Uncomfortable.

"God doesn't receive glory in forcing us to face our fears. He could jiu-jitsu us into getting His will accomplished, but that would remove the element of love. Instead, it takes our free will along with enduring the process of regularly engaging what is uncomfortable." - Relevant Magazine

Yup. That's where I've been since last updating you all. I contacted Mercy Ships and we've been talking about my return to the ship. I told them that I would like to return to do supply and logistics. That same week the Food Service Manager position opened up. It wasn't what I was interested when I contacted the office, but it had been on my radar to work towards in the future. Before they had left for the weekend I contacted the office again and told them that I was interested in that position as well as logistics.

Over that weekend I wanted to get out and see the aspens. I had seen aspen trees, had heard about them in Colorado but the few on campus made me want to see more of their golden wonderfulness. Fall had hit in full swing and the contrast of golden aspens to the mass of evergreens on the mountains was a wonder to behold. (Just a reminder.....New Mexico is more than flat desert. There are many mountains as the southern edge of the Rockies rolls right into Northern New Mexico) The sky was clear that Sunday afternoon as I made my way home from church. After eating some lunch I headed towards the Santa Fe Ski Basin. It's about 45 minutes from campus on the other side of Santa Fe. From the time I left church to the time I made it into the mountains some clouds decided to make their way into the sky. When I pulled into the parking lot at the state park it decided to rain for five minutes so I sat there there waiting for it to blow over. Sitting there I kept thinking, "If these clouds just blow out of the way, when the sun comes out the aspens will be amazing." Clearly the weather was trying to get in the way of me seeing some beautiful sights.

Finally the rain stopped and I headed out onto a 3 mile hike. No big deal, that shouldn't take to long. It's just three miles. There I was headed on my hike to see some aspen trees in the beautiful mountains of New Mexico. As I huffed and puffed up the trail things started rolling through my mind about working as the Food Service Manager. I'm pretty familiar with what that job would be like. After nine months in the galley and two and a half years on the ship I knew how things were handled and the daily nuances of the food of the Africa Mercy. Before long the slight sting on my nose and the edges of my ears made realized that the temperatures were cooler than I had been used to and the darker clouds on the horizon made me speed up as I didn't want to get stuck in the cold rain. By the time I made it to the top my lungs reminded me of what it was like to live at 8,000 feet. They wanted air as much as I didn't want to get soaked on the way down. Luckily the route down the mountain was a lot steeper and the decent only took half the time. I think gravity and the temperatures could have had something to do with it too. The thing is as I was making my way to the bottom I started to see what looked like little white dippin' dots start to hit the ground and by the time I made it to the the bottom there was almost a full layer of them covering everything. The temperature my ears had been feeling was being confirmed by what appeared to be snow all over the place.
So there I was a half mile from my car and seeing my first snow in two and a half years. I made my way over to a picnic site and just stared out and watch this all occur. As I stood there in the bitter cold I couldn't help but start laughing. I'm sure if anybody was around they must have thought I was crazy. God is in the business of amazing people and He managed to get me again. I went to see golden aspen trees and He was like, here.... here's some snow.

Surprise!

Later in the week I heard back from Mercy Ships. They felt like I wasn't ready for Food Service Manager yet, after some time with Staff Development it would be a possibility. But they had something different in mind for me. Something that would require to go out on a limb and trust God in doing something I hadn't done before... because you know sometimes you do things intending to do what you had in mind and God's like HEY! I have something more than you could ever imagine planned for you!