As I sit in Northern Kentucky after a night of celebration of my best friend, Jenna, coming into this world 23 years ago, I can't resist the bittersweet feeling of the moment, the encouragement and sadness in each hug, the anticipation and timidness with each goodbye spoken.
Trying to stay as positive as possible in a very "up in the air" part of my life, it's hard not to be sad. I'm leaving behind everything I've really ever known in hopes of following where God has been pulling my heart for, in hindsight, the last four years.
When talking with some people, they think my going over to Northern Ireland is daring or crazy (which kind of go hand in hand). But they haven't had the experience that I have with the people God created in His image. They haven't woken up to the sound of waves crashing on the shore of the Irish Sea. They haven't viewed His majesty via the Mourne Mountains on the East Coast or Giant's Causeway on the North Coast. But most of all they haven't experienced the need for restoration in Northern Ireland. In a land that was at one time a Christian "hot-spot", baby's are being born in fatherless homes, young children run the streets with older siblings playing more of a parent role rather than playmates in imaginary adventures, while youth and young adults know little about their fathers and sadly, even less about their heavenly Father and His love.
A little over four years ago I began attending Cincinnati Christian University. I began, and finished, a Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies with an emphasis in Youth Ministry. At the time my desire was to work in a small church where I could be an integral part of a child's life from the time they were born up until they graduated high school, if not college and went on to married life. As unlikely as this would be, it was my desire. However, God has His own plans and sends us on detours and sends warning signs, yield signs, and other road signs reminding us that His ways are not our ways and that's a good thing. But one thing stands certain, we are to "make disciples of all nations." It doesn't say most, but ALL, and Northern Ireland is crying out for restoration.
About this time I met my friend Jenna. She had recently returned from a Senior Mission Trip to Northern Ireland and would not shut up about it (and I really didn't mind because it was fascinating). However, she once told me, "If CCU ever takes a mission team there you HAVE to go. You'd love it so much! You'll end up wanting to stay there and never come back!" This girl was for real! And quite accurate I might add, although I wasn't going to find out for another two years. However, the year in between God didn't stay silent. I needed to do a geology paper on, well, rocks. And I was coming up empty on ideas. Until Jenna began talking my ear off about her favorite place in the world that just so happened to be in Northern Ireland. It's name? Giant's Causeway. And it is spectacular! And I did my paper on it. Then the following year I was given the chance to go on a mission trip to Northern Ireland with a team from CCU. And this is where it gets interesting. While there I felt a tug like I needed to stay that turned into me wanting to stay, and provoked me to apply for an internship, which was accepted, and I spent three months that following summer loving on the unloved and getting hands on experience on the mission field where I had to rely more on God than I ever had before, and am so thankful it went down the way it did. I then came back for interviews during the Spring Break of my senior year (2010) and have been sussing out details for my return ever since. We may have our own plans, but at the end of the day (or four years) God's detours trump them all.
I don't know exactly what the future holds, but I know God is here in this moment and He will be there in that moment. God has gone before us to make a way for us through Christ and I feel it is my calling to share His story of creation, our fall, and His restoration for our lives and for our world in Northern Ireland.
Join and follow me in these Adventures In Ireland. Pray with me. Laugh with (or at) me, you choose. Cry alongside me. Hope with me. Desire the world as it ought to be with me. For in that desire comes our purpose.
After reading this blog please go read Christ's high priestly prayer in John 17. Jesus prayed for you, for me, for us. Let us bring restoration to this world and to all people, for they were made in His image.
I can't wait to see you :)
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