A Little Background to Set You Up

I’M GOING TO BRAZIL!

Long story short… Well shorter at least.

For a couple years now, I’ve had missions on the heart. It started in high school when I wanted to go to Guatemala for a couple weeks to work with some family friends. That trip didn’t happen because my father didn’t have a peace about it. I didn’t want to listen to that. But as a father, he was called to protect when he could. And as a child, I was called to honor him and his leadership.

During my first year at Georgia Southern University, I was a declared Child Life and Spanish double major. I loved the idea of being a Child Life Specialist, but it wasn’t an idea that gave me peace. I was restless about it. I didn’t want to think about changing majors or careers because of prideful reasons mainly. However, after prayer and talking with close friends and family, I felt it was time for me to change my Child Life major to a Business major, with the goal of opening my own orphanage in a Spanish speaking country one day.

This was different. I went from a clear plan that would take me into a fairly predictable career process to a calling to long-term missions that brought along no clear plan. As someone who liked control and knowing what was happening tomorrow, next week, next year, I didn’t care to think about not knowing what I would be doing when I graduated college.

Jump to the spring of my second year… I wasn’t paying attention in one of my classes at Georgia Military College and managed to find an organization called Outreach360. Man, Google is an awesome thing! J I decided right then and there I wanted to spend a month in Nicaragua teaching little kids to read. I didn’t consult my parents about it. I figured I could prepare a good enough proposal and there was no way they could say no. I definitely didn’t pray about this. I registered for the trip, started thinking about how I could raise money to go. Then God stepped in and handed me a good dose of life. Things happened, and I reluctantly made the decision not to go to Nicaragua.

I worked through the summer, and time came for me to get ready to go back to GSU. I didn’t feel good about that. I was kind-of dreading it actually. No one really knew that; I was supposed to be excited about going back to school. I packed my stuff up and was prepared to move in to my house in Statesboro on August 10^th and start school on the 12^th. The Thursday before, I went to see Kristy Griffin and just hangout. She could tell that I wasn’t pumped about it. We ended up spending hours and hours talking about me doing missions and school and my future. She managed to get me to agree to talk to my parents about all this. Something that I was really dreading because of the (unnecessary) fear of failing and disappointing them. 

When they got home late that night (Bless their hearts, they just had to drop my brother off at Valdosta State.), the three of us sat down on the couch, and I just laid it out there. I didn’t want to move the next day. I wanted to drop out of school and go into missions. They took it very well and managed to give me amazing advice. They honored my heart for missions, and weren’t brushing it aside. However, I didn’t have a plan. I needed a plan. We (Emphasis on the “we” part. This was a team effort.) were going to take it one step at a time, or rather, one semester at a time. If I found something that sparked my interest, I just had to bring it to them, and we would discuss it.

So moving day. THAT has a story of its own. (Ask me about it sometime if you need a good giggle.) Turns out, school didn’t start the 12^th. Rather it started the 19^th. I had a full week to relax and pray about my future. God knew I needed that week if I didn’t want to loathe my time at Southern.

(Now we’re getting to the meat of the story about missions in Brazil;

 can you believe that was just the prologue?)

Moving on to the first Wednesday of school… The Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCM) has luncheon, a home cooked meal for TWO BUCKS, for the students on Wednesdays. (This also serves as a mission’s fundraiser.) The campus minister, Dr. Jerry, shared with us about a mission opportunity in Brazil during spring semester. I literally gasped. I called my mom right after luncheon and told her what I knew about Brazil (which, at that point, was very little, and slightly incorrect). I told her I wasn’t applying for it, just praying about applying for it. I then called my father and gave him the same information. Both parents said they would pray as well. This was something different. Never did we all three pray about me just considering a trip. A week or two goes by, and I let them know that I felt called to apply. Both Dad and G were supportive and said they’d continue to pray.

The application process wasn’t necessarily difficult. Just answer some questions. However, I felt SO unqualified for this trip as I applied for it. I was inadequate for the position. When I hit “send” on my application, I broke into tears and expressed all of my doubt to my (awesome) roommate. She told me that if God wanted me in Brazil, He would use that doubt to bring His name glory. If I weren’t meant to go to Brazil, He would also give me a peace about the answer “no”. So now I was waiting for a “yes” or “no”.

Dr. Jerry blew up my phone (I was taking a nap J) on the day of decision. He informed me that the two positions for Brazil were filled (cue disappointment), however, they were pulling strings to send me there (shift to excitement)!

So here I am, a DAY

before leaving to Brazil for five months. Mom and Dad have an unbelievable peace about this trip. They haven’t questioned the distance or length of this trip one bit. God has definitely done a work in the three of us during this process. We have taken a new approach to my field of missions. We started with prayer. I can honestly say that made a WORLD of a difference.

I’m going to be working with Chris and Melody Julian who are planting a church in Sao Leopoldo of college students. Our mission is essentially to make friends. People in Brazil, Sao Leopoldo in particular, shy off when it comes to the church. They get freaked out and shut down. It’s not like the South where there is a Bible in every house, Christian residents or not. It’s going to become difficult when I want to throw out “Sunday School” words and those students don’t understand. I have to develop a friendship that will provide an opening for the Gospel. 

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..."

Matthew 28:19