In June of 2007 I went to Kenya with a group called Adventures in Missions and met a woman named Alli who spoke a lot of truth into my life and who worked for the organization. She had said something about wanting to mobilize young people to make a difference in difficult places and after spending a month in Kenya, I realized that this is what I wanted to do. So, I stayed in contact with Alli, and I went back to CMU and grew in my faith, and grew in my relationship with the Lord, and loosely stayed in contact with Alli.
One afternoon in 2008 I received a call and it was from Alli and she asked me if I was truly interested in being a part of this group of young people who wanted to share the love of God in the Hard Places of the earth. I thought about it and prayed and said yes, I believe in what God is doing and using you to do, and I want to be a part of your organization. So, I signed up to be a part of a group called The Hard Places Community, and I went out to Kansas City, MO to meet some of the team members. After a little more discussion and thought, the Lord gave me an idea to see if I could do my internship with the HPC somewhere overseas for my degree program. Now, I am not sure how many of you are familiar with the Outdoor Recreation department at CMU, but God totally gave me favor with them, and they allowed me to do my internship with this missions organization.
After a few more months of prayer and excitement about this new chapter of life, I received a call from Alli about the possibility of moving to Cambodia for the entirety of my internship which was six months. I had previously thought that I would be leading a one month trip and then be in Kansas City doing a program that the others had done, so I was really unprepared for this conversation. But, in all things God works for the good of those who believe, so, I prayed and asked the Lord to guide me in this decision. After a couple of days, I felt that the Lord had confirmed that this was what I needed to do, so I called Alli and I told her that I would love to come to Cambodia and work with the team there for my internship. She was ecstatic and got me set up to get ready to move.
This was one of the most difficult things that I have done in my entire life. I had to say goodbye to my friends, my family, and my girlfriend at the time, and it hurt me so badly. There were some times that I would hurt and I would begin to question if I had made the right decision, but God, used those times to be a way of drawing me closer to Him, and not relying on others so much. At the start of June 2009 I hopped on a plane and began my journey. I worked in Cambodia in a village where many of the children are sexually exploited by their families and it hurt me many times to see that, but through all of it, God used it to draw me closer to Him. He taught me that in pain, we must learn to seek Him, just like we do when everything is going our way.
In November of 2009, I came home and things were different, it is amazing to see how much can change in just a short 5 months. I was different too, I had seen things that I had never thought that I would see, and I had been in situations that I never thought that I would be in, and knew God in a way that I never knew I could. While I was in Cambodia I made plans to begin an internship with my college ministry when I came back and I started that in January of 2010. I moved back to Mt Pleasant to a dynamic that was strange and a little foreign to me. I was on staff, and not just a member of the congregation. It was great to have a chance to serve a church that had meant so much to me, and His House will always hold a special place in my heart and I will always have a love for the people of Mt Pleasant, but starting in August 2010, God began to stir things in my heart again. I would be in church, and I would hear a great sermon about following God with your whole heart, and I would have visions of Cambodia. I would sing a song about the love of God and He would bring images of the children that I had worked with to my mind. These were things I could not ignore, so I decided I would ask my friend and mentor Josh Chaffin to pray for me and with me about what I should do.
After a month or so of praying and seeking the Lord and His will for my life I decided that He was very clearly calling me back to the Kingdom of Cambodia. So, the next step was to talk to my mom and dad about this. I am not sure that I have ever cried in public as much as I did in making those phone calls to my parents to ask them to join me in prayer. They were not as excited as I had hoped, but they also weren't trying to tear me down, they simply cared about me and wanted (and still want) me to stay close to home. After about another month I decided that this was definitely the direction I was headed and started living with it in mind.
For the past eleven months I have been mentally preparing to make the big move. I will be moving to Cambodia January 24 and I will be there for at least the next 2 years. It is the craziest thing that I have ever done, and it is the biggest leap of faith that I have ever taken, but I have also never been more sure about anything that I have done in my entire life. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is what God has called me to do, that this is where I need to be, and this what I was made to do. If you have made it this far in this post, I thank you for taking the time to read my story. I would like to end by one last time giving praise to God. Without Him, I could do nothing, and without Him, I would not be doing what I am doing. He is the author of life and the perfecter of faith and in Him, all of our needs are met and all of the problems of life seem to just fade away. HE IS ALL WE NEED!!!! Peace and love to you all!!!
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