Lord you let me experience
your picture of heaven and the world! You showed me a glimpse of what is ahead.
Lord, prepare me and help me to yield to your preparation. Lord, show me what I
need to know for now, show me the next step. India, WOW!

Anything is possible with
God!

India? India!

This is from a journal I
wrote four years ago. It was the during summer between high school and college. I was
at Big Stuf, a retreat similar to the Passion conferences but for high school
students. I had recently
bought the Caedmon's Call album Share The Well, which was inspired by their trip
to Ecuador and India. I have always been interested in Indian culture but now it enraptured me. I am a part of a church where missions
and diversity is a huge focus, but it had never struck me so deeply as it did then. At Big
Stuf, during one of the many deep worship sessions I was overcome with a huge
compassion for the people in India and was compelled to do something. I simply had to go.
I was blown away at how  profoundly and clearly I had heard from God. It was a little out-of-the-blue. I was not looking for an adventure, college
was going to be an adventure enough, but I could not ignore what God had told me. I had to somehow get to India to touch these people who were
living in darkness.

Since that summer God has
not let me forget this calling. It has been so cool to see how faithfully God
reminded me about my focus and calling. God has used many things to remind me, things like stories on
the news that suddenly bring me to tears, receiving letters from the little boy
I now sponsor in India, and the encouragement of dear friends. One really crazy thing
that God used to help me not forget is bringing me a new friend. One day last
December, at an event with my college ministry I was introduced to a girl who
had just gotten back from India just a few days before. She was randomly in my
city for just three weeks on her way home and just happened to show up at one
of our events. It was so wonderful to get to know her. She was so full of excitement
about what God was doing in India, and helped to rekindle the excitement in me.
We still keep in touch. She still goes back and forth to India, working with a Christian
school that is being built there.          

During these four years I
have seen God answer my prayer of "when, where, and what." He told me to go after
I graduate, for three months, with a state-side organization. The rest of the details he did not lay out so clearly. I believe that this trip is an answer to my prayers and am so very excited to see what God is going to do.