Buckle Up!!!

 

After being back in the states for a few weeks, the high from the summer’s trip started to die out.  I was so confident that God had an amazing plan and He was going to reveal it any moment so I could move forward and get the next glimpse of how He wanted to use me.  Well one week passed of unemployment, then two, and then three.  For over three weeks I had been applying for jobs all over Maryland as a teacher, a nanny, a program director, and several other random jobs working with children.  I still wasn’t quite sure which direction God wanted me to go, but I assumed that whatever door He opened for a job would be a step in the right direction.  After three weeks, I became anxious not knowing what I was supposed to be doing with my time and how I would be able to pay bills once my summer job money ran out.  Deep down I still knew that God had a plan, I was just losing hope that He was going to share it with me any time soon.  So I did what I always do when I have a hard time hearing His Voice…I retreated into His Creation.  I packed up and went up into the mountains for a few days, just me and God.

The first couple of days I spent a lot of time journaling, reading my Bible, going on hikes with God, spending time in meditation, and just enjoying and marveling at His Creation all around me.  I got to take my camera and snap glimpses of the beauty in the woods and by the lake.  There were several glorious moments spent with Jesus on this trip.  It was the last day and I still hadn’t heard God give me clear direction, but a load had been lifted and I felt refreshed and ready to face whatever was next.  I started journaling and before I knew it, God started speaking directly into my situation, He said, “Alyssa…you are going backward, I want you to go forward.”  In that moment, it clicked why I had not been able to get a job in the past few weeks.  God was purposefully closing doors because I was trying to open the wrong ones.  What supernatural peace came over me that morning and stayed with me the whole drive home.  I had found my joy yet again and was praising the name of the God Most High!!

When I came down from the mountain, there was an email with a job offer for a school in DC.  I didn’t think I was going to take it, but I went in for the interview and everything I thought I needed was offered and I was full of peace, so I took the job.  God ordained a place for me to move to in Alexandria, near a metro stop so I could easily commute into work.  I was teaching at a private preschool and had the most amazing children in my class.  I fell in love with those children quickly and greatly appreciated the opportunities I had at building relationships with my co-teachers and the parents. 

After awhile I started sensing there was something more…I was currently plugged in at a great church and rooming with an amazing young woman.  I knew God had something more for me planned.  I started looking for jobs, but nothing caught my attention.  I told myself I would pursue it more aggressively in January.  Well at the end of December, my roommate (who works at our church), asked me if I could see myself working at a church.  My whole face lit up and I said that it would be a dream job.  Apart from being on the mission field in Africa, I think working in children's ministry at a church would be my number one job pick.  I always thought I would be doing that, but had yet to be at a church where a position was available.  So here is God throwing open the biggest door ever.  I went through the interview process and the Lead Pastor offered me the job a couple weeks later.  God so clearly brought me down the path to get me in Alexandria, at DC Metro Church, and living with Julie; so I could arrive where He wanted to use me.  I have been on staff for a couple weeks and I absolutely love it.  I never thought I would be running a children’s ministry as such a large church, but I am getting amazing training and experiences I could not find anywhere else.  The entire staff is so uplifting and encouraging, it is exactly where I want to be right now!!! 

Looking back at the months that have passed since I came back from that trip to Zambia, it was all worth it.  I am so thankful that God loves us so much that when I was trying to go the wrong way, God made it impossible, so that He could take me where He knew I needed to be.  He never gives up and pursues us even when we are weak in faith.  I am excited for this next season in my life…I have no idea how it will go, but I know I will be stretched and I will grow, exactly what God wants for me!!

DC Metro is a very fast pace moving church in a culture that is ever changing…I am buckled up and ready for the ride that is to come!!!

 

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

         How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,

          they would outnumber the grains of sand.”

                   Psalm 139:13-18