How I got here and where I am going...

Just six months ago, I was working as a registered nurse in a local ICU down in Long Beach, California. I had just finished a very intense nursing school and graduated August 2009.  I was under a contract to work at a hospital that had helped fund my schooling. They had given me money for two years and my end of the deal was to work for their facility for two years after graduation.

How exactly did I go all they way from working as an ICU nurse to becoming a missionary within just six months? It has been a process....let me tell you!

It turns out that God had very different plans for me. Through a series of sudden events, I quit my job in Long Beach after working there for only nine months, completely debt free. I moved back to my hometown in Grass Valley last September, expecting to look for a job as soon as I got home.

It was not long after that when I prayed to God about what he wanted me to do-I felt him saying, "Pursue! Pursue SOMETHING whole-heartedly" ...not exactly very specific instructions.

So I looked online for jobs...believing God simply wanted me to chase after SOMETHING. After much contemplation and conversing with God, I quickly realized the emphasis wasn't on the "something part". It was actually on the "whole-heartedly part". I felt God tugging  me to pursue a dream He had planted inside me when I was about 12 years old-missionary work. I am now 23 years old and am about to see this ambition of mine become a reality.

About a  month earlier, shortly before I moved back home, my younger brother Ben had mentioned YWAM (youth with a mission) and how all the cards had been set out before me. I had some money set aside and there were no obligations tying me down at the time. After a lot of prayer and listening, God confirmed over and over that I needed to sign up for YWAM Mazatlan.

In order to reach such a decision, God has really needed to work on several heart issues of mine. I see three specific themes he has been teaching me. The first is humility-I had to allow him to break me down and smash those areas of my life that were inhibiting Him from moving. God was molding my heart, but it took a lot of surrendering. Once I consciously told God to take all of me and do what he wanted, he started asking for all the idols in my life. One of those idols was my nursing career-I had reached a place where I had a lot of pride in my job. God wanted to melt that out of me...and he did! I have seen God take idol after idol since then as I handed them over to Him. It kind of seems like the idols are getting bigger. That being said, I am finding it easier to hand each one over to him as they come along....it can be very scary at times because I don't know what God is doing most of the time. I simply have to step out and trust him...which brings me to the last theme-faith! I can see how God is strengthening my faith as a result of giving up those things that take his place in my life. And as I do, he showers me with way more then I expected!

In two and a half days, I am about to embark on a life-changing adventure. My plane is going to arrive in Mazatlan, Mexico around 2 p.m. on January ninth. Some very intense training will then follow starting January tenth for the next three months. I feel waves of excitement rushing over me as the clock ticks, moving ever so closely to the count down....more adventures will follow shortly. I will post more shortly after I arrive, I promise!