The Journey Ahead

From my Semester at Sea journal dated 3/29/13: “I know I’ll be coming back to this place. I could see myself living here and going to Hillsong. I love it so much!”

In three weeks, I’ll be on my way to Cape Town, South Africa, where I’ll begin a volunteer internship at the Hillsong Africa Foundation (HAF). HAF is a nonprofit organization that was started out of Hillsong Church in Cape Town in 2009. I’ll be serving as a full-time public relations and communications intern at the Foundation for at least six months. You can look at their website here.

I visited Cape Town for about a week in spring 2013 when I studied abroad through Semester at Sea. Near the end of the week, I made a last-minute decision to attend a Good Friday service at Hillsong Church along with several friends. Although I have attended church since I was young, there were many areas of my faith that I had been struggling with for a long time. The pastor at Hillsong, Phil Dooley, spoke the message of the gospel in a way that connected with me on a deep and personal level it hadn’t before. I accepted Christ into my life that morning and made the decision to follow Him.

I definitely left part of my heart in Cape Town, and when my graduation from Washburn this past December began quickly approaching, I started looking for ways that I might be able to return. I originally had planned to do three months of teaching in Cape Town followed by another three months of volunteer work at an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, through the program IVHQ. I wanted to travel, have a chance to make a difference, and spend some time back in Cape Town. This sounded like a great opportunity to do all of those things. I thought I had it all figured out. But for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t quite right.   

After a lot of thought and prayer, it soon became clear that God had a very different plan. When I saw a post in my Semester at Sea Facebook group later that week about an internship placement organization in Cape Town, called Epiventure, I decided to reach out to them. Long story short, the founder of Epiventure and her husband both attend Hillsong and also work at HAF. They told me that they’ve been looking for someone with my interests and skills for a long time and soon offered me the internship. 

Everyone’s journey with God is different. For some reason, mine led me to Cape Town and Hillsong and is leading me back again. Perhaps sometime within the next six months, I’ll find out why. 

I’ll be using this blog to share stories of experiences I have, ways I see God at work, what I’m doing at my job, and other thoughts and reflections I have along the way.   

Those of you that know me well know that I tend to be a bit of a worrier and over-thinker. Along with that generally comes a need to try and plan out every aspect of my life. I’m not always good with the ‘unknowns,’ and I’m still facing a lot of those as I think about what lies ahead in the next six months and beyond. Trusting in God’s timing and plans enough to let go of those unknowns is something I’m constantly working on. 

I would appreciate prayers for spiritual and personal growth, safety, the people I’ll meet and relationships that will be formed, and that my heart and mind would be fully open to the ways that God wants to use me to further His Kingdom.

After working around multiple miss communications, jumping through various loopholes and worrying it wouldn't get here on time, my visa very unexpectedly arrived in the mail earlier this week!! I can’t wait to for this adventure to begin! It truly is amazing how all of it has come together. When I really stop to think about it, although the ‘unknown’ can be scary, it is also part of what makes this upcoming journey so exciting. I am incredibly blessed and thankful to have this opportunity and want to thank all of you for your support, prayers, and words of encouragement. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. - Proverbs 3:5-6