ice as a first-time blogger. I am so excited to share with you how I became a Goer, and I hope that my story will encourage you in some way.
I graduated from the University of Mobile in May of 2015 with a degree in Social Science. My dream is to one day work with orphan and foster care in counseling through trauma and connecting children in care to forever families. However, The Lord keeps showing me that His plans are higher than my plans by changing them up.
I spent the last year teaching third grade at Bayshore Christian School in Fairhope, AL. While I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my sweet eight-year-olds, God began to make it very clear to me in March that He was closing the door for a second year of teaching. I was devastated and didn't understand what the Lord was doing, but I knew that He just wanted me to trust in Him. So, I began looking into all kinds of new opportunities to figure out what it was that the Lord might be leading me to do.
One day after school, I was surfing through facebook, and I saw a dear friend of mine post that she had applied for a missions opportunity with GoCorps. I had never heard of GoCorps before, so I decided to take a look at what they were about. As I clicked through the website, I got really excited about what they were doing and knew that I wanted to get involved. I quickly became interested in the Berlin teams because I fell in love with that city while I was there with the Youth Hostel Missions trip I took in 2013. One of the tracks there was called people movements, and it seemed unreal how well the skill set required for that team matched up with my own skill set. I have known since I was in middle school that I wanted to do missions someday, but I knew that most mission boards wouldn't allow people to go with debt. So when I read that GoCorps would not only let you go with student loan debt, but also provide $5000 worth of loan forgiveness, I was just amazed at how the Lord was connecting everything.
This experience has constantly reminded me of how intentional our great God is. Although I had no idea what He was doing back in March and I was honestly terrified, I can not be more thankful for the way that He has redirected my path. I know many of you may be going through seasons of uncertainty, so I pray that you will not lose faith and that you will trust that our God has not forsaken you. You will not be forgotten, you are not being "punished", you will not be in this season forever. In Proverbs 3:5-6 it says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." I encourage you to take this truth seriously. Trust Him and seek His will. He will direct you, I promise. This was a dream that I never thought I would have been able to do at this age, and now I am preparing to launch out by the end of January with all of the people shown eating pizza with me in the picture above. Our God's faithfulness knows no ends!