The Layoff continued...

Well, I continued praying about my decision but at last I knew what I was going to do. For the past few years several of my close friends had gone out with an organization called YWAM, Youth With A Mission. All of them had stories of how God had changed their lives through leaving what they knew behind and following God to a foreign country. I had researched YWAM a bit and saw that their values closely reflected my own. The more I thought about it the more excited I became.

There were of course those safe, reseasonable voices in my head that told me what I wanted to do wasn't as good as staying at home, finding some secure job and continue on my way to affording a home and settling down. "Don't do anything risky, or foolish like wasting money and time, when you could be out there finding yourself a job or getting your Master's degree." But those voices didn't affect me long.

"Since when has God called us to be safe?" I asked. "And why would God choose to lay me off now from my job? "There's a sepcific reason why he did this", I thought. "And what was this feeling, this desire in my heart, this longing to seek God beyond the horizon." I realized then that this had to do much more than going on a little trip somewhere. This had to do with the priority of my heart. What was going to have a higher place in my life - my plans for success, of a home, a education, of a bigger salary or was it my quest to know God and to radically seek him?

I looked through a YWAM magazine I had taken from a missions conference and browsed through all the places I could go to. Finally, that night I made my decision. I was going with YWAM. I could not think of anything better than to go through a 3-month period in another country that I would use to study and come closer to God and another 3-month period following where I would be challenged to share my faith everyday and to serve him 24-7.

After looking in the magazine for several days and after speaking with some friends of mine I decided to go to Perth Australia. Why Perth? Why Australia? YWAM is everywhere. You can be overwhelmed with the possibilities of where to go. If I wanted to stay in the States I could, in fact there is a YWAM station in both San Diego and in LA. But I realized that part of this challenge was being out of my element, far away from what was familiar. YWAM recommends that you go to a station in a country that you've may have always wanted to visit, so I picked Australia.

Two weeks ago I bought my plane tickets and I've sent in my application.