Waiting

The rain is falling, the coffee is brewing, my heart is waiting.

It's been waiting for awhile. 

Six years ago, I learned about Beautiful Gate Orphanage in Lesotho, Africa. I was thirteen and, though I knew very little of what I "wanted to be when I grew up," Beautiful Gate sounded really wonderful. I didn't feel a strong call to it at that time, or maybe it was too big of an idea for my mind to grasp, so I continued on with life, but with that tiny seed of longing planted in my young heart.

Fast forward three years.

I was in Mississippi on a mission trip when I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. After thinking very deeply about it, I came to the conclusion that all I really wanted was to serve the Lord and be a mom. I didn't really want to go to college, I didn't really want to lead a "normal" life of success and money and safety, and God reminded me of Beautiful Gate, and my desire to serve there grew. A lot.

Fast forward another three years.

College decisions had to be made. And I didn't want to make them. I thought about all the things I could do, but I didn't have peace with anything except jumping right on in to the mission field. So I thought maybe I would do YWAM, a discipleship training school with bases all over the world. But what I found myself doing was searching for bases as close to Beautiful Gate as possible, in hopes of getting to go there. I thought I would satisfy both sides: the conventional step of going to school after 14 years of it and getting to do missions. But my heart simply yearned to be in Lesotho. Why would I wait to do something I had been wanting to do for so long?

So in the fall of senior year, I made the decision to go to Beautiful Gate. There are countless other moments that led me to this place, and I cannot wait to finally step onto that African soil and be smothered by the kisses of 70 precious children.

I leave in January. Maybe starting a blog five months early is jumping the gun a little bit, but my anxious heart couldn't wait. So this is the beginning of my journey. As the rain dies down and I finish the last sip of coffee, my waiting heart leaps at the thought of the six months I will spend at Beautiful Gate.