Never Stagnant

I am finally realizing God's purpose for my life.

What I always thought was stagnant... well, God never stopped moving.

Moving in me...

I could not be any more confident or excited. I finally get His plan.

Let me digress...

For several years, I have been searching for that next step. After graduating college and beginning my career, I always felt this unexplainable emptiness inside. I was blessed with a great job, an amazing family, and wonderful friends but I never felt completely whole. For so long, I chalked it up to being in that era of my life where ALL of my friends were gettin

g married and that being a dream I longed to come true, I ached for the next step in my life to begin. God has a funny way of knowing better and it wasn't until recently that I began to fully

comprehend that he had every small detail of my life planned out long before I was even born.

So, for a while, I have been praying for God to "tell" me my next step. I looked for answers. Was I supposed to move and start my life somewhere else? Did He want me to continue my

education and go back to school for my Specialist degree? While these are things I might like to do, none of them felt right. My life is here. My life is in Memphis -- my family, my friends, my job, my church, everything. I continued to pray for God to fill my heart and, boy, did he answer. About a month ago, I was sitting in church, speaking a silent prayer about my life and the road I should follow next. I spoke a very specific prayer asking Him what His plan was for me and asking him specifically if he wanted me to go on a mission trip. (While missions have always been on my heart, I have never felt like God could use me in this field. Silly me!) As

soon as I was finished praying, our pastor began to speak about short term mission trips. I turned, grabbed my mom (she was confused), and KNEW that God had just been VERY blunt in giving me my answer.

Once I got home, I did a little research on the short term mission trips Central would be taking this year and I came across a high school friend's name. I contacted her immediately. We met the following day for coffee and it was all downhill from there. Heather, my friend, urged me to pray for where God wanted to use me but she, also, offered that time was of the essence and

that I needed to get the ball rolling if this is something I really wanted to do. For those of you who know me, you know that I am a planner and I am not very good at making on the spot decisions. However, something MUCH larger was taking place. God was moving. While I recognize that He has always been moving inside me, this was the first time I ever fully acknowledged His plan.

By Thursday of that week, I had signed up with the missions department and I had chosen a trip. Wait... God had chosen my trip... I was going to Ethiopia. By Sunday, I was a part of a team and I have not looked back. I have never felt more right about anything in my life. While

insecurities plague me, God fills me. He knows the desires of my heart better than I do and I finally realized that it was up to me to listen.

So... in a few short weeks, I will travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a team from Central Church hoping to make a difference in some of the lives of the estimated 100,000 children living in the streets. We will be working with an organization called The Forsaken Children (www.theforsakenchildren.org) that offers a future to these sweet children.

I have decided that I will now use this blog to journal my experiences before, during and after my trip. Please pray for me, my team, and the children of Addis Ababa. I will covet your prayers and I look forward to sharing my journey with you!

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:21

Up next: Getting there!