Phone Notes + Next Things.

I have lots of notes in my phone. Wifi passwords, to-do lists, one that just says "white stick tac" which I can actually delete because I finally bought some after nine months, quotes from books. Y'know the drill.

But there's one that I wrote in there a couple of years ago. It's something that I read on a church sign. The note in my phone simply says:

"The degree to which I am influenced by Christ is the degree to which I can influence others."

I also have a note titled "Sermon Stuff" and it's full of profound one-liners from my pastors' sermons (duh). I was scrolling down through that note the other day because I wanted to see what the most recent sermon note is that I wrote down, and I smiled at myself and scoffed a lil bit when I read it.

Because it's really appropriate for the season of life that I'm in right now.

"Take God's hand and do the next thing."

A couple of posts ago (Who Am I? + The Vision.), I said that I have some plans for the fall, and I made a comment about the fact that y'all will just have to keep an eye out to find out about those plans. 👀

Well here they are!

At the beginning of September I'll be heading to Montréal for four months to do a music and church-planting internship. I could fill this post talking in more detail about that whole situation, but instead I'll just give you a little plug that I have a support letter written up that gives you my whole story! So send me a message, a text, an email, a carrier pigeon note, or whatever if you'd like my support letter sent your way!

While I think that my internship adventure in September through December will be an exciting opportunity, and I know that I'll grow a lot, and be stretched, and learn a TON, excitement isn't the number one emotion that I'm feeling about all of this.

I'm terrified, my dudes. I don't enjoy change. Like, I cried a WHOOOLE lot in April because I knew that I'd be graduating and ending my Bible college journey and I wasn't ready and willing to let it go.

And now I'm having a hard time being ready and willing to move to another province for four months where I won't know anyone, I'll have to make new friends, speak another language (some of the time, at least), live with people I don't know, take the metro (aka subway) by myself all the time, and so on and so forth.

Yikes.

However! In the midst of my apprehension and fear, God is constantly prompting me to take His hand and do the next thing. Because I know that He has influenced me and He wants to use me to influence others for His glory. And I also know that I can't live in my parents' house forever and just refuse to do new things, nor do I actually want to refuse to do new things. I just take longer to warm up to the idea than other people do, hahaaa.....

But fo' real, God has been gooood! My family is supportive of this endeavour (even though they only just got me back after four years of being in college - sorry guys 😓), my friends are constantly expressing their excitement and being sounding boards for my worries, my boyfriend is willing to long distance it for four months (thank uuuu 😘), my church is praying for me, collecting my funds, and excitedly sending me.

And that's not even where the blessings end!

The two pastors who I'll be working with at the church in Montréal have been sending me emails, texts, posting Facebook comments, you NAME it about how excited they are that I'm choosing to come alongside them and join their team and support their church! And just yesterday, the other intern, whose time in Montréal will be overlapping with mine a lil bit, added me on Facebook and sent me a message saying that she's willing to answer any questions I may have. And she's going to be praying for me as I prepare to come to Montréal. That speaks volumes to me. Prayer is so powerful and it always leaves me simply in AWE of God and fellow Christians when someone who I don't even know is willing to step out, add me on social media, be there for me, and pray for me.

All of this to say, I may be afraid, I may be apprehensive, but I am definitely ready to step out in faith, take God's hand and do the next thing. I'm ready to trust God as I travel cross-culturally to another church and another province, because I have been influenced by Christ and by extension, I want to influence others for His glory.