Welcome to my blog about my spiritual journey towards a life of mission work. My journey began in December of 2016. I prayed a prayer after reading Jennie Allen’s book Anything. “Lord, I’ll do anything.” At least that’s what my heart desired. But I actually prayed, “Lord, I want to be able to say I’ll do anything but if you asked me to walk away from my job with nothing else lined up… I just don’t think I could do that”. You see, security was my stronghold. I liked knowing that I could provide for myself. Take care of the necessities, with a few extras thrown in. Don’t challenge God. Over the past 18 months, He has shown me that I could walk away from security and fully trust Him to provide. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (food and clothes) will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matt. 6:33-34). In James 4:14-15, James admonishes us with “You do not know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. You ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that,”. So, I have been willingly seeking His plan, praying “Lord, I will do anything” – and what an amazing and thrilling journey it has become.
I’m sure you are wondering where the title “Rainbows and Otter Pelt” comes from. Early on in my journey, I related to the story of Joshua and the Israelites when they were crossing the Jordan River into the promised land. As they were preparing to cross, God directed the Israelites to keep the ark of the covenant carried by the priest sein their sight “Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.” (Joshua 3:4). I had never been in a position like this before. So I kept my eyes on God, seeking His direction. I asked for firmly closed doors and giant neon arrows to direct my path as I discerned where He was leading. When I would question if I was interpreting His direction correctly, I would ask for a sign. I saw more rainbows last summer than I have ever seen in any other given timeframe. Once, I saw rainbows two days in a row! Hence, the rainbow part of the title.
God had led me to return to school to pursue training as a pharmacy technician, with the end goal of being qualified to travel on international medical missions. The weekend before I began school, I was questioning if I was doing the correct thing. It just didn’t make sense – at least in the world’s eyes it didn’t. A friend of mine, who was a coworker at my previous job, sent me an Otter Pelt that I had always admired hanging on his office wall. It arrived the Saturday before I started school with an encouraging note that commented on the joy I expressed in following God’s direction in my life. In the story of the Israelites entering the promised land, God directed each tribe to pick up a stone from the middle of the Jordan River, while the waters were parted, and erect them on the other side as memorial stones to commemorate what God had done for them that day. The Otter Pelt is my first “memorial stone” commemorating what God is doing in my life. He has been so gracious to me. I have already been to Guatemala this year where I helped build a house for a young family. I have 2 more mission trips arranged for this summer, Colombia in July and Ukraine in August. Each of these are medical missions and I will be working in the pharmacy. I invite you to follow along in this blog on my journeys of how God is using me to spread His gospel throughout the world.
Rainbows and Otter Pelt 