Keep Calm and Tuesday On - Новое видение

Are any of you wondering about this week's post yet?  Well, I guess I need to start from the beginning.

What about here?

I'm pretty sure it started back when my siblings and I were praying for our little brother, Ben who was living in an orphanage in Novokuznetsk at the time.  From what some of our friends have related about life in a Russian orphanage, and the stories that Mom, Dad, and even Ben later on brought back with them, my interest in Russia began.

{Ben's baby home}  

When Ben first joined our family back in 2005, I used to wonder if there were any caretakers (they are predominately female there) in the orphanages and baby homes that actually took time to love and nurture the kids.  After Benjamin had learned to speak some English, he would tell us that there had only been one person in the whole place that was nice to him. - the cook. 

 I used to think that it would be such a cool thing if one day a Christian woman could go there to be one of the caretakers to the kids just to show them the love of Christ and be an advocate for them.  But while I thought of it as being a super good opportunity, I never really stopped to consider that it could possibly one day be myself.  

So, not too long ago, I was getting frustrated just trying to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  I thought, "everybody else has that one thing that they are good at and enjoy doing, and I haven't found mine yet!" Nothing I came up with interested me enough to say, "That's what I want to devote the rest of my life to!"

 . . . until one day . . . 

Mom made a suggestion that changed the whole course of my thinking.  It basically took the focus off of me, and reminded me of the direction I should have been focusing on all along - servanthood.  I immediately thought back to my vision of having a Christian caretaker placed in the orphanages of Russia.  

That kinda got my wheels turning, so I told my College Plus coach kinda what I had been thinking, and she made the brilliant suggestion to look into possibly one day starting my own non-profit organization - something along the lines of Compassion International to where you set up sponsors for individual kids to give them a future so that they don't go back out on the streets, have more kids, and start the cycle all over again.  

So where do I go from here now that God has given me a unique purpose of my own?  Well, I am going to be starting some Russian language classes this year, look into a Russian missions trip for my Senior year next year, and do some major researching!  :D

This all might seem a bit sudden and out of the blue to you, as it does to me somewhat, but my parents have been very faithful in teaching me that if there is an opportunity that presents itself, I can not just automatically say "yes," "no," or "I can't." Instead it involves prayer, seeking council, and beginning to take steps of faith - then allowing God to direct my path.   

We will see where He goes with this one! 

{I'm excited!!}   :D

~ Proverbs 16:9 ~

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{Just a head's up, I won't be able to blog next Tuesday as my whole fam will be at the beach . . . YAY!!!!!}