The Waiting is Over

 

Change. I’ve known it was coming for a while. I just didn’t know when. Since I was a little girl, I’ve always had my eye on the horizon looking to the future, dreaming of faraway places and great adventure. I never wanted to wait for anything. As I’ve grown up and my travels and adventures have come to life, I also understand the difficulties of the reality on constant travel and change. 

 

I have lived in Georgia for 2 ½ years now. I haven’t enjoyed every minute, but I have grown to love it here more than I had ever imagined. When my plane touches down in Atlanta, I am coming home. I have been asked to do things that I felt completely inadequate to accomplish and I have learned that I am more capable than I thought. I needed this time here to learn, grow, and be stretched more than any other time in my life. I am so grateful for it.

I moved to Georgia in 2013 for initially 4 months. I thought I would learn what I needed to and then take off to a long term mission base somewhere and live there for a while and save the world. I had wanted to be in long term missions for a while, but the time never seem right. I thought when I went on the World Race, I would step off the plane in some country and it would hit me that this is the place I would spend the rest of my life. It didn’t happen that way.

I had many things I needed to learn and many people I needed to meet first.

Last spring was a really hard time for me and I wanted to run away from my life. I began seeking opportunities overseas and looking into our long term bases. But I still wasn’t ready. God helped me see one day, as I broke down in my friend’s office, that I  didn’t want to leave this place because it was hard. I wanted to leave when I was moving on to something better. I fought through forgiveness and grace and it took nearly a year before I heard the Lord whisper that my time in Georgia was coming to a close.

I visited our long term base in Granada, Nicaragua this past September. I have been praying about this particular base for almost a year because it seemed to be the best fit for me. At first I felt completely useless without a team and constant ministry. It was hot, it was familiar and at the end of an exhausting summer. The romance of overseas travel and adventure was completely gone…it was normal life. It was not a mission to be accomplished. This was me and Jesus and His people in Nicaragua. Coming home I thought it would be easy to make the decision to move. Things in my life were good, I didn’t necessarily want to leave anymore, but there was a tug that God had something more. I had learned what I needed to here and He had more for me in Nicaragua.

So, I have made the decision to move as a long term missionary to Granada, Nicaragua. I will be there until I feel the Father calling me to whatever is next, but I have decided to stop searching the horizon and be in Nicaragua, be fully present for what God has for me there. It was not a simple, clean, or pretty process like I had always thought it would be. It was filled with tears, pain, and uncertainty but I wouldn’t change any of it. It has prepared me for what is next and I learned so much in the waiting. I would not change who it has made me to be.

 

I will be transitioning out of my job in the Adventures in Missions office the second week of April. I will begin intercultural training April 17 and then in June I will begin language school in Guatemala. After 3 months of language school, I will transition to the long term base in Nicaragua as an Adventures in Missions long term missionary under Scott and Jenn Esposito. Their ministry REAP Granada encompasses bibles studies, sports ministry, prison ministry, agriculture, and children’s ministry to name a few.

I have many emotions about this transition, but I am excited to begin this next chapter and be a part of this amazing ministry. Please check out the website http://reapgranada.com/ to see the ways the God is moving there.

 

SUPPORT

I would be honored if you would partner with me on this journey! I am in need of $800 more in monthly support before I can leave for Nicaragua. You can donate online through the “support me” link on this page to make a monthly donation.

If you would like to contribute to my Spanish school, I will need about $4,000 to attend the Christian Spanish Academy in Guatemala. To donate please send a check written in my name to 2712 Sawyer Mill Drive, Gainesville GA 30507.

 I am already fully funded for intercultural training and have 50% of my monthly support raised! I am surrounded by the best people and I am excited to go though this together!