HI! I know this is a weird way to break another year and a half of silence ... but I need this as the back story for a post I'm working on for a different blog. So here you go!
When I graduated from JBU in May 2013, four things were true:
1. I had a full summer scheduled - two weeks home and then a month in Northern Ireland with a missions team from JBU.
2. Next was an eight-week internship with Samaritan's Purse in North Carolina, doing just what I thought I wanted to do (communications for a non-profit). I wanted to do so well at the internship that I would get offered a job at the end of it, and I would be SET! Successful college graduate with a job/career in my field!!!!
3. Some missionaries from a little-known organization, called New Hope Uganda, had come and spoken at the church I attended during college, about God's heart for the fatherless, about the heart of the orphan (and that we're all spiritual orphans without Christ), and about what the organization they worked with was trying to do about it.
That was in April, and I found my heart deeply stirred by what they shared. BUT, #1 & #2 above.
4. The pastor--and his wife and family--from that same church I attended were leaving the church to go be missionaries in western Uganda.
But then real life hit:
1. I loved doing hands-on ministry work in N.Ireland. No, it wasn't always easy, but we had an amazing team from JBU that quickly became like a little family unit. And some of the kids we worked with really grabbed at my heart strings! A part of me wanted to go back and intern with the YFC couple who we had worked with. Door #1.
2. Transitioning into a totally new experience with totally new people at SP was challenging. Because of my missions trip, I arrived four weeks later than the other interns, and stayed four weeks later. SP was my first exposure to working in a "corporate" environment, and the sterility of it was galling. Yes, there were definitely amazing things! Like the daily devotions, the team I worked with, the stories I got to tell--especially in Joplin and NYC. I loved the latter because it got me outside the four walls of my cubicle, not to the point of getting my hands dirty, but at least to being able to tell the stories of those who were! I could go on, but I think you get the point ... There were times I was thoroughly confused about what I wanted, but I did apply for the job I had been filling for eight weeks towards the end of my time there. Door #2.
Door #3 in my head was to go back to my beloved Siloam Springs, AR and continue work I had started my senior year as a personal assistant for a dear gal who has cerebral palsy. She didn't have a roommate for the fall, and needed extra help.
3. & 4. In July, while I was in the midst of the entry throes at SP, I received an email newsletter from the pastor's family. They weren't going to western Uganda anymore - they were joining New Hope Uganda. And they were asking for someone to come with them and homeschool their kids while they were in NHU's training program. HUH, I thought - and there was just that nudge in my spirit. But, Doors #1, 2, and 3 above!!!
Fast forward to the middle/end of September, 2013. All of my three doors had closed. #1 - The YFC board declined an internship position in Killyleagh. #2 - I received the dreaded "I'm Sorry" phone call. I never had the courage to ask why they didn't hire me. #3 - My friend was content to be by herself in her room and knew God would bring the helpers she needed.
So there I sat, not knowing WHAT I was going to do next! I was working on applying to places like Dave Ramsey and The Jesus Film, and creating a spreadsheet (of course!) with scores of agencies and organizations. And I was waiting for Oct. 1st. Why Oct. 1st? Because that's when I expected the next newsletter from the pastor's family, and I just had a feeling ... but the last letter had said they were pursuing two potential candidates.
And then finally the letter came. They had no one lined up, and they were leaving for the field soon.
I sat on it for a week.
And then I sent a tentative email.
'Hello, remember me? I'm not qualified (no teacher training), but I'm available.'
And the reply came back - 'YES, we are interested! When can we have a phone call??'
About 10 weeks later, I was on an airplane headed to Uganda, with a family--who I knew only as passing acquaintances from four years at a church--waiting to pick me up when I got there.
Crazy? Looking back, YES, I would say so!!!
Used by God? Definitely.
Always easy? NOPE!!
Worth it? YES.
And that's the tale of how I got to Uganda :)
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