if you want to make god laugh, make a plan

have you ever sat and made a 5 year plan? 

or maybe even a 10 year plan

its one of the most commonly asked questions in interviews "where do you see yourself in 5 years time"

and until this time last year i had my answer down pat.i would have said "in 5 years would like to be starting my first nursing job having just graduated from my nursing degree" 

but its true what they say "if you want to make god laugh, make a plan"

god had other ideas. and i fail my entrants exam to the uni of my dream by 1 point.and i was devastated

whilst i was praying over my options to resit a year or take a gap year i felt god call me to the gap year my church was starting called "invest"

it wasn't the kind of gap year i was looking for at all.. in fact i had never felt called to full time ministry in my entire christian life.

so like a good christian i told god who wrong he had it for a full 2 weeks before i finally caved and halfheartedly signed up.

within a month of the year starting i fell in love with the work i was doing and the youth i was doing it for and throughout the course of the year i felt more and more of a call on my life to go into youth work 

now my specific calling is to the orphans of eastern Europe particularly Bulgaria.

as i was looking in to what i could do to help i realized that just going on a 2 week mission at some point in my life wasn't going to satisfy there need for love or my need to help them.but i still didn't see the link between my love for serving the youth around be in Britain and the orphans in Bulgaria

but god did 

now as i was saying by the time i needed to start looking at what i was going to be doing  September this year i had a passion for full time ministry

the other intern at my church had been doing the gap year as part of a degree course at st mellitus collage

it sounded like exactly what i needed. so i applied , and i got in

so , i when to momentum this year quietly confident that i was headed in the right direction even though i couldn't see a darn thing past getting my degree.kind if like driving down a country lane at night. scary !

    on day 3 at the morning meeting there was a call for people who have a burden to be an intercessory in a paticuler problem or need in the world

i got prayer. and then i finally got what i was doing. 

i got my phone out and looked for a web sight i had stumbled across some time ago when looking at some articles about the Bulgarian/Russian orphan crisis

   http://reecesrainbow.org/

rece's rainbow is an adoption ministry that focuses specifically on the eastern Europeans and Chinese orphans with downs syndrome or other conditions as these are the kids least likely to escape going to the mental institution if there not adopted

and then i realized if i wanted to work with these orphans full time , i needed a youth ministry degree. 

god knew my true heart before i even did and it may have been hard to see my nursing fall by the way side but i want to live the best life i can and god knew what that looks like 

as if to top it of rr only works out of america and Canada which means i will have to move stateside .. which is yet another one of my dreams , god is forfllling me more than i ever thought possible

so whats my 10 year plan ? 

i have no idea ask god 

lots of love 

Lauren

xxx