The Pre-Journey Journey

Hello, dear friends. I am about to tell the long tale of our journey so far. I will give you an option, though. The quick version, or the detailed.


Short story: No Bangladesh. Now Belize.


Long story: Several years ago I decided that I wanted to be a student missionary. To take a year out of college to go help people. I didn't know where, and I didn't know what I wanted to be doing. As the time approached, specifically last October, I decided that I wanted to work with children. Preferably at an orphanage. So I started looking into it.

The search began one evening after vespers while I was looking over the many booths set up to represent the different calls available. I looked over several when one caught my eye. A student was working it who seemed very familiar, and I realized that I had met her a couple months ago at a community service project. Her name was Lisa McMillan. She was very friendly and told me all about the things at her booth. Things that showed her time spent in a small, but very populated country called Bangladesh. I hadn't heard much of it before, but I was very intrigued. It seemed to match exactly what I wanted to do in my time of serving. It was an opportunity to work at an orphanage with children ranging in ages from infancy to about 10 years old. You would live on a campus with the children and actually help teach some of their classes. But the main thing she said that caught my attention was that what the kids really needed was to be loved. I was set! This was the exact thing I was looking for!

Around this time, two other young women were also eager to volunteer as missionaries, specifically to an orphanage. These ladies were Lisa McMillan's roommate, Kenzie Thompson, and my dear friend from high school, Rachael Coon. Kenzie heard Lisa talk about Bangladesh and how wonderful it was, and was very excited to go there. Rachael had heard about a missionary experience in Bangladesh while she was in the fourth grade and had wanted to be a missionary there ever since. When we all found out who was interested in going, we were ecstatic. It seemed to be the perfect group! We all got along very well, and we all had a deep passion and excitement for the call that we were ready to fill. We each applied and after much anticipation, we were all accepted! We parted ways at the end of the school year and began to prepare for our time as missionaries.

We began to run into a spot of trouble when we tried to apply for Bangladeshi visas in the fall. The visas were issued to us, but they were not the kind that we needed. Our plans were to stay until early April of 2013, but these visas expired in December. This meant that we would have to travel to another country to renew it, which is somewhat dangerous. Another stumbling block were the riots that were breaking out in the muslim community. Some of which were in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. This brought us to a fork in the roads where Rachael's family and mine decided to cancel our trip and send us elsewhere, and Kenzie continued on (and I am happy to say is doing just fine there).

Rachael and I were devastated, and very confused. It seemed that God had this all lined up perfectly, and yet, it had not worked out. We were very down hearted as we turned back to square one, trying to find another option available for us to go on very quickly. Yet during this time of searching God blessed me by opening up an opportunity to volunteer at our local Adventist school. I was able to work with an amazing teacher, and new friend, Kallie Adams. I went to the school just about every day and helped teach the younger students' lessons, watched and learned from Kallie as she taught, and of course was involved in every recess. It was a fantastic experience that I truly treasure. During this time I also found out that I would be able to use my ticket that was previously for Bangladesh, to go to Thailand on a WWU short term mission trip in August! It was amazing how God blessed me and gave me hope, just when I needed it.

So we continued to look at many different places, including Yap, Fiji, Thailand, Romania, Russia, Tanzania, Bolivia, Honduras, Iceland, finally stopping at Rwanda. This call looked promising, with an orphanage for us to help at and in a safe location. We were accepted within a couple days and began preparing. We waited a month to hear the final ok, but when we did hear from them, it was not an acceptance that we received. They declined us, informing us that it was not safe there at that time and that we wouldn't quite fit the role that we were looking for. Rachael and I were exasperated. We knew that we had felt the call to go help, and we were so ready and willing. Yet every door that seemed open to us kept shutting. We didn't know what to do, but had hope that God would provide us with the perfect place.

We started back at the beginning. We found two more options. One in Borneo, teaching in a school, and one in Belize, helping at an orphanage called The King's Children's Home. I looked into Borneo, as a professor from college had invited us and my eighth grade teacher would be heading there in January, and Rachael looked into Belize. We were accepted to Belize about an hour after we applied. We found out that we could leave January 3. We also learned about the orphanage itself. About how there is one woman taking care of about 75 children. This is what we needed to hear. We decided on Belize and had our tickets purchased.
(Here is a link to the orphanage's website: http://www.kingschildrenshome.org )


So here we are now, leaving in about three days, not really knowing what awaits us, yet we anticipate it with great excitement! We learned that we will be helping the older kids by tutoring them in their studies, and I believe that we will be watching over the younger ones. All we really know is that we will be helping wherever we can!

I am really excited about this opportunity, although I am very surprised by it. When deciding where we wanted to go, Rachael and I first crossed South America off the list, and yet that is exactly where God is leading us. I find it very curious, and almost somewhat comical. How we think a way to be exactly what we want or what is best, and yet God has another plan completely different than our own. Surpassing our plans in every area and detail possible.

I would be lying if I wrote this saying that I am not disappointed at all, or completely sure of everything, because I most definitely am not. I am disappointed that Rachael, Kenzie, and I could not all go to Bangladesh and serve there together. I am not sure why God had us go different places, or that it was even His idea in the first place. I don't know why we go where we do, but I do know that God will lead us wherever we are, and in any situation we find ourselves in. And that through all this, He will bless us if we will but follow where He leads.