His Plans

Alright. So now that the word is out about applying for Harvest School, I thought I would tell you what it is and why I applied. 


For those of you who don't know, Iris Ministries is a huge ministry based in Pemba Mozambique. They have bases all around the world, but their main base is in Pemba. The short story is that Heidi and Rolland Baker sold everything they had and moved to Mozambique several years ago and started rescuing children from the streets and dumps. Basically just loving them and feeding them. It started out with just a few kids, and now they have many bases all over the world and house hundreds of orphans and feed thousands of village people every week. They do many different things but their main goal is to love. Heidi's heart is to love any and everybody with the love of Jesus that He's placed in her. It's truly incredible all that the Lord has done in and through her and this amazing ministry. Thousands of healing's, miracle's, and salvation's. So beautiful. 


One of the things that Iris does is called the Harvest School of Missions. What that basically is, is people from all around the world who have a heart for missions, come and live in Pemba for about 2 and a half months and pretty much get trained up to be a missionary, while living in the mission field on base. Heidi and Rolland's desire is to see people radically transformed for Jesus and be trained up and fully equipped to go into the mission field, wherever Jesus calls us, and share the love of Jesus. One of the main goals for the students is that they will become a laid down lover for Jesus. Raising up people who take themselves completely out of the picture and say yes to Jesus and fully surrender and follow His plan. 


When I was in Mozambique last summer, I felt like God called me to go to Harvest School but I didn't know when. I thought it was for this summer, but as you can tell, that didn't happen. I now know why:)


Jesus has called me to go to Tete, Mozambique and be an intern with Nick and Marlene Boyd and their ministry, Pioneer61. I'll explain everything about that later, but I know for certain that this is what Jesus is wanting me to do. I felt like He wanted me to go around October or November of this year but I still felt like I was supposed to do the Harvest School first. But, I thought next summer was the time for me to go to Harvest School, which would mean waiting a whole year at least before I go back to Tete. 


While in Pemba in June, I asked a couple of the missionaries who live there to pray for me about timing for Harvest School cause I wanted confirmation for next summer. At the same time, they both said "well, why not come to the October Harvest School?" I said, "ummm well I think that's too soon and I think I'm taking some college courses and that's just not what I really want to do. It makes more sense to go next summer." Mrs. Amy Lancaster has been trying to get me to go to Harvest School for a long time and she kept bugging me about going to the October school too. 


On the Saturday after I got home, I was praying and asking Jesus "ok, seriously what do you want me to do? I want to go to Tete soon, but You want me to go to Harvest School first. But if I go to the October school then I would go straight to Tete. I don't want to be gone for that long! That would mean I would be gone for several months and miss all the holiday's with my family. I don't want to do this." Right after I said this, I was reading in my message bible app on my phone and the verse of the day was when Jesus was calling His disciples. He said you have to be willing to give up everything to follow me. Including your family and even yourself. 


Woah.


Literally about 5 minutes after I read this verse, Mrs. Amy sent me a text that said "Hey if you are going to do the October Harvest School, you need to get your application in cause spots are filling up quickly. I'll help in any way I can to get you in!" 


Woah again.


Um ok Jesus! You are calling me to go to Harvest School and give up my life here for a couple months and lay my life down for You, then go to Tete and put into practice all that I'll learn in Harvest School and love on Nick and Marlene's boys they are ministering to. 


This is crazy. Not what I had planned for myself. But SO many things are pointing to this and I know without a doubt that this is where Jesus is leading me at this point in my life. That's how I know it's Jesus too, because it's not my own plans. 


Another big confirmation for me was when my parents found out. I thought for sure they would freak out and thought my dad would ask about how much money and what about college. I was wrong! I was really praying that God would go ahead of me and prepare them and bring them confirmation first so that I wouldn't have to try to convince them that this is what God wants for me. The first thing my dad said wasn't about money or college, instead he said, "well, we've always trained our kids to listen to the voice of God and obey what He says!" Yay, Jesus! Both parents are fully supportive and feel this is what God wants for me right now. 


All Jesus told me to do was to say yes to Him and send my application in for the School then leave the rest up to Him. If I get in, then I know He will provide all the money and everything else, if I don't get in, then it's simply not His timing and I need to be ok with that. 


This is just an act of obedience that I am doing. He told me to do it very clearly, so I did. It wasn't easy, but I'm slowly learning to let go of myself and just say yes and trust Him.