I started a post yesterday about a pretty major development in my life. I read over what I had first written and it was almost nonsensical! It's so funny to me sometimes how out of control I get when I'm excited about something! So, here's the real, unadulterated true story...

I was working away at Starbucks yesterday afternoon (it seems like a lifetime ago already!), when it was time for my fifteen minute break. So, I grabbed my water bottle and headed off to the staffroom to check my e-mail and fool around on facebook for a bit. After waiting what felt like eons for my e-mail account to finally open, I saw an e-mail in my inbox from Mark Arnold (one of the directors of RLBC) with the subject "exciting news!". My heart instantly started beating faster. The day before, Iknew was when the board of directors for Rural Life Mission were to review my application and let me know whether I was what they were looking for or not. The e-mail indicated that Mark and Christy had been CC:ed on an e-mail from RLM detailing my acceptance as a missionary and other such details, and also included their flight details for the conference I was to attend upon acceptance to the mission. (still following?)
At this point I was almost falling off of my stool in excitement and squealing with glee. Then I went back to my inbox and realized that I didn't have an e-mail in there from the mission and wondered why...Once my head cleared a little, I realized that it must have gone to my spam box, so I checked it out. Sure enough, there was a message in there from RLM with the subject "book a ticket"! More excited behaviour ensued and within minutes all of my co-workers, including the people in the back at Chapters, had heard the news. Then my break timer beeped. It was time for me to get back on the floor. Oh man! That was so hard! I just wanted to leave! I wanted to find out more details and tell everyone I could think of! When I got back on the floor to work and told everyone there, I had to go to the back office because I just started crying. The relief of having some sort of answer after all of the time I'd spent in prayer and waiting for something to happen just flooded over me. God had again proved himself faithful. It was like I had been holding my breath since December and I could finally let it out. It's hard to even describe what was going on in me at that point.
It's been a really challenging thing to walk through, this whole process, but I'm so thankful for it! It's really just the beginning of a whole new way of life for me. I'll be starting work soon as a missionary whose support comes in through donations. I'm totally preparing myself for some pretty hard lessons when it comes to waiting on God.

God's been showing me a lot more about the way that I communicate with him too. That's definitely coming in handy at this point! :) Encouragement has been coming at me from all different sides this week! Daria and I got to have some cool talks and I'm really thankful for the time that we had together this week. I also feel like God's been able to use me to be an encouragement to some people in my life this week who were needing it. I think the body of Christ is so cool! How God has us all on our own separate journeys, yet we're all journeying together. I'm also thankful for perspective that's come from quite a few different places over the last little while. Other people's blogs, books I've been reading, songs I've been hearing...I'm feeling more equipped than maybe I ever have before to take on the stuff the lord has for me. I'm really greatful for that since a month ago I was at a loss when it came to trying to process my life and purpose.

Camp is coming up fast and I'm excited to see what my new role will look like!

I love Jesus and I'm so excited to serve him in a new way!

I'm on my break at work right now and I felt the need to update. I think I get frustrated with my job situation too much. Seriously, what a cool job I have! I got to connect with so many different people this morning and not just on a superficial level. Far from making small talk, I was inspired and challenged by a number of different people. I need to learn to be more thankful for the place that God has me right now. I am so blessed to work with people that are awesome and serve people that are awesome. I love community.

Ok, so I'm having a bit of a problem with patience lately. I'm not always the best at waiting. I don't even really know what I'm waiting for...I don't think it's really anything tangible, which almost makes it harder to wait. I'm a little antsy too. Maybe I just need to go for a good walk and get out all my jitters. Maybe I'll do that...

I decided today that I need to make more intentional time in my schedule for God time. I don't know exactly what that looks like since I don't usually connect with God in a conventional way for the most part...I think I just need to have time set aside in my day where I can just go for a walk or sit in a pretty place or intentionally seek God out. Whatever I do, I know that I need to refresh myself more often. I'm feeling pretty burnt out after my first week back at work after my trip and, looking back at my week, I realized that the majority of my time was spent rushing around and whenever I finally did stop, I was too pooped to even think, let alone hear from God.

I'm pretty sure that was a pretty rambly paragraph...if you can even call that a paragraph...I need a nap.