Coming to LeTU

So, I've told about where I went to church, where I lived, and other random things, I'll try now to explain why I applied to LeTourneau University in the first place.

I think best in chronological order, so let me start with the very first thing that ended up having a great influence on me: my parents' call. Several years before I was born, my Mom and Dad felt God calling them to the mission field. In preparation for this, they went to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for Bible training. From Chicago, they moved to Elizabethton, TN, where Moody Aviation was at the time. My Dad thought God was calling him to be a missionary pilot, but after failing his second class medical, it became clear God had other plans. When I came into the family, we were still in a"transition" period. My Dad was between jobs and my parents' next step was still uncertain. While in Elizabethton (as I alluded in my first post), I came in contact with many of my family's missionary friends, most of whom had attended Moody Aviation as well. Even my earliest memories are crowded with missionaries and their stories.
Probably the deep, down, psychological reason I originally wanted to be a missionary is because my parents always did. Even after moving to North Carolina, my parents didn't forget their longing to serve God in another country. The year I was seven, my parents tried once more to go to the mission field, this time with AEF (now part of SIM). But even when the pastor of our church at the time was called and left for Zambia with his family, my family remained. Not that my family has ever become secluded from our missionary friends, quite the contrary. The forever highlight of receiving mail was getting to the mailbox and finding newsletters from our friends in the various corners of the globe. My brothers and I used to run to the mailbox to see who would get to open the letters first and add the cool stamps to our collections. We also live about ten minutes from a major interstate and it is always our pleasure to host friends for a meal or an over night stay.
When I was in eighth grade I discovered the joy of airplanes. I had liked airplanes beginning with my first flight when I was about four, but had not seen any connection between them and my life. That is to say, I saw no connection until I realized that women do things in aviation too, besides being airline stewardesses. The thought that I could in fact do something with airplanes blew me away. I have always considered airplanes as tools, not toys, unlike my other passion, animals, which I still struggle in justifying the use of in everyday life. While on a mission trip to Charleston, SC, I heard God call. This was not the first time I felt God pointing me toward missions, but it was the first time I realized I might be able to go with an airplane. From that summer up through my senior year of high school, I tried my best to learn all I could about airplanes in missions and what I would need to do in preparing myself to go as a missionary with aviation related skills. When I found out Moody was moving and changing their aviation department significantly, I began looking for other options. I looked at all the major aviation schools in the country that had both piloting and maintenance. The first school I was accepted to was LeTourneau and I was eligible for a major scholarship. When I came in February, I had a tremendous peace about being here. I really can't explain it, but after that weekend I knew that whether or not I got the scholarship, I was in fact meant to come to LeTourneau University.
So those who know me are probably asking by now, why aren't you an aviation major?!? Well, that's a different story for some other time. Right now all I can say is, I'm here and hopefully this explained why I came.

Moving and Losing

continuing with the same theme from before....

Around the time my third brother was on the way, my Dad finally got a stable job as a high school science teacher. This new job meant we had to move away from our beloved home in the Horseshoe. Moving from that wonderful place when I was almost six years old taught me the valuable lesson of not being so attached to the location of where you live. God many times has plans for you other places than where you think is an ideal home. As a result of the move I have never again allowed myself to become so attached to a place that I live. I now see moving as an adventure and I welcome the excitement of a change in scenery. I lost a sense of belonging to any particular place on earth. I now see heaven as my real home.
Another thing that came with this move to North Carolina was a change in friends and, more importantly at the time, a change in churches. It may have been because I was so young and didn't see any of the flaws at the church in Elizabethton, but I have never felt as at home in any church as I did at Elizabethton Alliance. I am still searching for a church family with the same love for God and each other that I remember from that church and still experience when my family goes back to visit once in a blue moon. Upon first moving to Morganton, my family attended a United Methodist church, but after the pastor died of a heart attack it changed and we moved on. Next, we went to a PCA Presbyterian church and ended up staying there for six years, although as a whole family we felt led to leave sooner, but had significant difficulty finding somewhere else to go. As it ended up, my older brother and I went to First Baptist and a few months later the rest of the family started going to a small nondenominational Bible church. I am still not at peace about being a member of FBC. Even since coming to college I have had trouble finding a church family where I felt truly comfortable. Every time I begin feeling out of place I simply remember, this earth is not my home and I should be patient, waiting on God's timing to show me where to go and what to do, only then can I be fully at peace. I know I need to be more trusting of God's great faithfulness to me, it is just so easy to complain and so hard to be accepting of all circumstances God places me in.
Moving houses and moving churches has had a large impact on how I view my residence on this earth, but in the end I am thankful God has seen fit to do so, other wise it would have been very difficult for me to accept the call to the mission field or even to come all the way to Texas for college. After all, home is where the heart is and God wants me to give my heart completely to his service and I need to be as flexible as possible in order to mold myself into whatever situation God puts me in for service.

Home in Elizabethton

I have decided to write my first group of blogs about memories I have of my life, especially the events that had some significant impact on my coming to LeTourneau University.

I was born at home up a small holler between two lakes near Elizabethton, Tennessee. My parents had originally come to the area because my Dad was attending Moody Aviation, located just outside Elizabethton at the time. The church we attended in town was a Christian and Missionary Alliance where most of the people going there were in some way connected to Moody Aviation. The families at the church either worked at Moody, were currently going there, or had gone in the past and had not yet gone to the mission field. As a result, I was always around mission minded people. We had mission conferences every year that were a big highlight for everyone. I remember the first time I decided I wanted to go to Africa was after missionaries from Burkina Faso spoke at the mission conference. They told us of a need to tell the whole world about Jesus and that, as Christians, it was our job to do it. I saw the pictures of the children on the other side of the world and wanted more than anything to meet them and tell them God loved them.
Most of my friends in my early years were soon-to-be missionary kids. I never had any close friends because I mostly only got to see them every four years when their families came home for furlough. I loved living in the mountains of East Tennessee, but I always felt left out when all my friends and all my parents' friends went off to the mission field and we had to stay behind. When I was little my older brother and I played many pretend stories, including such stories about being missionaries going to brave the wilds of far off jungles to reach an unsaved tribe. Living there so simply and so innocently, praying for our missionary friends, and having the great excitement of seeing them every four years was only one of the first steps on the path I am following today.