Part 1 | [Learning to Live] A Life of Faith and [Overwhelming] evidence of God's Provision

Its been a long time since I've written a post, but I have been thinking about what to say for a few weeks now. God is continuing to challenge and grow me in my everyday life and I'm convinced that He is preparing me for future ministry (and probably life) experiences. I'm so grateful that He has put these challenges and new experiences in my way and I wanted to share them with you. So, I have a story to share with you. I'm sorry if it gets really long! 

Durring my last semester at Multnomah, last fall, I took a class called Urban Youth Ministry. To say that this class changed my life would be an understatement. It changed the way that I looked at ministry, it refined the way I thought about involvement in the body of Christ, and it expanded my heart for the world around me. In this class we had to do a project on the "Urban Problem" (as defined by ourselves). I had no idea what I was going to do because as I thought about urban ministry and world ministry, I just got more and more overwhelmed. But God had a plan...as usual. I was asked to be the photographer for one of Multnomah's outreach days. I drove around to about 8 different locations where students were serving the community. The last one I went to was Harrison Park Elementary  in SE Portland. I had no idea that this one visit was going to determine the next 8 months of my life. I was able to listen to one of the leaders of the school share about their need for people to get involved there. They have 45 home languages spoken in their school body and this presents many challenges. 

I was instantly intrigued so I decided to do more research into what the school needed from the community (specifically the Christian community). This quickly became a huge passion of mine as I found that many of the problems and challenges of the school could be helped by simply volunteering to spend time with students. I conducted interviews with teachers and people who were already involved there and it became the thing I couldn't stop talking about. All this was happening as I was/am preparing for Germany, but I never could have seen how they would tie together.

Through the project I found a growing passion to help in low income schools so that kids could have the chance to form better, long lasting relationships that will help them succeed long-term. So, in January I began volunteering at Harrison Park in their after-school program. I was thrown in with pretty much no understanding of how challenging it would be, but I began as a sub for classes and soon fell in love with the kids and the people I got to work with. One day, one of these wonderful fellow workers approached me and asked if I was still looking for a job?

As many of you know I had been praying for the PERFECT job: Part time (so that I could still do photography and keep up on the full time job of support raising), few to  no weekend hours, maybe even above minimum wage, and in the Portland area so that I could keep up with the relationships I have formed here as well as being near my church. All this seemed like to much to ask for, but I had held out with the faith that God would provide. However, as it was getting closer and closer to leaving for Germany I began to feel like I might not find a job, which would mean that God had different plans for my time. 

Anyway, so I said that I WAS still looking for a job. She explained that another school she was working at was looking for someone to "read with kids" every day and it was more than minimum wage AND it would end one week before I need to fly to Chicago for PFO (Pre-Field Orientation). I couldn't believe how perfect it sounded! Knowing that I was interested, this friend contacted the person in charge at the school and gave her my information. I got an email a week later asking for my resume. I sent that in and waited...

About two weeks after that I got an email saying that they wanted to interview me, but the district had just closed the position due to financial roadblocks. *Sigh* Ok, then God REALLY must have something else for me.

At this point I flet like I was being challenged in every area of life to just give God the control. It is so easy to find the balance of being proactive in life and making sure not to run ahead of God's plan. He really only wants us to focus on the thing directly in front of us. I have been studying the story of Joseph and how he could have lost heart (and might have at point) and then tried to get frustrated at God for where He had placed him. In this study I came across 2 Corinthians 4:1 that says "Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart." In light of this I saw that I just needed to focus on what I had been given. I had been blessed with time to love people ALL the time! I could finish up my last online class and do well. And I could wait. wait. wait. But waiting isn't meaningless or pointless. Its a time for God to prepare you and I for what is coming next. And as I would see, what was coming was so much different than what I expected.

Stay tuned for more of the story...