Many of you are probably wondering what I am doing now that I am home from India. It is with great joy and excitement that I share that I will be attending a discipleship program with Adventures in Missions (the same organization I did the WorldRace with) called CGA. In ten days, I will make the move to Gainesville, Georgia for 5 months of schooling. The schooling goes from January 18th until June 1st.
What is CGA you might ask?
CGA is a leadership and discipleship program that equips followers of Christ to recreate biblical community through teaching, scripture, and activation. The purpose of the classes are to create passionate followers of Jesus who will live our their faith wherever they are at.
“Our curriculum is based on “know yourself, lead yourself, lead others”. We develop character and the ability to lead others emotionally and spiritually while understanding one’s true identity in Christ. We believe in hands on training, activation, and experiential learning.”
I will have class Mondays from 9 am – 5 pm. Tuesday- Thursday 8am – noon, and Friday 7:45 – noon. When we are not in class we are encouraged to get a part time job to minister to the local community in Gainesville. CGA emphasizes living missionally wherever we go and investing in the community around us. What we learn in the classroom we will be taught how to incorporate into our workplace.
I will be living with other worldracers in community living similar to college. The schooling costs $5,950 for five months and includes my housing and classroom costs.The job I will be getting will payfor my food and gas expenses as they are not included in my schooling costs. I will be fundraising for my schooling.
Last summer, I was able to start a saving funds that I planned to use for future missions work. I was able to save 2,000 dollars that I am putting towards my education which leaves me with 3,950 dollars left to fundraise.
Why am I doing CGA?
I never imagined that I would go back to school post- graduation from Indiana Wesleyan. By now, I imagined that I would be working in a church as a youth pastor. I’ve found in this lifetime that God doesn’t always work in the ways we expect and sometimes the plans we thought we would be doing aren’t always what God has in mind for us. Last year when I came home from the worldrace I strongly believed that God had a specific plan for me to pursue. When that plan didn’t happen I was devastated. Looking back at these moments now, I can see how tightly I held onto those plans. I was unwilling to open my hands in surrender to a different plan God might have for me. The rejection stung so deep but soon after I learned a valuable lesson. It wasn’t rejection; rather it was redirection from God. While my dreams felt dead I had to surrender those feelings and accept that maybe God had a plan different than what I thought he had given me.
The season’s of no’s led me to this “stuck” feeling where I didn’t know what to do with my life. I started noticing a theme of having a “lack of motivation” in my life. I even struggled with getting up in the mornings. I knew I was in a dark/hard place, so I decided to seek Christian Counseling (by far one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life). I shared with my counselor my heart for missions, my desire to be a leader, and how I wanted to grow as a person. My counselor shared that “In order to lead others, you need to be able to lead yourself first”.
During counseling, I learned important skills for leading myself such as: saying no, scheduling time for rest, and prioritizing my health. With my health I started adding exercise and getting enough sleep. I also learned how to create a morning routine. I have found that quiet mornings with a cup of coffee, my bible, and journaling helps me feel better prepared for the day. I also learned goal setting, practicing positive thoughts vs. negative, and learned how to love myself. All valuable things to help me grow as a person that I’m still continuing to practice and incorporate into my life.
During the worldrace I started to realize how passionate I was about missions, and how it was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I want to live my life missionally wherever God calls me. Specifically when I got home, I felt that God was calling me to lead a trip with Adventures in Missions (AIM) called Gap Year. My heart is still open to that possibility but that’s not entirely why I decided to take these CGA classes. I believe that taking these classes will help me become a better leader for myself and others whether or not I lead a trip with AIM, become a youth pastor, or any other job God may lead me to. Going to CGA will give me an opportunity to continue growing as a person and to become a better leader in the future.
While writing this blog I began to thing of these lyrics from a song called “ When I’m Gone” from the movie Pitch Perfect:
“I’ve got my ticket for the long way ‘round
The one with the prettiest of views
It’s got mountains, it’s got rivers, it’s got sights to give you shivers”
A year ago when I got home from the race I thought I had a ticket to a one way plan. A plan that I thought and believed was truly from God and felt would 100% happen. Many times in life, it has felt like I’ve been on the journey that’s the “long way round” but I’ve been learning that God is intentional in every step of our journeys and he never brings us to a place where we are not supposed to be. I hope when I look back on my journey I can say that I have seen the “prettiest of views”. I hope I can take a step back and see the beauty in the plan that God has for me even if it is the long way round. I hope that I can see him in the mountains. I pray that each day of journey with God I can be refreshed in God’s living water. I hope that I will take the time to step back and marvel at what God is doing in my life. That I will have shivers from all that he is teaching and showing me as I journey with Him these next five months.
And while this journey has felt long, I hope I can take moments to stop and be mesmerized in what God is doing in my life and become the leader I know he has called me to be. I’m so excited for this new journey God is bringing me to with CGA classes in just 10 days! It’s hard to believe it’s coming so soon!
If you would like to support what God is doing in my life by a donating (on the donate tab on this website) I would be so grateful. As always, thank you so much for your continued prayers and support on my journey in missions.
