During October and November of 2004, I went on a 40 day journey around the Western half of the United States looking for direction in my life. I was also scoping out other state parks to see if any of them would be interesting to work at. At the time, I was still questioning whether or not being park ranger was something I wanted and God wanted me to do. Plus, on this journey I needed to be alone with God and seek Him out in a whole new way. Well, to say the least, God really spoke to my heart about a lot of things in my life.
I had made a lot of plans for this trip, like where I wanted to go. Halfway through, my plans had changed. I found myself on the east side of Texas, just north of Corpus Christi. I had been gone so long and had driven so much that I just wanted to go home; but I had 15 more days left to go. Plus, I still wanted to visit my friend Ben in Missiouri; but I decided I just wanted to get home. So, I called my friend up and told him I would be there a week early. Well, he told me that he was not going to be there; and he said that he still wanted to see me. So, he gave me three choices. I could either wait in Texas a few more days and get to Missiouri a few days later than I was hoping. Or, I could just wait and see him when he comes home. And, finally my third choice was to come down to the ministry and stay there for as long as I needed. I had never heard of the ministry before that point or if I had, I had forgotten it. He told me he would call Ben Butler to see if it was even possible for me to come down. While he made the phone call, I prayed about what to do. I looked over my journal to see what God had been teaching me on this whole trip. Well, I felt in my heart that going down to the ministry was what God wanted me to do. I needed to take a risk with God and trust that He knew what He was doing.
So, I came down to the ministry. I stayed here a week, resting and studying God's word. Much healing in my heart happened while I was there. I also went on my very first mission trip. I went one day into Mexico. It was awesome; but also very emotional for me. God was still breaking some barriers down in my life. Through the whole time down there, I found myself falling in love with the place and the people. In a way it was very hard to leave. It took me a couple of months before I finally decided and finally realized that coming back to the ministry full-time is what God wanted me to do. Then it took another two months to raise support and finish up some last minute things. I arrived at the ministry on April 1, 2005.