Yellow-brick road :)

I´m willing to bet most of you don´t realize that my actual mission call was back when I was 17 years old... it was just between God and me, and I said a "yes" which He apparently took VERY seriously.

Before I even showed up at RiverTree, I had followed His leading from Warner Robins to Atlanta (thought I´d be a Spanish interpreter, but they didn´t think my B.A. in Spanish and current speaking/writing level was even good enough to let me in the school to learn more); Atlanta to Athens (for speech-language pathology in graduate school --- thought it might be cool to be a bilingual SLP someday, maybe; and that´s when my Dad passed away from cancer). It´s where I intended to stay to have a home and family, except that God spoke again, and I moved on...to Ohio, where I stayed faithful to my Lutheran upbringing and joined Holy Cross, the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church about a spit away from my apt. --- until God thought I should be at Jackson Christian Church (which then shortly became RiverTree),,, where He made sure I got trained up to really study the Bible, listen closely to Him, and stay faithful. I was looking for a condo in North Canton (I loved the church, my job, and the whole climate and area), when He called me to Ecuador (right after I had a near-lethal bout with heart arrythmias).

And there wasn´t a thing He´s taught me since I was 17 that I haven´t desperately needed here. He has been so very INSISTENT with me (and more PATIENT than you could ever know!).

I think you all need to know that He´s speaking to me again, that I´ve been given some very specific and wonderful promises, and that I will obey His leading... just as soon as I know what that is.

For now, I´m doing my best to make sure the Vozandes team is on its feet (the book should really help), and that the Street Kids have somebody following up with them (hopefully Casa Gabriel, with Extreme Response), and that Compassion and my good friends at Nuevos Amigos have as much as I can give them in the way of training workshops and manuals (in my SLP area)in the next year. I´m looking for a roomate to share time, expenses and possibly "inherit" the apt next July, and for God´s financial provision (through medical translating work, translating for work teams, and possibly - later in Dysphagia research and program development), and am physically getting ready (sorting, packing, repairing in the apt. I´m currently in) for what comes next.

Will be sure to keep you posted, as so much is still pending at this point.

Trust your walk with Him is "golden" as well!
Michelle