Greater Things Have Yet To Come

Five days.  Five days until I embark on a journey.  Five days until I start a summer that will forever shape the rest of my life.  Five days until I leave for Haiti.  I could not be more excited.  I have been dreaming of this internship since I returned from my last trip to Haiti two years ago.  I was sitting in history class when I received the email saying I had been accepted.  My professor and classmates probably thought I was crazy because I could not stop crying.  What an amazing opportunity my God has given me.

God has really been both working on my heart and preparing me for this trip this year.  My previous two trips to Haiti have indescribably changed me, and I have felt that change continue specifically this year.  I have felt God’s call to one day work internationally; however, I do not know exactly what that entails.  My Philosophy final this semester was a research paper about what our future plans are.  In the course of writing this paper, I came across a verse in Proverbs that says, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps” (Proverbs 16:9).  God has been establishing my steps, and I have no doubt that this trip is one of those steps.

God has been preparing me for this trip from little ways, like living in a dorm with no air conditioning, to big ways, like financially making it possible for me to go.  He also gave me the opportunity to go on a week long mission trip to Arlington, Texas during spring break.  Considering Texas is in the United States, I did not expect to receive assurance about my international call on my trip, but I was wrong.  At our second vacation bible school site, I became really close with four little boys.  I gave piggyback rides, colored pictures, made salvation bracelets, and played soccer all week with these boys.  I was blessed and challenged by these boys.  All four boys were from Africa.  In an area that consisted of children mainly from the United States, I connected with boys from Africa.  For me, this was God’s way of showing me He has a plan for my life, and it is in fact international.  There was another moment where God showed his almighty power to me.  I wrote about it in a reflective essay after my trip.

           

We were at worship one day, and we were singing the song “God of This City” by Chris Tomlin.  The song goes, “for greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.”  The guy leading worship had us change this city to my city.  As we were singing this, Georgetown, Kentucky was not the city that I first thought of, nor was my hometown.  Saint-Louis-Du-Nord, Haiti was the city that was on my heart and became my prayer during this song.  God used this song to show me that He has greater plans for me than I could ever imagine.  This summer I will be spending eleven weeks in Saint-Louis-Du-Nord, and this short trip to Texas has prepared me in so many ways for this longer trip to Haiti.  I am ready and excited to see the great things that God will do in this city, in my city, this summer and in the future.  I am so thankful that I went to Texas, but I am even more thankful for God showing me a piece of His calling for my life during this spring break.

My trip to Texas was a blessing as it was a step God had laid out for me.  I know that this Haiti trip is the next step in His plan.  I ask for your prayers in the next five days as I prepare for my trip, and throughout the next eleven weeks as I seek God’s will for my life.