It was hard to believe that it had been one year since I trusted Christ as my Savior. A lot of things had changed in my life and more change was coming…
I was spending my time working, going to church and serving at my local church. I was fortunate that my pastor and my church family were gracious to me and where very open to my questions and encouraged me to truly seek God’s path for my life. I was able to take a couple Bible college courses which left me wanting to learn more about the Bible, but I really did not want to spend years in college…so I thought…
This summer our church was having a camp for our teens and we were raising funds to take us to a camp in Northern Minnesota. As many churches do, we held a rummage sale to raise funds for our kids. I donated some of my furniture from my apartment to the rummage sale as, after returning from camp, I was planning on moving back into my parent’s home to save money.
Well, the rummage sale was a huge success! The teens were all getting very excited for the 14-hour ride to Minnesota and I was looking forward to sometime away from work, working directly with our teens and getting some time to focus on the Bible for myself.
We got everything ready, and bright and early on Saturday morning, our church leaders and teens loaded up 2 passenger vans with food and camping stuff and we headed out. It was along trip, as we drove straight from Colorado to Minnesota. We tried to make if fun telling stories and singing songs but soon the kids were asleep and the adults did everything, we could to keep each other awake. We made it into Minnesota in the early evening and to our dismay we drove right into a Minnesota rain storm. The last hour of the trip was at 20-30 miles per hour with a torrential down pour…ugh!
Well, when we finally made it to the camp on Leech Lake, we were warmly welcomed and settled into our shelters. The next few days were filled with meeting new friends, memorizing verses, playing games and going to camp meetings that opened up the Word of God to the teens in a wonderful way. I saw many of our teens began to grow and wanting to learn more about what being a Christian really means. I would like to say that I remember all of the messages or the specific verses we memorized – but I can’t. Although our main focus being there was to help our teens grow spiritually…what I do remember is going to sleep at night and something saying to me. “Okay, you’re here to help our church kids – but what about you?”
My first thoughts were, “What about me? I am here for our kids. I am good where I am at…”
As the week went on with the messages and the memory work and personal devotions, I started to feel a NEED to learn more, I started thinking, “Should I go back to School?!?” Oh boy, not what I wanted. But God kept bringing to mind “you want to know more about me, don’t you?”
This would be a HUGE step – the Bible College was in Illinois – I did not know anyone in Illinois. I have never really traveled outside of Colorado except one trip when I was 7 to see family in Texas. God wants me to go all by myself? What about the expense I could not afford to keep my apartment – how am I going to pay for[CM1] college? All these thoughts where flooding through my mind. I did not tell anyone just and kept those thoughts to myself.
As camp was coming to an end one of the counselors asked me what I was planning for school. I started to give excuses… I don’t have the money…I don’t know anyone…I don’t have a place to stay…I don’t know what my family will do.
Needless to say, in a matter of hours all of my excuses where removed.
- I could work at the church to cover my tuition.
- I had spent time with other young Christians who were attending the college so I would not be alone.
- A church family in Illinois offered to let me stay with them, for free, until I could find a job and get a place.
- I knew that my Church family would be there to stand by me.
Once again, God had provided everything…How could I say no.
So off to college for ME!