If things had gone according to my plan, I would be in grad school right now. At the beginning of March, I was accepted into the Master’s program of my dreams and was so excited to start in the Fall. 

Towards the end of March, my team had the opportunity to work with an organization called Dunamis. After only being there for two days, something changed in my heart. I felt that God was calling me to return to this ministry before I had even left. This call scared me because I didn’t know how I was supposed to come back if I was starting a two year Master’s program in the Fall. Also, part of me didn’t want to give up my grad school plans. I worked so hard through my undergraduate program so I would be accepted into my top choice for graduate school. And as surprising as it may sound, I was excited for my classes and the practical experiences I would gain from graduate school. I felt so conflicted because I felt like I had to choose between two things I loved and choosing one meant giving up the other. This lead to a lot of tears being shed and me asking for guidance from multiple members of my team, but ultimately I knew that true peace over a decision like this would only come from God. I spent hours in prayer with God and ultimately felt like He was asking me to trust in Him by postponing grad school. Grad school could always wait. 

During this time of prayer and reflection, I was reminded of a moment from worship from training camp for my trip that had happened a few months earlier. The person leading worship took the room through an exercise where he asked us to close our eyes and imagine something. This image was something that we needed to surrender to God. The image I saw during this exercise was a book which didn’t really mean much to me at that time. I hadn’t even interviewed or been accepted to grad school yet, but looking back I think that it meant that I needed to give up grad school, at least for a season. That exercise didn’t guide me to a decision, but was just further confirmation about the decision God had led me to. It helped to give me a further sense of peace about a decision I made through prayer and mediation with God. 

All of that goes to say, surprise! I’m officially going back to Ecuador in January! I will be spending 6 months volunteering with Dunamis which is an organization that provides a safe house for adolescent girls rescued from human trafficking. Dunamis provides the girls with schooling, spiritual support, psychological support, practical skills training, and so much more. During my time there, I will be working alongside the girls in the house. I am ecstatic to go back to Ecuador and will be posting more updates soon about how you can support me on this new journey!