Mi Vida: The Sign

I want to like jump up and down and scream from the mountain tops that I am going to Camden, I am going to Camden! Woohoo! Did I mention I’m going to Camden…

As of last night I can officially start thinking about going to Camden, actually I can allow myself to become distracted by the idea of getting to be with four amazing girls in Camden and be reunited with some wonderful and amazing returners (interns) and kids in Camden!
I can officially start thinking about the excitement of being back in Camden because last night I finished my last grad class for the summer, I will be walking across a stage with my Master’s in Human Resource and Organization Development in December! So because I have been so focused on school (I was taking two of the hardest classes in the program), I have been trying to keep Camden on the back burner. But now I have less than two weeks of freedom until I get to leave, so I thought I’d share my God moments and story (as mentioned in my last blog) of what brought me to the decision of going away for the whole summer…

As most of you know I had already been preparing/leading a team with my university for Camden, but they would be there for the whole summer while I was planning a three-week visit/trip. But I was willing and wanting to teach them and prepare them for Camden…
Well, after much thought and some prayer I begin fostering the idea of going for the whole summer. I wasn’t having much luck in the job department and so I really began praying to God for some sort of answer/sign about what I should do… it was a win/win situation because either way I would still be going back to Camden…
Let me preface first by saying, that receiving a “sign” is a very loose term for me because I do believe that God intervenes in peoples lives, but I don’t know, its just sometimes I hard concept to grasp, but I know that God has spoken to me through signs I guess before via emotion and thoughts and ideas and more than just a coincidence and sometimes its even harder for people to understand. I’ll just call it divine appointment maybe, being at the right place at the right time… I don’t know.

Attempt #1:

Background story first: I have grown up listening to hymns in the church and one of my favorite hymns, is Come Thou Fount. I have always felt a special connection with that song because anytime I am have a tough time I always hear it and it pulls me through. So when I went to Camden the first time, it played on my last day as I was praying to God for an answer about coming back. Then it played at church right before I went to speak about Camden and about going back again… and it always plays during tough parts of my life or on rough days where I am not always as close to God because I’m dealing with something…

So I am sitting… actually laying in bed in a hotel suite in Vegas… the “City of Sin”. :-?
It’s in the afternoon and I really didn’t feel like leaving the room or anything, so after a much needed nap I turn on the tv and start channel surfing. Nothing is really on and for some odd reason I begin to settle on this Hallmark movie with Katherine Heigel and I begin watching it… it was one of those Love Comes blah blah movies. I continue channel surfing during commercials and still nothing so I continue watching it, about ¾ into the movie the lead girl goes to talk to the father of the family she cares for and he has gone out for a walk for his Sunday God time and so she follows him and sees him in the distance sitting on a bench overlooking a ravine and he is singing… nothing but… Come Thou Fount…
Is that crazy or what, I couldn’t believe it either… of all the movies and songs and times to be watching tv… I immediately was like God, no way… I just started praying about this decision a few days ago, there is no way. So I have heartedly shrug it off and pray for more clarity…

Attempt Two: about a week or so later (I actually don’t remember the time.. haha). It was late and I was reading this new book by Bruce Main. Bruce is a friend and director of Urban Promise in Camden. The book is about the “art of noticing” and about seeing God and others in the most unlikely places. So I am reading the chapter about thankfulness and I begin reading this story and as I get to the end I begin to weep and not entirely realizing what I had just read had caused me to cry, but my heart knew although my brain was not all there, I re-read it.
Basically this man had lost his job and began volunteering at Urban Promise just cleaning, painting, and simply mowing the grass. As Bruce was leaving for lunch, he chatted with this man covered in sweat and grass and asked him why he seemed/was so happy. Bruce then explains that instead of this man being stressed out or worried about finances or finding another job he was happy, no, joyful to have the free time to volunteer. He was thankful and grateful for the time that God had now given him.
This was it… that was it. It was basically me in the story that was my story. In that moment I knew I would be going to Camden for the whole summer.
Even for like two or threes to follow that God-moment and decision I was still in awe and couldn’t believe it… but now I can. And I am so amazed and happy and overwhelmed with joy. Thank you!

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Our team is about $1500 short of what we need to go, PTL! It’s not more... I am just $100 shy of my goal (donate online at www.apualumni.com/scg09 or contact me).
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We are excited and ready and willing… Camden, here we come.