6 days...

This time next week I will be on a plane, starting a whole new adventure. I am beyond excited - God has blown my mind in the ways He has arranged things. There is not a doubt in my mind that Singapore is exactly where God wants me. I cannot wait to discover and experience what else God has in store for me.


In preparation for living and teaching overseas, and as a requirement of my new job, I attended a Pre Field Orientation (PFO) in Southaven, Mississippi. Before going to PFO, I really thought I was ready - mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I was wrong! Each session I heard, the more I was convinced I was not ready. The information ranged from safety to Third Culture Kids to our transition into our new country/culture. Although I felt as if my brain was going to explode, from all the information I was absorbing, I am grateful for the information I was given. I know nothing will prepare me fully until I step foot in Singapore, but I am so much better equipped to live and serve overseas.


A typical day would begin with breakfast, followed by small group Bible study. My small group had four girls that were going to countries in Africa and South America. It was so cool to get to know these women - even just for two weeks - they each had such love for the Lord and passion for overseas missions. The passage of scripture we studied was 1 Peter 1.  Below is a passage that really hit my heart.

"In this you rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."       

1 Peter 1:6-7

I was expecting to be "grieved by various trials". I knew I was going to miss my family and my friends; I knew I was going to face frustrations as a first year teacher; I knew I was going to be very confused in my new culture. What I did not know was that when I experience trials...I am grieving. And when I face these trials and this grief...I am suffering for Christ's name sake!!

WOAH.....hold on a second!? First off, I thought only martyrs suffered for Christ - I am simply teaching second grade. Secondly, I won't be grieving - people who lose a family member, a close friend or a pet grieve. 

Yes. People who lose a family member or friend or pet do grieve. But I am losing things and people as well - it is okay...and even good to grieve missing my family and friends and pets. I am giving up things to follow God's leading and because of that, I am suffering for Christ. Just like 1 Peter says, "so that the tested genuineness of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory." And that is my prayer.

James 1 sums it up perfectly.

"Count it ALL joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness."

James 1:2-3

One last verse....

"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame."

Romans 5:3-5

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to live a backwards life. Rejoice in my sufferings?!!? Only a God who is bigger than any of my sufferings would demand that.