As far back as I can remember I was going to be a nurse, most likely an ob/gyn nurse. This was my dream and I worked very hard towards it. In high school I took classes to prepare me for this and even my first year and a half of college I worked towards this goal. Then something changed...
I had done summer missions with the organization CEF for 2 summers teaching 5-Day Clubs. Child Evangelism Fellowship, CEF, is an organization based on presenting the Gospel clearly to children who may have never heard it before. CEF is a world wide organization working on getting in ALL the countries by 2017! We are almost there! :) A 5-Day Club is one of CEF's many outreaches available. A 5-Day Club meets Monday-Friday for an hour for a week. During this hour we tell Bible stories, missionary stories, sing songs, play games, learn memory verse, and interact and play with the children attending. These can be taught in churches as VBS's, in a park, or a person's backyard. I was involved as a teacher of these for two years, the summers of 2008 and 2009.
In April 2010 Beth (State director of CEF) asked if I would be the Summer Coordinator of my chapter. I'm part of the Iowa Great Lakes Chapter extending from the Storm Lake area up to the boarder. ( I honestly don't know the width of it off the top of my head) I agreed, knowing it'd be fun but I was nervous because I didn't know what all this would entail and if I would be good for the job. My chapter committee also gave me the chance to go to the National Conference and I accepted. This is when things REALLY started to change. I found out more about CEF as a whole and something happened inside my heart. I started to wonder about the jobs available in CEF and what I could do to reach these children that need to be reached. Through teaching the clubs this summer I wanted to know more and more about the organization and wondered what a director does. See, my chapter currently has no director and I thought maybe I could do that. A director of a chapter has many things to do, but it's an outreach. Part of the time is spent raising money while the rest is spent teach kids and telling others about the organization. I thought this might be for me BUT I really needed to finish up the next 3 years of nursing school so I always have that degree to fall back on. I started my sophomore year at Morningside and I couldn't stop thinking about CEF! During classes I found that nursing really wasn't for me and that God knew this all along...he had this crazy plan for me and as I prepared for nursing school he was preparing me for CEF!
I had a TERRIBLE time with this, I felt I was letting Kenneth and my family down and I felt like a failure not being good at nursing classes. This was my plan and how could I not go through with it? I felt like I was giving up something huge. With a lot of prayer and consideration I dropped my nursing major and added religious studies to my minor (I already had a major of counseling psychology). I knew I wouldn't get through the next years of nursing school because it wasn't for me, but I figured I could do 1 1/2 more years of counseling to get my counseling degree! See, my dad works at BVU on the maintenance team and through him I get free tuition at any of BVU's sister schools. WHAT A DEAL & STEAL! I knew I couldn't give up that practically free Bachelors degree, so I decided to finish Morningside to get a degree in Counseling Psychology. I was going to let God lead me from there, but as many of you know I'm a planner and I couldn't just let it be.
After many talks with Beth I had everything all planned out! Everyone understood me finishing at Morningside and I decided to go into CEF right after Morningside. There are some requirements I have to fulfill before I do this, I have to attend CMI, take 1 year of Bible courses, and complete a 1 year internship. Children's Ministry Institute or CMI I have applied to Calvary Bible College and been accepted! Calvary is in Kansas City and they have a partnership with CEF so I get college credit for CMI and then it'll take me 1 1/2 years and I'll have a second Bachelors in Children's Ministry! :) After I go to CMI for 12 weeks (August 2012-November 2012) I will come back home (Alta) and start my internship while taking online classes to get my degree from Calvary.
I NEVER thought I'd be a person to go into ministry. I would pray that God could use me, but like others I gave him conditions, which made me think I couldn't do missions. When I thought of consecration it scared me cause I didn't want to go to some other country, although they need a lot of help, that just isn't for me. Summer of 2010 when I felt this call I realized God will equip me with the things I need in order to do this job and he will take care of me.
I mentioned above that I struggled with this decision. It took me a LONG time (3 months) to tell anyone that I was even feeling a call to CEF. I was SO scared! After I finally admitted it and changed my plans my whole world changed! I had a better outlook on life (happier) and I realized how important it is to reach these children that haven't heard about Jesus! We are blessed if we know Him and have been saved from our sins, but we must remember that there are those out there that don't even know about his saving grace and I can't wait to start working with CEF full-time to reduce the amount of children that don't know about him! I never thought that God could use ME of all people, but I've realized he does not call the equip but rather equips the call! I'm so excited to grow stronger in my walk with God and share the good news with everyone!
Remember always, God CAN use you! (Especially those of you who don't believe it) He's got something special for each and everyone of his children!
