Wow. Can I just say that real quick? Wow. I can’t believe that I’m really, truly on my way to my first international missions assignment.
Let me back up and explain who I am and why it’s so unbelievable that this is finally happening. My name is Julie. I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire and at somewhere around 6 years old, I decided I wanted to be a part of ministry. By the time I was in the 8th grade, that vague call to ministry had been clarified and solidified until I knew I wanted to be a missionary pediatric nurse. I pursued that calling in a variety of ways, including by going to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor to study nursing, and later working in Waco, Texas as an adult hospice/oncology nurse, then as a pediatric nurse. Most of my major life decisions were based around what I needed to do to become a missionary nurse. Even my college choice was based partially on that plan. When I was deciding where to go to college, I thought I would end up long-term in Africa, and as my mom said at the time, “if you can’t handle Texas, you won’t be able to handle Africa.” She was right in more ways than one (aren’t moms always?). In my time in Texas I have seen some of the most fruitful and some of the driest seasons of my life. Like Paul, I have seen plenty and I have been in want, and I’m so grateful that God has been with me through all of it.
My time in Texas has brought me some of the most amazing friendships and some of the sweetest fellowship with God that I have had in my life. And yet, even as I was settling into my career as a nurse, there was still this tug on my heart for international missions. I had searched out a few opportunities, but things weren’t “clicking” for one reason or another. I was so frustrated and discouraged. I’d been waiting and preparing for well over a decade to finally have the education and experience I needed to go long-term. Now I felt that I had that, but I was still in the States with no prospects to leave any time soon. And yet, in the midst of all that frustration, God was so gracious to me and granted me peace that I was where He had me for this season. He was chipping away and the stranglehold I had (or tried to have) on my future. As I finally began to slowly open my hands and entrust my plans/hopes/dreams to Him, He began to reveal to me His perfect plan and His perfect timing.
I saw the 2019 GoCorps placements the day they came out and found what would become my future placement, looking for a nurse to do anti-human trafficking work with young women and their children in Ecuador. I began the application process less than a week later.
Then I started freaking out. But again God was so gracious as He walked through this process with me. Looking back, I can so clearly see God’s presence, never leaving my side as I rejoiced and cried and just struggled with what God’s will for me was in all of this. I so clearly remember weeping on my couch, just crying out to God, “I don’t know what you want for me!” And I didn’t get a lightning bolt moment, where God said “go.” Instead, God slowly revealed the options ahead of me. Like a fork in a trail, I could follow the path to the left, where there was a safe, comfortable future in Waco, filled with love and laughter. And that path was good and in God’s great love He offered that to me. And I wanted that path. But then there was a path to the right, where there would be darkness and struggle and a winding, difficult path upwards, but at the end of that path, there would be wonders I beyond my imagining. I wanted so badly to choose that first path, but for a girl who grew up on Disney movies and adventure stories, there was no real choice. It was always going to be the second path.
So here I am. At GoWeek, preparing to begin my support-raising journey which will end up with me in Ecuador just a few short months from now. And I sit here in awe and wonder at God’s greatness and His goodness and at his vision for the world and for my life. I cannot even begin to picture what the next two years are going to look like. There will be times of triumph and times of struggle. There will be tears of joy and tears of pain. But as long as God is by my side, I will be content.