God's Plan is Perfect.

As most of you know, I have been planning for a very long time to go to China with YWAM; over a year and a half to be exact. It was the place I first felt a pull to go and that pull was the main reason I chose to come to YWAM Maui specifically [its one of their main focus areas] but I said all the while that if God lead me to another country I would gladly go. Little did I know how I was about to be tested.

When I arrived I still had every intention of continuing with that plan. I talked about my desire to go to China with many other students and some of the staff and during the days leading up to and following the outreach locations being revieled my mind remained unchanged... almost. On the day they finally told us what our options would be we had to play a game of hang-man to guess the names of each country's capital city and then from that the name of the country. They came out to be Indonesia, China and Nepal. The moment Nepal was written on the white board something in my spirit stirred; a soft, nearly inaudible whisper, saying that I was supposed to go there instead. Immediately I resisted, shoving that thought to the very back of my mind and saying that it was an invention of my own head and not the Lord speaking to me.

Over the next two days I continued talking with the staff about my plans to go to China, and each time I would hear that voice telling me that if those plans remained unchanged I would be making the wrong decision. I would even say I was at peace with my decision to try and convince myself that I was and each time that voice would whisper "no, you're not". I continued to resist. I avoided talk of Nepal [when it was the subject of dicussion that whisper became much louder] and tried to stop thinking about it all together, I did not want to surrender my plans. I did not want to have to try and explain to people both at YWAM and back home that after a year and half of planning to go to China, in one afternoon my mind was changed and I was going to a country I knew nothing about. I couldn't comprehend it, that just wasn't going to happen.

Then a speaker named Marie came to lecture. She spoke on having greater faith and that greater faith requires greater testing. She also said that when you tell God you will do something He will take you at your word and test you in that as well. I continued to think of Nepal and the fact that I'd said I would go wherever God lead me. He was leading me there. I was immediately convicted. I would either choose to surrender and lay down my own plans and follow God's or choose to be a hypocrite. A suddenly felt a fire begin to burn in my chest I wanted to surrneder. She then gave a call to stand up if we wanted greater faith... I knew that it was going to take greater faith to follow God to Nepal [a country I knew nothing about] than China a country I'd studied and gotten to know over the past year or more. With tears pouring down my face I stood; then and there I gave my plans up to God and asked Him to confirm that going to Nepal was truely His will.

I felt suddenly light, but I still wanted God's confirmation. I called home and talked to my mum, asking her if she'd heard anything from God since I'd first told her the outreach locations. She orginally said she'd been thinking of China because it had been where I wanted to go for so long, but she was actually feeling more of a pull from Nepal. I couldn't believe it! Confirmation. I went a step more and asked her to [without saying anything about our conversation] ask my dad the same question. He said the exact same thing she had said! Confirmation twice! Then my mum told me that she had also talked to our pastor who had immediately said "He'd have a hard time knowing that it wasn't himself but God calling him to Nepal." He'd said it jokingly but that just happened to be the EXACT place I was now. Three times!

That night I wrote Outreach Location Choice #1: Nepal on my paper and I felt a peace I had not been able to find when my mind was still set on China.

And so, just to let everyone know, I am going to Nepal and I couldn't be happier! Himalayas here I come! Lord lead and guide me into intimacy and greater faith in You through this experience.