One Year Ago...

This weekend marked a milestone for me.  It was one year ago this weekend that I came to New York to investigate living here and interview at Redeemer.  It was one year ago that I really felt like my dream might actually become a reality.  It was one year ago that my life changed in many ways.  My friend Kelli and I came up to New York for a long weekend.  The purpose was for me to investigate what life would be like to live here and for me to visit Redeemer and find out more about the position in Childrens Ministry.  I can remember having a lot of different emotions running through me in that weekend, but the one thing I remember so vividly is that I knew when I left New York City that I would be returning.  I can remember leaving my interview at Redeemer and going and sitting in a pizza place on the corner of Broadway and 35th.  Seriously, I just sat there.  I was so overwhelmed by the whole experience and so confident that God was moving me forward in this dream.  I can remember almost being on cloud nine with how excited I was.  But then I also remember getting back into Greenville late at night and just being completely overwhelmed with all the obstacles that had to be overcome in order for me to make this move.  I wish I had all my journal entries up here from those days(they are packed in a box in NC), but I just remember crying out to the Lord and asking him for direction.  Praying for all the details to work out if he wanted me to move to New York and to just make it clear.  WoW,  were the next 4 months a rollercoaster.  There were so many obstacles between working out the details for me to be hired at Redeemer (which let me just tell you there were a ton), finding another job to support my income in New York , finding a place for me to live when I came to New York, finding a roommate, selling all my furniture, selling my car, coming up with the finances to make such a big move, deciding when the best time for me to move was, leaving my job in Greenville, saying good-bye to my friends and family, and so on.  Sometimes I would just lie in my bed and just think "how is this ever all going to work out."  I mean I know the things I listed may not seem like a big deal, but it was to me.  Moving in general is a process, but moving to a city like New York is a huge process.  I learned to trust the Lord in a way that I never had before.  My friend Kelli and I would go on walks all the time during those four months and we would pray together for all these details.  It was so amazing, but almost every time we walked I would have some cool thing to share of how God answered another prayer.  I look back on that time as such a time of growth for me.   God humbled me to my knees where I felt so in need of my God.  I saw his faithfulness, his love, his goodness and many other attributes in new ways.  I can remember telling so many different people about moving to the city and sometimes I would get responses like "Now why would you want to do that."  I can remember having days where I felt discouraged or felt like maybe I was making a bad decision, but then I would just bow before my Father and he continued to confirm it.  I walked in faith through this whole process and God was so faithful to continue to lead each of my steps.  I have journal entries where I prayed very specific prayers and when I look back on them, God answered EVERY single one of them!  When I was younger my mom use to always read to me Isaiah 42:16. Over the years it has become my favorite verse in the bible and I continued to claim it through this process.  "I will lead the blind by ways they do not know, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them.  I will turn darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.  These are the things I will do and I will not forsake them."   God did that for me.  He provided just the right job for me at Redeemer.  He provided just the right job for me to have for an extra income.  He provided the perfect apartment for me.  He provided a roommate for me that I already knew.  He provided the finances for me to live in one of the most expensive places in America. He provided someone to buy all my furniture.  He provided someone to buy my car.  He has provided a community for me up here of people who are my friends and "family".   The key word in all of this is PROVIDED.    In 2006 my parents brought me to NYC for Christmas.  I have a journal entry from the day we got home where I prayed that I would one day go back to NYC to live.  I never knew  that it would be only 2 years later that would happen.  God took the dream of a young girl and it made it an amazing reality.   I just sit in my tiny apartment on Feb 22, 2009 and have a thankful heart for all that the Lord has done in my life this past year and all the many prayers that he has answered.  

Now with all that being said, I can't say that life here is easy.  I still have moments(sometimes quite often) where I think to myself "What am I doing here?"  Life in this city is an adventure and sometimes a very difficult one.  I don't always just love my job here or my life here, but I do know that this is where God has me.  Sometimes I just look around at my life and laugh.  I mean I walk out of my front door and I am in the middle of the city.  A mexican restaurant is on on side of my apt and a sandwich shop is on the other.  The bus stop is across the street.  Central Park is my backyard now.  I am so use to this life that when I see a free-standing building I just stare at it because it looks funny to me.  It is weird how quickly I have become accustomed to the surroundings around me.  I do find myself lately complaining a lot about some of the "hassles" of life in this city, but at the end of the day I would not trade this experience for anything.  I am thankful for my life and I am thankful for all the ways God has provided for me!  What an adventure the last year has been! :-)