Everyone has heard the saying, “When God closes a door, He always opens a new one,” and I feel like in my short life, God really has not closed many doors. But about 2 months ago, God slammed a door right in my face.
After studying abroad in Austria during Fall 2013, there was nothing I wanted to do more than to go back to this beautiful place. The new graduate program that Salzburg College just started was my dream solution for doing just that! So after praying and convincing my parents that I needed to go, I signed up. For about 5 months, I thought I was going to Austria for a year. Well, about a month before I was supposed to leave, I got an email telling me that the programme was cancelled due to lack of participation. Obviously, I was devastated. It was the middle of July, I was a college graduate, and what little concrete post-graduate plans I did have had flown out the window. Most other programmes that I had thought hard about and could qualify for had already closed their applications. I was freaking out a little and very, VERY concerned about where my life was going.
Looking back now, I know that God had his hand in all of it because about two nights after I received the email about my cancelled program, I was getting another email from a different program! I have known about Tees Valley Youth for Christ (TVYFC) for about 3-4 years. The president of TVYFC, Mike Taylor, happened to be on my student leadership university 301 bus. Yes, BUS! God works in the coolest ways. He was originally from the NWA and he recognized my mom as a Tollett so that got us connected! Right before our SLU 301 trip, Mike had taken a group of SLU students on a mission trip to the North East part of England, in the Tees Valley. This was the first time I had ever heard of the mission opportunity in England. A couple of years later, my mom was able to get Mike Taylor to come speak at my brother’s home group about a new programme that was being started in the Tees Valley. It was an opportunity for high school/college graduates to take a “gap year” in England. While I did not hear Mr. Taylor speak myself, my mom sent me a link to the website and that is when I learned about the gap year programme. So when I found out that I had no plans for Fall 2015 – Spring 2016 the gap year programme with TVYFC was one of the first things I looked at. However, the application deadline was June 1 and it was Mid-July.
With nothing to lose, I decided to email TVYFC and see if they would let me send in a late application. I sent the email at 12 am (Central Time) and they got back to me in less than 12 hours and told me that if I got in all my paperwork that night they would consider my application. I did, they did, and I was accepted! So…. I AM A MISSIONARY IN ENGLAND!
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD
-Isaiah 55:8
England has always been on my heart and I have wanted to live here ever since I was little. I am so thankful that I am finally able to do that. Even though this was not what I planned – and I honestly wish that God would have given me a heads up a little sooner – I am so excited and ready to serve the Lord in the Teesside area.
