Thank you for all those reading this right now. You might be family, a close friend, an old friend, someone from my church, or maybe I don't know you at all. Whoever you may be I am very blessed to have you reading my blog.
It's a struggle for me to think of something to write about, especially since I'm not the only one going to be looking at this. After a few hours of thinking of different topics, God has been nudging me to share my story. If you read my first blog you know I am leaving in January to do missions in Australia, but what most people don't know is that the passion for doing missions started a long time ago...and is crazy how everything has pieced together since then.
My story starts in a small Evangelical church in a tiny Minnesota town.
As a kid, my pastor used to pose different challenges to our church congregation. We would be encouraged to memorize different bible verses, or read a series of books in a certain amount of time.
One of these challenges was to read these books about missionaries around the world and thier stories.
I absolutely loved these books. These people had a real heart for God and were willing to give up their lives to tell people the gospel. Slowly I felt the ever deeper want to be one of these people, to go out into the world and share the message of Jesus Christ to everyone. I decided to keep this to myslef, being only 12 years old and wanting to go and do missions around the world...I felt no one would take me seriously.
Then later that year I was in church listening to a young girl a few years older than me talking about wanting to go be a missionary in Thailand. This amazed me, for someone so young she knew what God was calling her to and she wasn't afraid to share that with others. Soon after we were great friends, making plans to go do missions half way across the world. But time went on and missions slipped to the back of my mind, but that all changed in 2008 when I went to my first youth conference called Challenge.
so·journ:
1. to stay for a time in a place
2. live temporarily
Every year Challenge had a different theme, 2008's theme was being a sojourner in what seems like a permanent world. If you've been to Challenge you know that you can't leave unchanged, it's just not possible! Meeting with thousands of other believers and worshiping the one true God altogether in one place is truly remarkable. This one youth convention (but ultimately God) completely changed who I was and how I was living my life.
There's so much I could say about this conference...but I don't think you want to be reading for hours and hours, so instead I'll share with you a little something I found in my notes from the conference. Note that I was only a freshman in high school...please excuse the cheesiness.
"At challenge I was in my hotel room alone...and I was just thinking about all of these speakers and singers I've heard so far this week and how gifted they are.
So in my hotel room I was just feeling so down and somewhat sad because I felt like I was worthless...and just could not understand how a God that made everything and can do anything could love someone like me. Then I don't know why but I went into the bathroom and just told God that I loved him more than Michael Jordan.
I've really been wondering if I should be a graphic designer or a missionary in Thailand, so I was asking God if He could show me which path to take.
Then it was time to go to the evening rally. I remember for some reason they started talking about Michael Jordan and that you should love God more than him (talking about not having idles) and to make it even more crazy they started talking about Thailand. I left that night knowing God has a plan for me and I also left knowing all the answers to my questions!"
this youth conference challenged me to be alive in my faith and I wouldn't be where I'm at today if I hadn't gone.
Every day as I prepare to leave for Australia, i'm finding out more and more details of what I'll be doing. One BIG thing I just found out is that one of my outreaches in South East Asia might be to Thailand!
God sure works in mysterious ways.
Finally I'm to the end (pheww)...just want to share with you some music that was very encouraging at Challenge '08.
forever a sojourner,
mariah
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