Over the Hill!
200 days. 6 months. I have reached the halfway point of this journey. Last June I officially started raising support, and now that Christmas has come and gone, I have reached the top of the hill in this journey. With my planned departure date being July 18th, the next six months are going to fly by.
Not only have I gone over the hill in the amount of time I have left before I leave, but I also have gone over the hill in my support! Just before Christmas I passed the 50% mark on monthly support! I am now officially at 52% of my monthly support and 82% of my outgoing! I still need to be at 100% support before I can buy my tickets to leave on July 18th.
Who Knew?!
2014 that I realized that the door had been opened for me to return to Faith Academy this coming July. The spring was a whirlwind of applications, interviews, tests, and prayers. Summer was packed with training and the start of support-raising. This past semester was busy with teaching, speaking at churches, and sharing with friends and family. This coming semester will remain busy as I finish up the school year and seek out the rest of the team that God is building as I prepare to move to the Philippines. I have some churches lined up already for speaking, and I have a few more in the works!
Changes
As I think about this coming year, I carry such a range of emotions. I am excited about what God is leading me to do. I am excited to see Him work in my life and in the lives of so many around me. I am excited to get to see my former students in their senior year of high school. I am excited to return to the friends I made at Faith Academy.
I am also sad. After spending a week with my niece and nephew, I am acutely aware of how much I will miss not being around to play with them and watch them grow. I am going to greatly miss the game times with my family. I am going to miss my friends and students in Eagle Butte. I am going to miss snow. :)
As I have been pondering all this, God reminds me of what Jesus said in Luke 14:26-27, 33: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple…. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (emphasis mine). Above all else, I am a disciple of Christ - more than a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a teacher, a friend, or even myself. I am His to do with as He pleases. Even if that means leaving those I love. I know the rewards will be worth it. And what is more, we have hope in Christ that even if we cannot spend this whole life together on Earth, we can spend eternity together!
So, as I leave 2014 and enter 2015, I know I am leaving an old life and entering a new one. And you know what? God is there, too. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8). He is always faithful. I hope He will find me faithful, too.
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