Journey to the Present Part 3

After that voicemail, I was so confused.

Why Lord, would you change my life course, leading only to a dead end? Is this a sick joke? How could you lead me towards rejection? 

I immediately contacted the Every Nation Campus pastors about this. They agreed to meet me on campus. I shared the voicemail and they were super confused.

They said, "You applied to a Christian organization where you'd basically work for free, and they denied you? You. If anything, you're over-qualified! They clearly don't see what God sees. This is great!"

"What do you mean?"

"Well we'd love to have you join Every Nation Movement. You'd do everything that organization wanted you to do, but work under your home church. Talk about it with your senior pastor."

I told the pastor's wife the bad news. Conveniently, dinner with the pastor's family was already scheduled for the weekend. We haven't had time to catch up, so I never got the chance to share my journey.

At dinner, I told them everything since Part One. My pastor's response was, "If you told me you were going to apply for this job and support raise, I would have stopped you. I'd rather you build Youth Ministry for Renew under me instead of an outside organization. We'd love to have you work for us."

WAT?!?!

"We see your heart for the Lord, and how you serve 110% in every mundane task. The kids love you and we'd love to have you "

"OHH...well if I were to be honest, I only wanted that job to help expand our church."

It all made sense...This youth ministry organization shifted me towards God's direction. If they never approached me, I would never consider support raising or youth ministry. I changed my life course for that youth ministry organization, but I was never supposed to work for them. This was all God's primer for what he really wanted for me.

If it weren't for their rejection, I'd never begin building Youth Ministry for Renew Church LA.

And here we are now!