About Me
My name is Abe and this is my blog! I want to share with you where I've been and what I'm doing in this little blurb. Feel free to read it and share in the comments below.
Since I've been a Christian I've always had a heart for missions and even on my first mission trip to Florida with the youth group from my church, I've known that God wanted me serving him full-time in the ministry. At first I thought it was youth ministry, then it changed to church planting, then back to youth ministry and finally it came to missions.
I find it ironic that while I was on a mission trip I felt the call and didn't realize that the reason I felt it then was because I was on a mission trip and it was God giving me a nudge saying, "Hey, this is what I want you to do when the time is right..." At the time when I first felt the call to serve I was planning on doing the college thing and getting a degree as a Forensic Science Lab Technician. But as time past, God changed "my" plans and began to put me on a rollercoaster of a life.
I graduated high school and began my first semester at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. That was a failure. I wasn't applied, disciplined, or interested in the college -- so with all that combined I wasted 4 months of my life sitting in classes that I didn't pass. I decided to take a break and just get a job until I felt like I was ready to take on a college-level workload and get a degree. That break turned into 2-1/2 years of nothing with 1 year and 8 months of that working at the YMCA.
While working at the Y, I decided to take a nursing aide class because my sister insisted that because I was so good with people, nursing would be perfect for me. I took the class and got the credit, and was left to take the state test to become put into a state registry. I passed the written with flying colors and when it came to the practical exam -- I froze up and forgot everything, even the stuff I knew front to back. I tried again -- and failed again. So I figured I would just wait a bit (like I did with college) and try again later.
So in the meantime, I took multiple mission trips after graduating high school. I took one to the Dominican Republic (which I had done my senior year in high school as well) and then I took a trip to Nicaragua to partner with Samaritans International with my church. Each mission trip I prayed that God would use me, that He would use my talents and knowledge for His glory.
In the Dominican, there wasn't much that I could do and so I felt as though God just wanted me there to shine His light and plant the seed. But in Nicaragua, that's when things got real... I prayed the same prayer -- "God let me be used." (A month before I had worked a camp and actually went to a clergy about my frustration that I felt God was not using me to my full potential and the pastor told me that God was getting me ready and was about to use me in a mighty way.) With that prayer came answers. God put me in the medical clinic to use all that I had learned from my Nurse Aide class. He used my heart for people, my compassion, my willingness to do whatever needs to be done, my computer skills all for His glory! I had never felt used in such a mighty way before that and it was an answered prayer.
Then one night during a mid-night medical emergency at the compound I was asked to assist in transporting a lady to the hosptial who had had a history of heart problems prior. I did all that I could and became emotionally attached to the lady- even though in my nursing class they told us not to - and became furious when I was told by the security guard that I couldn't enter the hospital. I pleaded to God and begged Him to help me help her. And it was as though His reply were "Come back and help her by helping her people." Because that's where my heart found peace. Coming back to Nicaragua to help the people who I had - in contrary to the professional ideology - became emotionally connected with.
And so that is where I am left at today. I leave December 5 for Pochocuape, Managua, Nicaragua to become an intern for Samaritans International for six months. I've never been more excited and can't wait to see what God's going to teach me and show me along the way!
In Christ,
Abe