If you have read my past blogs, you know that the number one reason I write this blog is to share what God is doing in my life, to share His greatness and hoping that someone will feel encouraged by it. Mostly what I write is what I believe God wants me to share and I feel beyond blessed and humbled that He would use me to show others His love.
Tracing back from my posts, you'll know that I started this blog when I surrendered to Jesus and started my walk with Him. I am so happy to say that as of December 2013 I have been walking with Him for a whole year and I look forward to the many years to come! As that first year went by it came with many struggles but oh so many blessings. At the end of the year as I looked back, I saw how every struggle I faced was well worth it.
Three weeks before the end of last year, and just about a week after my one year anniversary with Jesus, He surprised me and blessed me beyond what I had ever imagined. After 8 years of college, in which I obtained both my bachelors and master's degrees, after countless jobs and fundraisers to pay for college, after long hours studying and making sacrifices, after waiting for a so longed working permit, after many many online applications in search for a job, settling to work at Red Lobster while I kept looking, two career fairs, and almost 15 interviews, I received a job offer, so perfect just as Jesus had promised!
I write this blog post today as a testimony and witness of what holding on to hope looks like and how perfect God's promises and will is. I have shared about receiving my working permit and finding the freedom that I so longed for in the United States. Yet once obtaining that I began a search of a job to put that permit to work. I decided that I needed to put it to use as soon as possible and God opened the door for me to be a server at Red Lobster. A lot of times people would ask why I was there? How could I be working as a server when I had a master's degree? But I knew the answer to that, and many wouldn't understand. God was preparing me for something greater and He was teaching me to be humble. It didn't matter what title I had, I knew that if I wasn't serving and working for God, then I was doing nothing worthwhile.
The scriptures that helped me and showed me what God was doing in my life at that time were:
"Whatever you do, work with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man, knowing that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." - Colossians 3:23-24
Colossians showed me that it didn't matter the title I had or the job I was doing. As long as I was working for the Lord, He was being glorified through me. I held on to His promise of an inheritance more rewarding than anything in this world.
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." - James 4:10
"And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." -1 Peter 5:4-7
In James and Peter, I learned what it means to let God be the one to make you shine. What it means to leave it all up to Him, to humble yourself so that there is nothing left of you, so that you may be filled with Him and He may shine through you. To be in a state of obedience and service through which He will reward in due time and never leave you.
After holding on to these scriptures the time came for the career fair at my university. With all the faith I could possibly have, my best suit on and lifted up in prayer by my brothers and sisters in Christ, I knew that I would find something. After a day of talking to 25 companies, there were some who showed interest in me; two of which where in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At that moment I just knew, that was where God was going to send me. Something just moved in my heart that day and I had an "I just knew" moment. Without even having an interview or researching more about these companies, I opened up my computer and googled "baptist churches in Tulsa". I read through some pages and one in particular stood out to me. At that moment is when I was even more convinced that God was directing me to Tulsa. I mean here I was searching for a church way before I even interview or researched what living in Tulsa was like, or even asking myself if that was somewhere I could see myself living.
It turns out that I interviewed for one of the companies in Tulsa. I moved up to the 3rd and final interview and received an offer. Yet my heart was not at peace. Something in my heart told me that that offer was not what God had for me. My prayer team at church agreed and they shared they didn't feel peace about it either. Yet I knew that God was calling me to Tulsa. The other company that was also in Tulsa from the career fair had only offered one interview so far, and deep down in my heart I knew that was a way better opportunity professional wise for me. Yet I did not have an offer from them and the other company was waiting for an answer. It was the first and only offer I had and it was so hard to let go without having something else lined up. Then I realized that that is what faith is all about. Trusting God without knowing how things will work out yet believing that they would. I had to let go of that offer and be stuck at square number one until God moved.
