How I ended up going to South Africa

Here it is, my first entry in my blog about South Africa. I thought it best to start by explaining my journey and how I got to this point, a few days away from leaving on the longest trip of my life.

I discovered missions on a whim. I was in 9th grade and attending the youth group at my church, Grace Chapel. Every summer they sent out youth mission teams to a few different locales. That year I did not think about applying for one, it just did not enter my head. Eventually they make a announcement saying they need more applicants and I applied. Nothing dramatic, I did not have a vision of God or anything like that, but this decision began my interest in missions.

The summer of 2000 I went on my first short-term trip to Romania. It was awesome and I was hooked. The next summer I went on another short trip to Haiti. I used this trip as a way to gauge if missions were for me. In retrospect, using one 2-week experience to decide on something as big as my affinity for missions but probably not wise, but it worked out. Haiti was a dramatic and incredible experience. For probably the only time in my life I really felt God flowing through me while I was there doing work and having devotions each night. I came home from that trip fully dedicated to the idea of doing missions as only an idealistic young high-schooler can be.

The next summer I did not go on a trip but was a CIT at my camp which was a great experience. The summer of 2003 after I graduated from high school I went on my last trip with Grace to Trinidad. It was an equally successful and awesome experience.
When I returned and prepared to attend college at Wheaton in MA, my mom mentioned the Urbana missions conference was that December. I had no idea what Urbana was about but it sounded good so I registered.

Urbana was absolutely amazing. Put on and hosted by Intervarsity it brings together over 20,000 college students to attend talks, seminars and to network with various mission groups. It totally pumped me up about missions, but I had 3 more years of school left.

3 years later as a incoming senior majoring in history I realized finding a job after graduation was an important goal. Conveniently, another Urbana (it only happens every 3 years) was happening in December of 2006. I decided I needed to go again. I planned to network a ton and thats exactly what I did. I talked to lots of groups, gave out my information and got much info myself. It was a really great time. ThriveAfrica was not at Urbana.

After Urbana I began to process and decided to apply to a number of organizations. One was to teach in Europe and I was accepted, but the dates did not work as I wanted so I declined. My second major application was with FRONTIERS, a ministry that focuses on reaching Muslims. I applied for a 7-month minimum team experience doing ministry in Northern Iraq with Kurdish people. The application process was delayed and long and because of various things I had decided that if I was accepted I was going to be headed for Iraq.

Now I know that sounds crazy and even now I cannot really explain why I considered going to Iraq so seriously, but basically it came down to this: God put the opportunity in front of me and if I was not willing to go who would be? However, in the end God had other plans for me.

Last easter I showed my older sister the Missionmaker magazine I received for attending Urbana and she saw an ad for the ThriveAfrica internship. She told me, "you should apply for this. You like Africa right?"
I did not want to apply for another Christian opportunity. I was almost graduated and very busy and another long application was not appealing to me. I realized my sister was right though and requested an application. It took me almost a month but I sent it in last May about a week before I graduated.

As FRONTIERS delayed and I sent in the Thrive application I decided if I was accepted, South Africa would be my destination, not Iraq. In late June I was accepted. I was headed toward South Africa!

Two weeks before I was accepted I headed down to work at my Christian camp for the Summer. In the first week there I met the first two South Africans ever in my life. A brother and sister, I became good friends with both and now look forward to seeing each of them in just about a week.


God has led me in each step to this point. He has given me great church support, an amazing Christian family and ample opportunity to grow and learn so that I now feel completely ready and at peace about going overseas.
This was a really long first entry and I promise others won't go on like this, but I thought laying out how God led me to this point was a great way to start this one-year adventure in serving God.

Thank you for reading and thank you even more for your support and prayer. God Bless and Happy New Year!