The End of the Beginning
I realize that it has been many months since I have last posted. I think what I found is that my life back home is not anything I thought anyone would care to read. Then I realized that God does absolutely amazing things regardless of where I am and what I am doing at the current moment in my life. A lot of big things have happened since I last posted: I got to witness my big sister cross the finish line of her first marathon, I became an aunt to a set of beautiful twins, I graduated from college, and the whole family was in the same place for the first time in two years. It has been a lot of accomplishments and endings, but as the title suggests, rather than feeling like the beginning of the end, it has all felt like the end of a beginning.
When I returned to Ann Arbor at the beginning of the month I assumed it would feel weird to walk around campus and not be going to classes. I was weirdly surprised that it did not feel strange or out of place at all. It was then that I realized that for the majority of last semester I didn't feel as though school was my main purpose for being in Ann Arbor. In addition to attending classes, writing papers, and all the usual duties of being a student, I was leading a small group, helping plan for our New Life Team, and apprenticing to be a Discipleship Group leader, not to mention working out the details for my potential job. Now I don't say all of this to make you think I am super woman, but far from it. God blessed me amazingly in school where I have often felt like a failure, and to be honest have struggled to be motivated, and gave me the best semester of my college career! I realized that I was learning more and more what it looked like to yield to Him and His will and I blindly, if not gracefully, followed Him as he lead me along the narrow path.
Over Christmas break I anxiously awaited news on how my interview went and if Great Commission Ministries wanted to hire me, and my first weekend back at New Life God answered my prayers and I was given the news that I got the job. Since then I have had a job at the bookstore in preparation to head to staff training and into support raising. After sifting through what seems like hundreds of emails and signing papers and reading books, I am so excited that Tuesday I will be headed to Orlando to go to staff training. Prayers for this time would be g
So, although I was finishing up the semester and spending time with family, I could always feel the finality and the transition that was going on all around me between my last post and now. I do not feel as though things are ending in a very final way, and I really don't think they are. I just had my last small group for the foreseeable future and it was hard. My girls so graciously made me cookies and wrote me a heart felt note that brought tears to my eyes. I have had the opportunity to lead them for the last two and a half years, and they have been a huge part of why I want to go into full time ministry. I am going to miss them dearly and planning group each week in the hopes that it would serve them well, but I trust Nikita to shepherd our sheep well and to love them well as she already has. And still I do not feel the sense of end. I feel as though a transition is almost complete. I think that once I leave for Orlando, and officially am no longer responsible for and ministries the transition will be complete. I almost feel like a caterpillar crawling into my cocoon. I know this is an extreme cliche, but I can't think of a better analogy. I am going away for a while and it may feel as though not much is happening, but I know that God will be molding and shaping my heart every step of the way so that I can come back a more refined and beautiful creature so that I might serve Him well.
Standing in Awe of God's abounding peace,
Sigourney
When I returned to Ann Arbor at the beginning of the month I assumed it would feel weird to walk around campus and not be going to classes. I was weirdly surprised that it did not feel strange or out of place at all. It was then that I realized that for the majority of last semester I didn't feel as though school was my main purpose for being in Ann Arbor. In addition to attending classes, writing papers, and all the usual duties of being a student, I was leading a small group, helping plan for our New Life Team, and apprenticing to be a Discipleship Group leader, not to mention working out the details for my potential job. Now I don't say all of this to make you think I am super woman, but far from it. God blessed me amazingly in school where I have often felt like a failure, and to be honest have struggled to be motivated, and gave me the best semester of my college career! I realized that I was learning more and more what it looked like to yield to Him and His will and I blindly, if not gracefully, followed Him as he lead me along the narrow path.
Over Christmas break I anxiously awaited news on how my interview went and if Great Commission Ministries wanted to hire me, and my first weekend back at New Life God answered my prayers and I was given the news that I got the job. Since then I have had a job at the bookstore in preparation to head to staff training and into support raising. After sifting through what seems like hundreds of emails and signing papers and reading books, I am so excited that Tuesday I will be headed to Orlando to go to staff training. Prayers for this time would be g
So, although I was finishing up the semester and spending time with family, I could always feel the finality and the transition that was going on all around me between my last post and now. I do not feel as though things are ending in a very final way, and I really don't think they are. I just had my last small group for the foreseeable future and it was hard. My girls so graciously made me cookies and wrote me a heart felt note that brought tears to my eyes. I have had the opportunity to lead them for the last two and a half years, and they have been a huge part of why I want to go into full time ministry. I am going to miss them dearly and planning group each week in the hopes that it would serve them well, but I trust Nikita to shepherd our sheep well and to love them well as she already has. And still I do not feel the sense of end. I feel as though a transition is almost complete. I think that once I leave for Orlando, and officially am no longer responsible for and ministries the transition will be complete. I almost feel like a caterpillar crawling into my cocoon. I know this is an extreme cliche, but I can't think of a better analogy. I am going away for a while and it may feel as though not much is happening, but I know that God will be molding and shaping my heart every step of the way so that I can come back a more refined and beautiful creature so that I might serve Him well.
Standing in Awe of God's abounding peace,
Sigourney
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