30 Years

This week I had my last group project presentation of my undergrad career. Yay! It was a good feeling to complete it, but the best thing was what I learned in that 100 minute class period. All four of the groups presenting had to cover two things and we could do it in any way that we wanted.

1. Why is Jesus a leader you would follow?
2. How did He manage His time on earth?

It was amazing to see how every group brought up different points, awesome qualities about Jesus that all describe why we love Him so much. But the one thing that stuck out to me, that put words to everything that I have been thinking about for the last 3 months of college was this: Jesus used  the 30 years before He began His ministry to learn everything He could and prepare for what the Father had in store for Him. To prepare for what the Father had in store for Him!

I am asked every day what I am going to do after I'm done at Multnomah in 10 days? My answer is a little different every time, but it always consists of spending time with my family, support raising, working, doing some kind of ministry...and all of those things are good, but there is more to it. Actually, I think there needs to be more purpose and mission to everything we do. Right now, for myself, I am looking ahead 9 month to when I embark on what God has in store for me. Not to say that what lies in between is not important, it is crucial to how I will do ministry in Germany. I am in my hypothetical 30th year and its almost time to go!

I have a million things to do, places to see, people to talk to, meetings to plan. Its going to make these 9 months go really fast. I am setting the goal for myself to not waste this time, but to learn everything I can to prepare myself for what is coming. God knows all the things I'm going to face when I get there and along the journey. He will provide some lessons ahead of time and some I will learn when I get there, but so long as I remain humble and open-handed to His leading I'll be ok. He's got me covered :)

And thats what I'm thinking about tonight. Have a good night!

-L

I'm Moving to Germany!

Hello dear friends and family,

I created this blog because I want to be able to keep you all informed and up-to-date on the adventure that God has been talking me on. A little less than a year ago I was on a trip in Nepal, doing ministry, and primarily there to work with my small group of high school girls. The whole trip I was processing (as one tends to do on mission trips) what God might have for me next. I was fairly confident that I would not be going overseas the next summer (which would be right now), but I wasn’t sure why.

At the end of the trip I was talking with one of my team leaders, Bethany, and telling her how all I wanted to do was work with high schoolers. I knew I wanted to live overseas and that I love missionary kids (MKs) and Third Culture Kids (TCKs). She thought about this for a minute and then said: “I have a friend who worked at a school in Germany as an RA.” (resident assistant) “She lived in a house with students and she loved it! I think you should look into it.” The school is called Black Forest Academy (BFA). So me, being the crazy planner and investigator, as soon as I got home from my 8 weeks overseas started researching. I will leave out all the details until a later post, but God started opening doors. It was absolutely incredible seeing how he directed me and showed me that this job as an RA could be the perfect fit for a crazy Youth Ministry major from Multnomah University who wanted to live overseas and simply love students.

To apply at BFA I had to be accepted by a sending mission agency so in January of this year I started looking for one and found TeachBeyond. They were involved in the founding of BFA and have sent many of BFA’s staff. I was accepted by them a couple months ago after a long interview process. Once I was accepted by them BFA could then move forward with their process of interviewing me. About 3 weeks ago I got the email from BFA that I had been accepted as an RA for 2013-14!

So here are the facts:

• I will be moving to Black Forest Germany to be an RA for 2 years.
• I will be leaving in little less than 14 months.
• I will be raising all of my support as a full time missionary.
• I am putting together my prayer support team and if you would like to receive prayer updates please email me larisa.w.missions@gmail.com
• I couldn’t be more excited!

I will be telling more of the story in the days ahead if you would like to follow along. I have been wanting to tell this story for so long and now that it is all official I feel like I finally can! I hope you enjoy!

-Larisa