Sitting in the local Arby’s at the beginning of my senior year of college, Shay shared the news that he and Sarah would be moving to Martinsburg to begin the journey of planting a church.  While it was sad to hear they would be moving; it was more exciting than anything to know they would be following God’s will. During this conversation, Shay half-joked that after I graduated I should come out and work with them.  At the time, I didn’t think much of it- I was too focused on actually graduating first.

As the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months, and my graduation date drew nearer, I began to prayerfully consider what I would be doing after graduation. I had several options, one of which was working with a local church in Charleston, WV. I applied for jobs as a sub, and began perusing potential apartments. A week or two before graduation, Shay came to visit us at Marshall University. It was during this meet up that he brought up moving to Winchester again… but this time very seriously. I still thought it was almost a half-joke, but decided to begin praying about it. So pray I did.

I weighed my options… and felt that God was leading me towards Winchester. But I second-guessed myself because I knew that Charleston was a more comfortable and viable option. I have great friends in Charleston, I love the church that I had begun to attend, I knew I could get a job easily, and would still be only an hour from my school family in Huntington. But that was the problem. It was the comfortable choice. It was the choice that God could still work through, and I wanted to be comfortable. The fact of the matter is though, when we choose Christ, especially accepting a calling of ministry; we are choosing and accepting to step out of our comfort zone.

One of my summer events was to serve as the Bible study leader for a junior camp in Cowen, WV. Our theme for the week was basically the pursuit of God in our lives (how we pursue Him, and how He pursues us). It was through this week and through earnest seeking that I began to realize what God was calling me to do. God was calling me to step of my comfort zone… to pursue Him as He had been pursuing me. And suddenly it hit me. This was something I had to do.

The calling is clear, and God is with me. God has indeed called me to be more than a comfortable church-goer… God has a plan for my life and chosen me to serve Him through life-long ministry. I can’t really tell you what that looks like for the rest of my life, I can’t even tell you what that will look like in a year or two. What I know now is that He has in fact called me to minister to the lost of Winchester; in particular to use the talents He has given me in ministering to the children.

The beginning of Hebrews says:

^1-2The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

 ³By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.

And with this faith, I am saying yes!