and yet...

It's been one month since I informed those of you who read my blog about what God is doing in my life. What a month it has been. I realised the other day that it's only been about 45-50 days since I made the decision to listen to God and go become a children's pastor. There has been so much prayer and reading my bible and researching into becoming a children's pastor... its been a crazy time. When I wasn't first accepted into Kings, I was furious. In all directions... including at God. But I slowly started to realize that if I wasn't willing to follow God in all areas of my life... then what did my faith mean? If I wasn't willing to follow God, then my faith meant nothing to me and it didnt matter what I was going to do... That scared me. I always believed that my faith was good enough to get me through... but when it came down to it... how much did I believe? Was I willing to risk everything I had ever worked for to follow God and live out my life in his plan. The answer is YES. I am willing to risk everything and follow God into ministry. It scares me that I will be going into ministry and getting my masters... It was nothing I was ever going to do. But then, God has been working his path into my life the last few years and preparing me for ministry.
As I have had time to look back at the last few years... events that seemed really random make sense and would have landed me in a far different path than where I am today.
The big one... is taking this year off. When I decided to take this year off to work and volunteer with my church... it was just to relax my brain after 4 long years of university... I wanted to give myself some time to relax and to figure out what I wanted in life. Until my last year, I never wanted to take a year off. Even starting my last year, I was going to go straight into Education. During september, I decided I needed a year. It was about that time that I decided to go into missions. During my year off, I was going to go to Kenya and work there for 8 months. That was going to be my year off. Get out of this country and work with the africans... It was all set to go. I was accepted to go with African Inland Missions (AIM) and had all my paperwork in order. All I needed to do was get my imunisations and pass their medical (which entailed my home doctor filling out paperwork and faxing it to them). I got a call one day telling me that I was next on the list for an assignment in Kenya... things were really looking up!! I was getting so excited to go and making lists of everthing I would have to do before going. Then I got an e-mail from AIM's doctor telling me that due to my medical history, he was not going to clear me to go. (For those who don't know, I have Hashimoto's Hypothyroidism. It's a disease I will have to live with for the rest of my life). I really struggled with not going... my year off seemed kind of pointless but I did it anyways... It was still the best decision I could have made.
So things started happening and we come to after I had made the decision to go to Ambrose. (If you missed this part of the story... scroll down about 2-3 posts). I finally applied on May 18 in the morning before work. Put my application in and then went to work. That day, I worked 1-8 and by the time I got home and had had supper, it was after nine. Less than 12 hours after I had applied to Ambrose and decided that enough was enough and I needed to stop thinking about applying and just go for it... I got into King's. I got into the Education program I had originally applied for... before the whirlwind started. At this point... I was confused and flustered... I was totally thrown back and was shocked. I got into the program that I wanted. O.K... but now what? I think that it was ironic that I got into King's LESS THAN 12 hours AFTER I applied to Ambrose... I feel that God is asking me if I am really going to follow him or go after what I want. "Here is what you want. You were faithful to me in applying to Ambrose...I am giving you an out. Are you going to take it or are you going to follow me into the unknown? Are you still willing to follow me when your dream is right in front of you or are you going to get scared and go this path."
Don't get me wrong... I'm scared. I thought I had my life all planned out (at least a general path of where I wanted to go) but now, God is leading me in another direction and it scares me because I don't know where it leads. I'm stepping out in faith and learning to rely on God for everything I need. Only He knows my next step and is only showing me what I can handle. It's scary, but yet, exciting. God is Amazing!

Oh those kids...

I tell ya, those kids I work with are definitely interesting. They ask the strangest questions... and I'm not always sure how to answer them. They were sitting at dinner and the conversation turned to how many kids were at the program last week. The girls were all in this conversation and kept at me for a while...
Last nights conversation went as follows...

Me: I had seven kids there.
A: You have seven kids?!?!?! Really? Can they come?
Me: At the program we had seven kids... I personally don't have kids.
A: But why don't you have kids?
Me: Because I'm not married...
A: But why not?
Me: Because I'm not dating anyone...
A: Why not?
Me: Because I'm still single...
A: But you are old and should be married and have kids of your own...

Oh the kids I work with... The phrase "why not" is the worst question to get... it made this conversation very interesting...

Oh, those wonderful students...

So this month, I am teaching preschool for one of our teachers. She's on vacation. So I get the privilege of teaching her students. For the most part, I really enjoy teaching her students... they are great kids... and I can't complain about the teaching part.
So this afternoon, I had a full class. One of the students just turned 3 and is newer to the program. He came up to me and told me today that he thought I was nice. awwww.... i know... i feel special! He then came up again a bit later and asked:
"are you a girl?"
"ummm... yes i am..."
(random things like that are to be expected when teaching preschoolers) he then proceeded to go back and do a floor activity. a little while later he comes back and tells me that:
"all girls wear glasses."
"ummm.... but what about me? I'm a girl, and I don't wear glasses...."
"oh........."
"and what about the other 2 girls in the class? They don't wear glasses either..."
"oh................"
he then went back to the floor. Gotta love 3 year old's logic... :)