On the way to where you're going

(In Israel at an overlook of Bethlehem and one of Herod's palaces.) I originally began this blog three years ago as I embarked on a journey to Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. God provided for me in so many ways. He gave me a church family who still loves me to this day, awesome mentors who still pray for me, friendships that I still have and that will last throughout my life and ministry, my first missions trip, a taste of adventure, a heart for missions, a love of travel and a desire for deeper knowledge of Him. I have been truly blessed. It's hard to believe it has been a year since I graduated from Southeastern (May 5, 2011). It was one of those things you work at for so long that you never really think about how it will feel when it actually comes. In the year following that culmination of scholarship in Lakeland, I have gone to Finland, Hungary and Romania (the afore mentioned missions trip) the day after graduation, actually. I also visited in Oklahoma for a month in the Tulsa area. There I found a completely new set of support. I found Vision-A Prophetic Gathering, Pastor Don and Pastor Kay-who really took me under her mentoring wing and allowed me to help with a district women's event, too cool! I also found yet another "second family." I have been blessed with more second family than anyone should be. Its as close to heaven as I can imagine. I then had time to spend several weeks at home praying about what the next step would be. That's when I became a preschool teacher. We are two weeks (13 days, but who's counting) away from summer and the kids have learned SO much before my very eyes. I love them and really will miss them. In that time I have learned where God didn't want me to go next and I have wrestled with Him at my own Peniel. I have come away with a deeper understanding of who He is and who He is to me. I wouldn't trade those forgone ministry opportunities because it allowed the Holy Spirit to minister to me. Within the last two months I have also become the youth pastor at The River, a foursquare church my uncle senior pastors. I believe this is an apostle role, really. I am restarting it with God's help and the help of the remnant there. I even believe I know who will be raised up to take my place when the time comes. It's pretty exciting and confirms what I have felt for two years. I am a preacher, not a pastor. I could be a pastor but my heart is to plant or water and then move on. I don't know why I'm wired that way but I know that God uses that gift too and that it'll be revealed as time goes by. I have also been accepted in to Assemblies of God Theological Seminary's Master of Divinity program. I have decided to concentrate my studies on Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies. I'd like to go on to get my Doctorate and teach at the college level as well as do pentecostal research at some point. I'm excited about that new adventure. I'm not in a church in the mountains, I'm not globe trotting. I'm living with Mom and Dad and getting to know my aunt, uncle and cousins better before my next adventure, while youth pastoring for the first time. To me, that sounds like a journey within the journey. But then again, life itself is a journey.