WELL FOLKS, WE FREAKING DID THE DANG THING.
A few weeks ago, I shook a few hands and accepted a heckin’ expensive piece of paper, thus ending my undergrad career at Columbus College of Art & Design. I can’t quite fill this post with reflections and critic of my alma-mater (mostly because I just haven’t had the time to fully reflect just yet!) so I’ll save that good stuff for another time.
So India….what’s next?!?!
Wow thanks so much for asking that question, everyone! I love it when you approach me at family events or on the street or in my car or at the store or in my sleep and ask with ever-so-curious, slightly terrified, and definitely probably for sure with a growing tinge of urgency. It is with slight relief, great anticipation, a handful of uncertainty, and a double portion of peace, that I can answer you. “What’s next," you ask?
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I am still learning to let go.
I am still struggling to say "None of me, God. All of you."
But I have tasted and seen that the Lord indeed is good. Every time I have said “NO” He has said "YES" and had an abundant, life-altering, holy-freaking-cow moment in store. When I allow God’s YES in my life, it has always, ALWAYS, changed my story for the better.
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Can I be 45,001% honest for a second?! I never wanted to work for the Coalition for Christian Outreach. When I first heard about the CCO through my campus minister, I was hesitant and wanted to test the CCO's beliefs to that of the Bible and see if they held true. As you might imagine, they did and I loved the joy and presence of the gospel the CCO radiated. I thought of the CCO as a good force for sharing the gospel but not as anything I would really be apart of past my college days.
Flash forward to last summer: I worked in a Lead Media position at a Heartland Camps. Towards the end of my time there, I felt/was prophetically called to creative ministry.
I fought this calling and even challenged God about it. How could I be called to creative ministry? I thought I was preparing to preach the gospel to those in the Graphic Design and Advertising world? Wasn't my degree pushing me in that direction?
While I won't claim to know the full scope of God's will for my life, one thing He has made abundantly clear is my calling for creative ministry at this time (ohhh and sister sledge, I want to write a novel about God’s timing. Might come to pass. Still thinking. Stay tuned.) This revelation has come over time and (as most things happen in my life) came out of many prayerful conversations with God and deep discussions with those closest to my heart.
In a way, God started pulling me toward the CCO even when I saw myself working so far from it. He was preparing my heart even in it's most hardened state. I am excited to take part in His will – and trusting that that will is here and now with CCO.
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THAT BEING SAID…
I officially accepted a Design position with the Coalition for Christian Outreach in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is a non-profit campus ministry with a national reach aiming to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to every college student. This is also the same organization that had a chapter at CCAD that I was able to help initiate, cultivate, lead, and immerse into for the past 3 years (woooww okay God, I SEE it now, thank you).
So many exciting things come with this position:
moving to a new city
new housing
new friends
new coworkers
new church
new photography direction
new expectations
new salary (*woot woot!*)
new support-raising process for that salary (I’ll add one *woot!* here)
new timelines, new struggles, new road blocks, new home-sicknesses, new feelings of aloneness, new stages of nostalgia, new (apparently really good?) sports teams, new challenges, new new new….you get the idea.
Basically everything will be a new addition to my life
except
for
Christ.
And friends, I can’t tell you how much peace that brings my anxious heart.
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Trust is more an ongoing process, less than a final product. So here's to trusting the Lord with my everything – and the adventures that are held within that process.
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Would you consider partnering with me in the Kingdom work God has called me to? Give an anchor gift to fund my ministry: secure-q.net/Donations/CCO/16133
