My Ticket Is Roundtrip

With only four more weeks of teaching left in the school year my thoughts are leaning more towards my boarding date of June 7th. This is the day I leave for the Dominican Republic to work as summer staff for Students International. My summer ends when I return home on August 7th just one week before the 2010-2011 school year starts.

It all began with one of many moments of desperation in prayer to God. I was standing outside my home on Greenwood Ave. looking down the street feeling lost when I prayed, "Lord I've lost my wife. I don't want to lose this house but if you want it you can have it. And, if you want my job you can have that too. I'm yours and you can do what you want with me." Then after several months it progressed to, "Lord I've lost my wife and my house. And, if you want my job you can have that too. I'm yours and you can do what you want with me." Fast forward a few more months and it changed to, "Lord I've lost my wife and my house. And, if you want my job you can have that too. I believe you are preparing me for some type of ministry. So take my job. I want to serve you full time."

Last year I went to Guatemala with Students International on a 9 day trip for a preview of spending the summer there. Although I didn't understand at the time, God changed my summer plans to spend it with my family in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. I then toured a large part of the U.S. in my 97' Camry taking me across to Illinois where I attended a conference at Wheaton College. I drove south to Louisiana, west through Texas and then northwest back up to California. I saw and experienced many great sights and sounds of our country and greatly valued the time away from everything happening back home. I ended my log book at the Beacon in Reedley having traveled a total of 8,088.8 miles. I marveled at the odds of my mileage being potentially changed by any small distance of 1/10 of a mile in any direction. Then I pulled up to my rental house at 12:08 a.m. to further wonder if I should buy a lottery ticket and select all numbers with eights! Well I did not, but later someone told me that biblically the number 8 was associated with new beginnings. I looked it up and sure enough, people who follow this sort of thing had it all backed up with verses explaining the association. So I thanked God for my summer and the numbers on my odometer for reminding me that He is a God of new beginnings and I can trust Him for my life.

I have enjoyed being a school teacher for the past 14 years. I have spent 13 of those in Selma and have really come to love the community and my job. Really, I could not ask for a better assignment or a more supportive family of coworkers at Abraham Lincoln Middle School. But none the less, my heart has been changing towards my life's desires. Although the state of California has perhaps made it a little easier lately, I believe God has been changing my heart. I desire to go into full time missions. I have been praying about this now for many months. How does one go about changing professions? I've never done it before and don't know how it works especially when the other job does not have a pay scale. Ask yourself what it would take to quit your job and go be a missionary totally dependent on God to provide the finances. Not only that but how do you go about becoming a full time missionary? Who would want me? After all, I don't have a degree from Fresno Pacific or the seminary. What do I have to offer?

I decided that I would try to be proactive and find ways to generate income that could support me from anywhere in the world. If I could do this I would just quit my job and go where God led me. I invested in a couple directions. It didn't prove to be what I had hoped and lost the investment but that didn't matter to me. I was moving forward and praying for God's direction. Then I decided to invest in building an online store. This has turned out to be my best option to date but is a work in progress. I know God values relationship and may want me to be more dependent on others for financial support in a more traditional model of ministry. So I continue to pray and seek Him regarding a great many things including the web site.

Meanwhile I have received an invitation from Students International to come serve as summer staff in the Dominican Republic. I see this as an opportunity to grow and seek God for direction and feel His leading. There are a great many answers I am seeking and feel that I am on a need to know basis and right now don't need to know most of them. Some things are logically appearing as time unfolds. For others I am praying expectantly for God to direct and answer this summer. So for the past several months I have been living on a shoestring budget now that I have to also pay for two months in the D.R.. I am working hard and trusting God that these finances will come together in time.

As for the future? I have signed my teaching contract for next year and wait expectantly for God to direct. I once heard someone say that if you want to give God a good laugh tell Him what you plan to do tomorrow. If God has called me to remain a teacher in the states then that is what I will do. Although at this point that would be hard for me to accept. Ultimately I am hoping and praying for God to open doors and direct me into full time ministry. I don't know what that looks like, but He does. He loves me more than I could ever imagine and I know He has my best interest in mind. How I serve in His kingdom is up to Him. He is sovereign and i will follow.