From May-June-July Newsletter

At the beginning of May, I was making a decision about buying a car, which I did decide to do. Since then, several pretty big things have happened. I decided where to live and what to do with my life next, got a job, and met some pretty neat people.

The day after the purchase of the '98 Dodge Neon was final, I drove to the state of Illinois. I went to a town called Flora and spent about 5 days at a conference for Impact Ministries International staff members. During the conference, there was a focus on prayer and on what was termed "Divine Delay," or in other words, learning how to wait on God or move when He says to. It was during a prayer time when I was outside alone that I realized what I wanted to do. I will go back to school at ETSU this fall and finish my degree. That way, I can be around my family, who live about 30 minutes away from the city where the college is, continue studying Japanese, and build a real relationship with my church. All of these things are things that I really wanted to do and God showed me that the best solution would be to stay in Tennessee for a while.

That decision led to a list of things to do to get ready for that. I had to apply to the degree program, address financial aid issues, find a place to live, and get a job to pay for the living space, college, my new car, and such.

God has really blessed me in all of those things. I was easily admitted to the Bachelor of General Studies program. I made my appeal to the Financial Committee on a Wednesday; they approved it on Thursday; I received a letter in the mail saying so on Friday. I was so impressed at how quickly God let it all go through. That left finding a job and a place to live in Johnson City. I applied at a bunch of places and started getting kind of discouraged because I couldn't find a job that fit the criteria I was looking for. I wanted a place that was closed on Sundays (or at least would let me off on Sundays), that was NOT a restaurant, that would start me out at above minimum wage, and that would give me full time hours in the summer and let me scale back to part time when school starts. God convinced me to go to an interview at an entertainment center that was opening up. I left the interview with a job there, at a business that fit everything I was looking for! I was so excited. Actually during the interview, one of the managers told me that it is Christian-owned and that I can talk about Christianity all I want to there. WOW. How often do you hear that?

God also really blessed me with finding a place to live. Not only did he put a roof over my head, but he gave it to me without charging me rent or utilities. I moved into the Johnson City Baptist Center a couple of weeks ago. It is a community center for the children that live in the low-income housing across the street. During the summer, we have mission teams from all over Tennessee come and do VBS and activities for them. A new team is here this week, and so, I am learning more and more about this ministry and how to work with new and varying teams of people. I am excited that God trusts me with this kind of community ministry. I pray that I will keep him at the center of everything that I am doing here.

That catches you up on everything for now. It is amazing to me what a few weeks can do to completely change my life around. I am getting adjusted to living back in the States and I am excited to see what is going to happen over the next few months as I really settle in.