Five planes, four weeks, two states, two orientations, two graduate-level courses, and one TESOL certificate later, and I am happy to say that I am back in the Golden State! This past month has been an absolute whirlwind! I started off the month of June in Minneapolis, Minnesota for GoWeek and then, after spending a few days with family, I headed straight to Wheaton College for another orientation with TeachBeyond and to earn a certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Going into my month of training I had no idea what to expect. I knew that it would be a time of growth and stretching but what I didn't realize, was just how far it would stretch me. From the very start of this whole process I was warned that there would be spiritual warfare, as the enemy surely does not want to see me in Prague. However, I was not fully prepared for the amount of warfare I experienced.
The third week in June, which happened to be the week of orientation for TeachBeyond, was the most difficult week I had during this entire process. At this point I felt completely overwhelmed with all of the information I was getting. I especially felt overwhelmed with support raising. Lack of sleep and the fact that my family had to put down one of our dogs (who we had had since I was eight) did not help my emotional state. There were several points throuhgout that week where I found myself wishing that I was finished with support raising, that the whole awful, stressful process was over with. In those moments, I tried to remind myself of something they told us at GoWeek. They said that support raising is not a hurdle we have to jump over to get to our ministry. Instead, support raising is a ministry in and of itself. In the dark moments, where I cried and prayed, I tried to remember this fact but, to be honest, it was incredibly difficult to see support raising that way.
Fastforward to my last week at training. I was just finishing up my TESOL classes at Wheaton and was trying to set up as many appointments that I could so that I could hit the ground running when I got home to California. While I was still experiencing a lot of anxiety over support raising, I now felt a determination to keep going, no matter how much resistance I faced. On one particular day I made a call to a friend from college. This friend had recently moved away after getting married and I hadn't had a chance to talk to her in a while. What began as a call aimed at simply setting up a time for me to talk to her and her husband at a later date, turned into an hour and half conversation. During this time we talked more about what God was doing in our lives; our joys, our challenges. We ended up sharing our prayer requests with one another and praying right then and there. After we ended the prayer, both of us, feeling overwhelmed with emotion, began to cry. In that moment, we experienced true fellowship. I hung up the phone, immediately lifted my hands, and praised the Lord. I thanked Him for showing me how support raising could be a ministry. While I'm still experiencing anxiety over support raising, I am now more hopeful about the whole process. After such a life-giving converstaion with my friend, I can not wait to see who the Lord uses the next six weeks. I have no doubt that, on August 19th, when I board my flight to Prague, I will look back and praise God for all He has done.