How I came to YouthWorks...

After graduating from CMU I spent the summer working in Winnipeg.  After a trip to Ecuador I felt God telling me that my time in Canada was over and it was time for me to move on to the next chapter in my life.  I didn't know what that chapter was going to be.  So I decided that teaching English over seas would be a great idea!  Little did I know... God had other plans.

I moved home at the beginning of September and took a month off just to chill and reconnect with my family and friends.  Then I started applying to seasonal jobs because I was under the impression that I would be moving to Korea for a year to teach English.

When that fell through I had no clue what I was going to do!  So I eventually applied to Mennonite Mission Network and got accepted for a 2 year stint in Colombia.  When they asked when I wanted to leave I said that I wanted to leave as soon as possible.  Unfortunately, as soon as possible was going to look something like July (this was October).  So God put back in my mind the job at YouthWorks, that I kind of forgot about.  I had applied the previous summer but wasn't able to go because of a trip to Ecuador.  So I applied to that and was accepted!

When I was first accepted I was asked to be a part of their Canadian staff, which was awesome!  I was under the impression that I would be going to Canada for quite a long time.  On April 29th YouthWorks called me and asked if I would be willing to switch positions and become a Utility Staff member in the Western US.  I assumed that this was a part of God's plan so I just said "SURE!  Why not?"

After this, I was extremely uneasy for a whole week!  I couldn't think about anything else but how I really didn't want to be a Utility Staff.  As a Utility Staff member I was going to be traveling around to different sites and filling in where I would be needed.  I was really looking forward to just being in one spot for a while.  Then!  On May 16th (one week before leaving...) I got a WONDERFUL phone call!  The lady on the other end asked me if I would be willing to go to Puerto Rico for the summer rather than being Utility Staff.  Obviously, I said yes.  I would have been crazy not to!

Finally I understood why and how everything happened.  Perfectly according to God's plan.  This definitely helped me to learn a lesson.  God is in control, not me.  If things went according to my plan, my life would be way less interesting!  God always comes through at the last minute and this experience has helped to strengthen my faith and stretch me in crazy ways!