Endings, Beginnings & New Adventures

Just a heads up: this blog post isn't about Romania at all! I'm starting a new adventure, this one a bit longer than the last...

The school year here at Iowa State is quickly drawing to a close.  I've got two more weeks of classes + three days of finals before the official ending of my sophomore year.  It's crazy to think about being half-ish done with college already.  I have to admit, I'm getting a bit comfortable in my Iowa State atmosphere.  I love it here.  Campus is beautiful.  I've got an awesome bunch of friends that are among the truest I've known.  I've experienced God in new and more brilliant ways here in this place than ever before.  This place is a place of blessing.

As I've mentioned before when writing about Romania, I believe I'm blessed to be a blessing.  To share the blessing that I have known.  One of the biggest blessings on my life here at Iowa State is the church family that I've found.  I have an amazing group of encouraging, challenging, and excited believers my own age, The Salt Company (click here for our website).  We get together and worship God, learn from His Word, and encourage one another every week.  700 strong.  Living in community with these believers the past two years has literally changed my life.  Their passion for Christ has spurred me on to know and love Jesus more fully and deeply.  Truly, as iron sharpens iron, so they have sharpened me.

So what's with this 'endings, beginnings & new adventures' thing?  Well, my church, Cornerstone Church, of which Salt Company is a part, is planting a new church, a new body of believers, in Iowa City.  They have a vision to build a campus ministry, The Salt Company of Iowa City, and build a family of Christ-followers to worship Him together in that place.  So I, along with about 50 other students and families from Ames and surrounding areas, am moving to Iowa City to partner in this work with Him.  I'm going to share the blessing I've been given.  I'll be transferring to the University of Iowa and doing life in Iowa City until He directs me elsewhere.

Big stuff.  As you can imagine, there's a lot that's going through my mind and heart.  I will miss this place, the fellowship I've found, the friends that are dear to my heart.  It's hard to leave the ministry God's given me here: the friends that, I know, if I had more time, would come to know Him eventually, the people I would love to see grow in Him.

But, I'm also really excited.  God's on the move, and I'm quite content being on the move with Him.  The safest place, the most beautiful place, is inside of His will, and I know that's where I'm at.  When I was praying about whether or not moving to Iowa City was in His plan for me, God used these verses to point me in the right direction:

Isaiah 43:18-21

"Forget the former things;
   do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
   Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
   and streams in the wasteland.
The wild animals honor me,
   the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the desert
   and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
   the people I formed for myself
   that they may proclaim my praise."

God has blessed me here at Iowa State, but He's up to something new and exciting.  He has daughters and sons-to-be in Iowa City, people he has chosen and formed for Himself...and He desperately wants to hear their voices praise His name.  He loves them so very much that He sent His Son to bring water, streams of living water to the deserts of their hearts, and He's sending believers from Ames to tell them The Story of His love.  And I'm excited to be a part of it all.