I love to plan. It makes me feel organized and in control. But I’m not the one in control. God is. When my world came crashing down last fall (ok...slightly dramatic there), I realized how much I had planned myself instead of relying on God’s plans. That realization turned into my “year of no plans” (or attempting to…)
On December 31st, I wrote and asked God to start to open doors for a possible trip. In the middle of January I wrote about my year of no plans and said “It is a really odd feeling for me to walk around not having plans for where this year will go. I could continue to do exactly what I am now, I could get a different job, or I could even end up in Africa. Only God knows. My job is to be obedient to Him each day and trust in Him and His plans.” Well, He delivered :)
This past weekend was my last Sunday at Apostles, the church I have called home since November. During communion I broke down because of how specifically God has answered prayers and shown me a plan that not even I could have imagined over the past 10 months. There were so many weeks where instead I broke down during communion, not knowing what God was doing in my life and why things were the way they were. It was surreal to see that come full circle. So...how did Africa happen?
I have no gifting in the medical department, I’m not a teacher, and I don’t have strong muscles for manual labor. Those 3 things are typically what trips involve. As I was in the process of praying about a trip, some things about UTST began to show up on my facebook feed. One of my friends is on their board and there were stories of people who were getting ready to go on a trip. Since they were leaving on a trip, it wasn’t until March that I was able to connect and learn more about what they did. Once I got to know more, I knew this was an organization that I wanted to be involved with due to the way they were fighting poverty with economic empowerment, so I began to help out with some minor finance items here in the states.
They were planning another trip this summer, which I kept as an option in the back of my head, knowing that I was going to start looking for a new job. The beginning of my job search was going slow (all God’s plan), and when I didn’t have anything by the end of May, I had to say no to going on the trip, which was originally scheduled for July. The job I was on in July at EY was a year-end and I knew I couldn’t leave that close to the start of it. So that put my earliest date that I felt comfortable leaving to August 1st. I was really sad, because this was a trip I wanted to go on. However, one of my friends continued to pray for it to happen and for God to open doors. I knew that nothing would change in my situation at EY, so I rolled my eyes a little at her prayers (proof of my struggle trusting God with every little thing).
What I did not realize is that God was working to change the actual dates of the trip (which wasn’t even something that had crossed my mind...shows you how much better and higher His ways and thoughts are than ours!). Everything in my job search process, from the lengthy time it took them to initially call me after I had applied (I was convinced they thought I wasn’t qualified), to delaying it another week so I could visit Nashville, to another week delay due to vacation, brought the timing of my job offer to perfectly align to take the month of August off. The question now was would they allow me to push back my start date to just a month before their year end (9/30). Thankfully, I am going to a Christian company that encourages these kinds of trips and will match my vacation days if I take them for a mission trip in the future. Once I got the green light from them, it was go time! Praise God for His planning that is beyond me.
Many of you have asked specifically what we’ll be doing, so here is a quick summary :)
Uganda: We’ll be working in a rural community.
- Land was recently purchased to start building a school, so we will help to begin to clear the land so a temporary structure can be built.
- 9 women have just finished the UTST training program to receive their business loans within the next few weeks. We will meet with them to go over their business plans and help them to work through their first steps.
-UTST has around 20 kids who are all orphans that they help to sponsor their secondary education. We will check in with all of them.
Kenya: We'll be working in the slums in Nairobi.
- 12 people are currently in the UTST program that have their loans and are running their businesses. We will check in with each of them and help out in whatever way needed with their plans.
- UTST is also hoping to partner with an orphanage in Kenya to support orphans once they get to the age of needing secondary education. We are planning to visit an orphanage or two to help begin a relationship for this.
That’s a lot of people to meet and see in a short amount of time, but I know God has it all planned out! I’m looking forward to building relationships and getting to spend days with people learning what their life is like and the challenges they face. It’s almost time! My chacos got delivered yesterday (yes, I’m joining the club!) and I’m ready to go. 5 days!!!
P.S...some of you have asked how you can be praying. First, please be praying for the people we will be working with and our interactions with them. Additionally, if you could pray for safe and healthy travels for our team, that would be much appreciated!
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