Let the Experience Begin Part 1

I can’t believe it! It’s about 7:45pm and I’m sitting in the airport getting ready to board the plane to NZ. I’ve been praying for this day for what seems like an eternity and it’s finally here. In the last couple of weeks I have been asked many different questions regarding my journey to New Zealand so I feel it would be very beneficial if I addressed the road that led me to this life changing desision. First I need to take you back to March of this year to try and begin to make any sense of this madness.
I was working for a huge multi-billion dollar company, as a sales rep, that took very good care of me financially and had impressive benefits. After sticking with the company for a year and a half I found myself putting a lot of effort, energy and time into doing something I wasn’t very passionate about. A long time ago I made an agreement with myself that I would not stay at a job just because the money was good, if I wasn’t passionate about what I was doing. A friend of mine told me that the city of Fresno was going to be accepting applications for firefighter positions and this triggered me to start pursuing other opportunities. My roommate Tyler was engaged to be married so I knew that my living situation was going to change as well. I realized that I would soon be without a job and needed to find new living accommodations but I didn’t have a peace finding these in Fresno. I have always wanted to travel and felt like God was putting me in a position to finally do so. This triggered ideas for me to start searching and looking into opportunities to live somewhere abroad.
I really love to sing and play guitar and there is nothing I enjoy more than to worship God with the gifts He’s given me. My first inclination was to go to a worship college and develop the skills that God has given me to be more effective for His kingdom. After talking with some of the pastors and leaders at The Well, I soon realized that there were plenty of opportunities to grow as a worship leader right within my own church. For some reason I didn’t feel right about accepting an internship offered me to work with the worship director or applying for the residency program, which is a 9 month seminary program offered for free. There is nothing I think that I would enjoy more than to be a worship intern and to go through residency at my church but it just didn’t feel like the right timing. I continued searching for opportunities to go abroad through organizations like World Impact, YWAM and Global Passion but for some reason I didn’t get very far.

To be continued.....