Just a few days after rejecting that offer, I received a phone call from the other company in Tulsa, completing my second interview. A week later they called wanting to fly me to the city for the 3rd and final interview. This is when I knew God had moved. I was scheduled to begin work from the offer I rejected, November 11, same date that I would fly into Tulsa to interview for this other company! That just had to be God, He already knew I would be there on Nov. 11, it was just a matter of time before He revealed it to me! So off I went to interview and the peace I felt on that trip, I cannot describe. Only three hours away my great friend drove down to keep me company. God knew I hadn't traveled much and He made sure I had someone with me to ease my nerves. He couldn't have chosen a more adventurous person as Laura! I know you're reading this :D
It was a very long and challenging interview, I left feeling still so nervous not knowing what had happened. I was asked questions that even with how I had prepared myself, I knew that the only way I was answering the way that I was, was because it had to be God speaking through me. Standing in the office I got interviewed in, I asked God "Is this where you want me? Is this the door you are opening for me?" Well exactly one month later, as they had promised to contact me with a decision, I received a offer and with no hesitation I accepted on the spot! I was overwhelmed beyond what I can explain! It had been the longest month I've experienced, I was just about to give up and I was already looking to find another opportunity. I am so glad that I fought through it and I trusted that if this was God's will, I would get the offer. What amazed me more was at the end of my conversation I told the person who called me that I appreciated the phone call so much, that I had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. He then answered "Good things come to those who wait".
I cannot begin to describe the even more overwhelming way in which God moved the next three weeks into me moving to Tulsa! In just three weeks from only having books and clothes, plus a pretty beat up GMC Safari van, that would not even make it past 100 miles, God provided! He surprised me with the opportunity to purchase a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee in perfect condition to drive 800 miles AND enough monetary support from my best friend for all relocation expenses. But it didn't finish there, day by day, week by week everything came together. All of a sudden my prayer team had given me enough kitchen things to fill up a box and more! Countless friends gifted me presents for the new apartment and when I left for Tulsa, the jeep was so filled with things I could barely look out my rear view mirror. Everything just turned out so perfect, God surprised me with every detail; (which if I describe I will end up writing something close to my thesis research all over again!).
Now that I am in Tulsa, He surprises me everyday! I have been here now for almost 8 months and it is amazing how He keeps moving. Slowly I have made friends and have been introduced to people at church that I know God has a plan for me meeting them, and them meeting me. As I look back and remember my dreams and goals, I am amazed to see how God has made them all true. I dreamed of becoming somebody, I dreamed of an education, I dreamed of defeating the odds of what people thought I would become, I dreamed of being free, I dreamed of being happy. After years of dreaming, God has helped me to turn my dreams into goals and my goals into achievements. From the little girl that always longed to belong and was brought illegally into this country, God has made of me a woman who knows she will always belong to Christ and for the first time in many years, I can do things the right way. It may seem silly to some but this year has just been amazing, I did my taxes for the first time, I started a dreamed job, I have a credit score, I own my own vehicle, and from dreaming with an education, I now hold two degrees. WOW!
I dont mean to write this in any way to boast about myself or to simply tell you how great my life is. I write this as a testimony of what holding on to hope looks like. Holding on to your dreams and goals and believing that one day they will become accomplishments. I also write this to tell you that if it was not because of the hardship God allowed in my life, I would not be the person that I am today and I would not be where I am now. I write this to encourage you to keep believing despite the odds. I write this to give testimony that God will provide for you and in HIS time, He will make your dreams come true if you trust in His will. I write this to share with you what great things God has done for me and I know He can and will do for you too! But don't get me wrong, as "great" as my life may seem right now, I daily have to choose Him. I daily have to pray that this joy and happiness will not overtake me and I will forget who I received it from. I pray that in the midst of happiness, I will be weak so that I may always need Jesus!
So whatever you may be going through right now, I encourage you to keep holding on to hope. Allow God to slowly reveal what He has for you and in due time He will show you why you experienced what you did. I invite you to keep dreaming and keep making goals that with God's help you will achieve. I encourage you to keep trusting so that one day just like me, you will be at a point where you will JUST KNOW you are exactly where God wants you to be. And most of all I encourage you to step out into a new adventure with Jesus! :)
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