Alright, so this is how I have gotten to where I am right now. It by no means has been an easy and miraculous road, but Jesus certainly never promised us results like that when following Him. In fact He told us things are going to be really hard when we follow Him. Why do we then? We know Him, and so that leaves us no other choice once we can say that. There is nothing but to follow Him.
I grew up in a church, Delta Pentecostal Tabernacle, and I had my times of rebellion when I started drinking and doing lots of stupid things, but God has always been working in my life and led me back into relationship with Him, and now church isn't something I endure anymore, but a relationship with God is something I thirst for. But anyways, I started really helping out with youth group at my church, and getting really involved. I was on the youth council, and later on I became a youth leader. All the while I was messing up don't forget, doing stupid things that only really hurt me, well and other people as well. People shouldn't date until they're 25, seriously... or at least more mature than I was. But nobody's perfect, everyone makes mistakes, even christians who help out at youth group; sometimes they mess up the worst.
I knew for a long time that God had a plan for me, and that I was supposst to work with kids and youth. So naturally my first response was to go to WPBC (Western Pentecostal Bible College) to become a youth pastor. However my parents certainly didn't have the money to pay for me to do this, as the prices are a bit steep, so I had to rely on the governement to back me up financially. Now as many have found about B.C. Governement, it's not wholly trustworthy. My student loans got turned down several times and I had to leave school.
Kind of lost and depressed, I drifted through life working warehouse jobs for almost a year, until one night when I was helping out as a leader with my youth group back at Delta, we went to this church thing out in Coquitlam. I was in this service and this girl was talking up at the front, and I felt very strongly God telling me that I'm going to go take Omega (a course at WPBC, now called Summit Pacific College), and then I'm going to Rwanda. I was kind of stunned, as these were two things that I had never considered doing. I certainly had never considered taking Omega, and my heart is for youth and kids in Canada, never really thought about going overseas much. So I went back into praying and felt God say it again. So I stopped for a minute, then just simply said 'alright God, whatever you want me to do, I will do it. But if this is truly what you want me to do, then please confirm it. Show me somehow that this is really from you, and not from me.'
A few months later, I got to go see my dad, whom i get to see about twice a year. These things I feel God said to me I hadn't communicated to anyone, but kept to myself, though I had started becoming a bit more comfortable with the idea. I sat down for lunch with my dad, and I got us onto the topic of pour countries in Africa. Immediantely, my dad started talking about Rwanda and this book He's reading called Shake Hands With The Devil: The Failure Of Humanity In Rwanda by Romeo Dallaire. He told me all about it and we got into a deep discussion about Rwanda and the genocide of 1994. I knew that this was God confirming for me through my dad that He really had spoken to me and this really was where He wanted me to go. I'm now reading that book, and it's incredible.
I soon after got a good job Neptune Foods where I was soon making near $14 an hour, and then stocks my dad had from an old company he used to work for from which he had given me 25 thousand shares worked out to be about $5000. When time came to go to college again, I didn't need help from the governement as I had in hand about $9,500 out of the $10,300 that I needed for the program, which was more expensive than the program I had done when I had first gone to the school by about $800.
I have need some help from family after christmas break, but God has brought it all together and provided for me amazingly, and I continuously thank Him for all He does for me daily, and that He has chosen me to do such an incredible thing like go to Rwanda to show love to all those who I meet, remembering the love that God has consistantly shown me throughout my life. Now I am almost into February in my year in Omega, where as I only made it halfway through November last time. I now have the best relationship with God I've ever had, and things are awesome. In a couple months I'll be going to the Czech Republic for three weeks, then I come home and get to work on the next step. This is my story briefly thus far, just the beginning of incredible things that God is going to do in my life. Praise the Lord! |
