Accepted!

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him." Psalm 28:7 

Today I received the email of acceptance. This means on August 25, if anybody is looking for me, I will be in Las Vegas. Currently I have been reading through the book of Acts and fallen in love with who they are. I feel as though, through YWAM, I will be experiencing the Acts church.

The Acts church is famous for their "selling of possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to met together in the temple courts. The broke bread in their homes and ate with glad and sincere hearts" (Acts 2:45,46). But there is so much more to the church than this! There was of course Stephen who prayed for those who were stoning him. There was Tabitha who "was always doing good and helping the poor" (Acts 9:36). Tabitha died and was surrounded by widows who were holding the clothing she had made. There was Barnabas who was one of the first to sell his possessions to help the Christians in Jerusalem and joined Paul in his travels; his name means "son of encouragement". There's Peter, James, Timothy, Cornelius, Apollos, Priscilla, Agrippa. It is not the church that we should be amazed at, but the people within the church who made the church so famous.

The one thing they all had in common is they were "selling the possessions and doing good and gave to anyone as he had need". Even as they were selling their things, God still provided them with the means to help others. I am finding joy as I continue to clean out my life, both of material things, time spent with electronics, and with activities that I never realized but are actually causing me much distress. Each thing I remove, I am filled a little more with God. I am able to eat with a "glad and sincere heart" without worrying about this activity or that paper. I am aligning my heart more with God's and less with the world's.

Having said this, it would appear as though I am overjoyed with being accepted to YWAM. Yes, I am! Then comes the planning. I am now trying to process everything that I need to do. 4 months. That is how much time I have until I leave. In that time, I will be fundraising around $7,000, planning for spring semester of college, finishing this semester of college, working one full time job and one part time job, preparing my heart, packing, preparing to pack, and telling others about the amazing God I serve and where He is sending me.

I will be leaving behind what I know. For the past 13 years of my life, all I know is going to school in the fall. I know about the leaves turning colors in the fall and snow in December. I know about Thanksgiving, my Birthday, Christmas and New Years Eve celebrations with my family. I know about Iowa. Where I am going, I do not know anything. I do not know about the desert or the big city. I do not know what it is like to having killings each day and the sound of sirens instead of cicada bugs in the night.

For me too be scared of doing the uncomfortable would be to forget that Jesus gave up all that was comfortable as he hung naked and bleeding for me on the cross. To be like Christ is to go where the Father leads. Christ cried out for God to take away the cup of death, but Christ also prayed for God's will to be done. I pray for God's will to be done. I am excited to drink from this cup, but I know, much like Christ, there will be days I will cry out for God to take away the cup. I, following after my role model and Savior, trust my Shepard, my Creator, my Daddy.

"And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." Acts 20:22-24